Word: beirutization
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...tools of the Phalangist conspiracy. Do not obey orders! Do not shoot!" It was one of many efforts by the militias to persuade army troops to break ranks by dividing along sectarian lines. Such a development was not unexpected. Earlier hi the summer, a prominent Arab journalist in Beirut had predicted: "If the army has to fight the Shi'ites, it will break apart like a watermelon dropped on the pavement." Not only did the Lebanese army perform creditably last week, but, more important, it did not split apart. For the first time in eight years, the Lebanese government...
Ironically, it was the Begin government's decision to pull its troops back to a more secure line at the Awali River, 17 miles south of Beirut, that helped precipitate the latest fighting. With the situation in Lebanon deteriorating, the U.S. had asked Begin to delay his government's plan to redeploy Israeli forces to the Awali. In one of his last acts as Prime Minister, Begin agreed to the Reagan request; in return, he received some harsh criticism from one of his colleagues. At the Cabinet meeting at which Begin announced his plan to resign, Minister Without...
...latest round of fighting in Beirut was set off by a rivalry over political posters. Two weeks ago, the Christian Phalangists celebrated the first anniversary of the late Bashir Gemayel's election as President by putting up posters of their martyred hero. Last week it was the turn of Beirut's large Shi'ite Muslim community. It launched a poster campaign to honor its spiritual leader, Imam Musa Sadr, who disappeared five years ago during a visit to Libya. On Sunday afternoon, several young men in a predominantly Shi'ite suburb in the south of Beirut...
...Wednesday evening, President Gemayel appealed for a national reconciliation and invited eleven prominent political figures, including the three leaders of the Salvation Front, to meet with him. After the army's successful campaign in West Beirut, however, Walid Jumblatt was in no mood to talk with the leaders of a government whose real ami, he said, was to "butcher the Muslims." Like everyone else in Lebanon, he knew that the army's next big test would come as the Israeli forces withdraw from the rugged Chouf and Aley regions where the Christians and the Druze live side...
...south of Beirut, the roads were clogged with frightened Lebanese carrying whatever belongings they could. Some were Muslims fleeing from the fighting in West Beirut. Others were Christians who were fed up with the shelling of East Beirut and, fearful of the future, moving to areas that will still be controlled by the Israelis after the troop redeployment. But, paradoxically, Beirut was basking in the radiance of a Mediterranean summer day. As in the city's crises of the past, shops were beginning to reopen. Bread was scarce but, miraculously, fresh flowers were on sale again. As a Western...