Word: gemayels
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gemayel visits the U.S., Begin approves a partialpullout in Lebanon...
...timing could not have been less apt. Just as Lebanese President Amin Gemayel arrived in Washington last week, in a desperate bid for U.S. help in rebuilding his shattered country, Israel took a step that could make that task virtually impossible. In a unanimous vote, the Israeli Cabinet approved a partial withdrawal of the country's forces in Lebanon. The pullback, which should be completed by October, could lead to what the U.S. most fears: the de facto partitioning of Lebanon between Israel and Syria, leaving Gemayel's government in control of only the area around Beirut...
Shultz then flew to Beirut, where, during three hours of talks, Lebanese President Amin Gemayel stressed that he was adamantly opposed to Israel's redeployment plans. Gemayel fears that the move will lead to a permanent Israeli presence on Lebanese soil and give Syria an excuse to stay put as well. The Lebanese insisted that if Israel pulled back its troops without announcing a schedule for a total withdrawal, then Beirut might scuttle its accord with Jerusalem altogether...
Germanos' absolution of the Phalangist high command came as no surprise. It was, after all, submitted to Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, who is himself a Phalangist and whose authority over the country remains tenuous at best. Noting that irony, an editorial in the Jerusalem Post dismissed the report as a "whitewash" and concluded tartly, "The report should be reason enough for Israelis to ponder the moral caliber of their newly found Lebanese friends...
...officers in Syria that "effective war is the only available means for redrawing the political map [of the Middle East]." Nor has the war restored Lebanon to the relative stability it once enjoyed. Beirut is again threatened by violence between long-feuding Christian Phalangist militiamen and Druze fighters. Worse, Gemayel's bold decision to go ahead with the Israeli agreement places him on a collision course with a newly rearmed and perhaps overly confident Syria...