Word: franjieh
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Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh was clearly involved in a showdown with the fedayeen. It was in fact the most significant confrontation between an Arab government and the fedayeen since Jordan crushed the guerrillas in 1970. Though they number only about 16,000 among the 300,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon, the fedayeen control the refugee camps. In violation of a 1969 agreement with the government, they have used the camps as weapon depots and training bases for the liberation movement against Israel. As a result, Israeli commandos have struck Lebanon several times, most recently last month when they assassinated three...
...feeling between the Palestinians and Franjieh's regime festered in the wake of the raids. The guerrillas complained that they were not receiving adequate protection from the Lebanese army. They had the sympathy of many Lebanese left-wing politicians and Moslems. (Lebanon's population of nearly 3,000,000 is roughly split between Moslems and Christians.) Franjieh, a conservative Christian, and his supporters became increasingly fed up as they saw their country being turned into a fedayeen-Israeli battleground. Two weeks ago, the hostility erupted into two days of fighting between the guerrillas and Lebanese forces. A shaky...
...fighting increased, Premier Amin Hafez gave in to Franjieh's demands and declared a state of emergency, effectively giving the mostly Christian army control over the country. The next day, as Lebanese jet fighter-bombers joined the fray for the second week in a row, Hafez resigned. A Moslem, he had been in office only 13 days and had replaced Saeb Salam, another Moslem, who resigned after last month's Israeli attacks...
...rocket attacks by air on a Palestinian camp near the airport shortly before sunset on Thursday. Two Hunter jet fighter-bombers of the Lebanese air force made 14 low-level sweeps over the camp. It was the first time that Arab planes had bombed a Palestinian refugee camp. President Franjieh doubtless felt that the end justified his means. As smoke from the rockets rose over the camp, the ground fighting abruptly died down, not only in the camp area but, seemingly by coincidence, elsewhere as well. Soon after, another ceasefire agreement was reached...
Regardless of how long the ceasefire would last, major doubts already were raised about the future of the fedayeen. President Franjieh summed up their status in Lebanon bluntly. "I do not believe that any Arab government has given our brothers the Palestinians more than we have," he said. "We must therefore wonder: What do our Palestinian brothers living among us want of Lebanon? Do they want residence and hospitality? If this is what they want, they are welcome . . . Do they want coordination in the service of the common cause [the fight against Israel]? We also welcome this idea. But that...