Word: hizballah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Hizballah put up banners saying 'Leave Our Town Alone' and 'Whoever Wants to Come to This Town Must Respect Its Customs,' " says a Baalbek housewife who witnessed the incident. "That night the Hizballah TV station showed a videotape of the tourists, and the commentator said, 'Look at this corruption, this sinful behavior.' But the tourists weren't dancing or singing. They just came to look." The city's several thousand Syrian troops tolerate Hizballah's activities but would probably intervene should the culture clash escalate. "The Syrians could make this place free," says a Baalbek merchant. "But this is Syria...
...among them. From the esplanade of the temple of Jupiter -- once the world's largest Roman temple -- Anita Tarossian, 19, and her fiance, Hagop Bedrossian, 23, stand gazing at the temple of Bacchus below them. The Armenian-Lebanese couple have returned from Toronto this summer. They epitomize all that Hizballah objects to. A gold-and-turquoise crucifix hangs from a chain around Anita's neck. Both wear shorts and stand with their arms around each other. "We don't care what Hizballah thinks," says Bedrossian. "Let them object if they want...
...wills in Baalbek is about more than a question of shorts and hand holding. It is about the refusal to relinquish territory. "Baalbek was left to rot by the Lebanese government," says Musawi. "The Maronites are supposed to be the rulers in this country and everyone else their slaves. Hizballah rose up out of Baalbek to fight against Israel. Baalbek is the capital of the Islamic resistance...
...despite these good works, the people of Baalbek resent the Iranian accents affected by their local sheiks, the ban on alcohol and the isolation of their economy. "Lebanese Shi'ites are a joyful people," says Hussein, 40, a shopkeeper. "We don't mind Hizballah fighting Israel, but they're not fighting Israel from Baalbek. Whenever there is an Israeli attack anywhere in Lebanon, they turn on the air-raid siren. It's a good way to politicize people. But if they hear people are dancing in the park at Ras-el-Ain, they also turn on the air-raid siren...
...silence, punctuated by occasional threats about the fate of the remaining 12 Western hostages? And who orchestrated McCarthy's release: Iran? Syria? His captors? As ever, there was a stated trade-off. Islamic Jihad, a radical Shi'ite cell that operates beneath the larger umbrella of the pro-Iranian Hizballah, armed McCarthy with a sealed letter addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar. It is believed to call for the release of 300 Shi'ites from southern Lebanon and the release of 75 more prisoners held in Israel, among them the spiritual leader Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid...