Word: druze
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sent the suicide bomber crashing into Marine headquarters were staging an attack, a kind of one-man Tet offensive designed to revive the feelings of demoralization that precede withdrawal. For the power of the Viet Nam memory is well known, even among those not steeped in American history. Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt, for one, has no trouble recalling and manipulating it. Jumblatt, who can be best described as a minor local chieftan, has found that he can puff himself up on American television, warn Americans to remember Viet Nam before daring to challenge him-and be taken seriously...
...site a few hours later. "We will hit back, and we will hit back very hard," he vowed. The retaliation was not long in coming. Israeli air force jets, 16 in all, bombed a variety of Palestinian and Syrian military positions along the Beirut-Damascus highway, also hitting several Druze and Christian villages in the Chouf Mountains. The Israelis were angrily striking out at some of their enemies, though not necessarily the ones who had staged the terrorist raid. Islamic Jihad (Holy War), a virtually unknown organization that may be Shi'ite and may have links to the fanatical...
...continuing casualties, but resented the fact that the Israelis did not remain in the mountains long enough to give the Lebanese Army a chance to fill the vacuum. As a result, members of the independent Lebanese forces moved in immediately, setting off the fighting between Christian militiamen and the Druze, a breakaway Islamic sect...
Under pressure from Syria, the Muslims and the Druze reiterated their demand that the Israeli-Lebanese agreement be scrapped. The document's importance is more symbolic than practical, since Israel's promise to withdraw its troops from Lebanon was dependent on a simultaneous pullout by Syrian and P.L.O. forces. When the Syrians refused to budge, the Israelis did likewise, though they did establish the new and more secure line 17 miles to the south along the Awali River. Now, fearful of losing the only diplomatic advantage gained from their costly invasion of Lebanon, the Israelis say that they...
...clear that there would be no agreement in the foreseeable future for the withdrawal of Syrian troops. The Marines soon found themselves de facto allies of the Lebanese Army in its struggle against Syria and its allied radical Muslim and Druze factions...