Word: beirutization
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...shelling, patients flock to their doctors complaining of stomach pains and headaches, symptoms of stress. Though in some neighborhoods canvas sheets have been hung across streets to block the view of snipers, only the brave venture out at night. Maurice Moyse, 82, proprietor of a French restaurant in West Beirut, shrugs as gunfire outside interrupts his recitation of the day's specials. "They are mad," he says. One wonders, though, who is really crazy: the snipers, Moyse or the reporter sitting by the window with only a gingham curtain between him and the unseen gunmen...
After the Lebanese Army's heavy shelling of the southern suburbs last month, thousands of Shi'ite Muslim refugees fled to Ras Beirut, a largely Sunni Muslim neighborhood of stylish boutiques and comfortable apartments. Shaia Hoaijan and her five children moved into an abandoned flat. The owner had knocked holes in the roof and poured concrete down the toilet to fend off squatters, but within a week the place was habitable. "The owner's wife burst in and cursed us, demanding that we leave," she says. "But I told her we were not leaving because...
...those who are able to leave their lethal city stay on? When asked if he will flee, Moyse responds, "To where?" Many residents have learned to tune out the chaos, though that gift carries its peril. Caught in the middle of a blazing gun battle near the Beirut airport, an old farmer continued to till his tiny plot. Afterward, when asked why he did not seek cover, he replied, "If I waited for the fighting to stop, I would never get the soil ready for planting. The seasons don't stop for wars." In its own weary, puzzling, stubborn...
...already heard that Sharon had visited Israel's Phalangist allies in Beirut. War seemed very near. Our duty to attempt to prevent it was obvious; our ability to do so, questionable. After informing the President of this latest development, I sent our Ambassador to Israel, Samuel Lewis, to Begin with instructions to tell him that an Israeli operation along the lines described to us would have far-reaching consequences for our relationship. The Israelis should not misjudge American public opinion; it would not tolerate such an operation in current circumstances. Begin interrupted. "Don't use those words...
Late in May, while on an official visit to Washington, General Sharon shocked a roomful of State Department bureaucrats by sketching out two possible military campaigns: one that would pacify southern Lebanon, and a second that would rewrite the political map of Beirut in favor of the Christian Phalange. Sharon was putting the U.S. on notice: one more provocation and Israel would deliver a knockout blow to the P.L.O...