Word: gemayels
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That was the Israeli government's explanation for its decision to send its armed forces into Muslim-dominated West Beirut last week following the assassination of Lebanon's President-elect Bashir Gemayel. The Israeli action alarmed the U.S., which saw it as a violation of a promise the Israelis made this summer to U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib while he was negotiating the withdrawal of Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas from West Beirut. It frightened the Lebanese capital's Muslim population, infuriated the governments of other Arab states, and led to a United Nations Security Council resolution calling on the Israelis...
What had happened? Practically everybody agreed that the gunmen were right-wing Lebanese Christian militiamen, and were either from the Lebanese Forces led by the vengeance-bent Gemayel clan or from the militia run by Major Sa'ad Haddad, which is based in southern Lebanon and is closely alh'ed with the Israelis. The Lebanese Forces would be the more logical culprits, since they live in the region and were in mourning for their fallen leader. On the other hand, there were reports that a group of Haddad's men were seen in the vicinity of the camps...
...referring to the headquarters of Gemayel's Christian Phalange Party. The explosion had smashed cars and scattered parts of bodies through the streets Near by was the head, shoulder and arm of a person who had been blown apart. Sirens screaming, the cars of Gemayel's Lebanese Forces began screeching to a halt in front of the building. Suddenly a Phalangist official struck himself on the face in dismay and frustration and shouted: "Bashir is inside...
...most dismaying aspects of last week's events in Lebanon was that, until the very moment of the explosion that killed Gemayel, Lebanon had appeared to be emerging at last not only from its summer of war but from the years of domination by the P.L.O. For the first time since the civil war began in 1975, a semblance of legal authority and security was returning to the city. Though he still had many enemies, Gemayel had made firm strides toward national reconciliation, emphasizing that he intended to be a President of all the Lebanese, and not just the Maronites...
Once he was inaugurated, Gemayel planned to introduce a system of governmental reforms and to build an effective national army. He also intended to make peace with Israel, although he was resisting pressure from the Begin government to sign a treaty soon after his inauguration. Indeed, Prime Minister Begin, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir went so far as to meet secretly with Gemayel in northern Israel two weeks before his death to urge a treaty on him. But Gemayel wanted some breathing space; he knew that signing an agreement with Israel so quickly would anger large...