Word: jumblatt
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...money, was so easily routed by Hizballah in the May 2008 street fights. Last month, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah traveled to Damascus for a state visit with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in part to bury the hatchet over Lebanon. Even Hariri's coalition is breaking apart. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze community and one of the architects of the anti-Syrian movement (he once told a Washington audience that America should send car bombs to Damascus), has seen which way the wind is blowing and transformed himself into an ardent Syria-phile...
...given no indication it will make any such concession, and few in Lebanon expect Nasrallah and his militia to weaken anytime soon. That's why some U.S. allies in Siniora's government believe it's better to engage Hizballah than pretend it can be crushed. On May 11, Walid Jumblatt, one of the leaders of the governing coalition, placed a call to Nabih Berri, the speaker of Parliament and a Hizballah ally, while TIME waited nearby for an interview. "Tell [Nasrallah] I lost the battle and he wins," Jumblatt said. "So let's sit and talk to reach a compromise...
...hereditary chieftain of Lebanon's Druze Muslim minority, Jumblatt earned the nickname "the Weather Vane" for being able to steer his followers through the ever changing winds of Middle Eastern politics. A former vassal to the Syrian regime, he switched his loyalties to the Bush Administration after the invasion of Iraq, when it briefly seemed as if American military power would transform the region. Now he seems ready to turn again. Sitting in his garden terrace with a few family members and loyal retainers, Jumblatt said that he has spoken with the U.S. embassy to deliver his grim assessment...
...fighting ended with the Shi'ites demanding that Jumblatt's Druze forces must turn over all their medium and heavy weapons. "We want everything from rocket-propelled grenade launchers and up," says Hussam Asrawi, a senior official with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a secular opposition party and ally of Hizballah. But Jumblatt has signaled some defiance, saying that he is willing to yield his weapons to the Lebanese army, but "our dignity is important and the people of the [Chouf] will not allow anyone to enter their homes...
...Druze are legendary for their ferocity in defending their traditional mountain stronghold in the Chouf. It was reported that some Druze supporters of the Hizballah coalition even switched sides in the battles to join Jumblatt's men against the Shi'ites of Hizballah - politics suddenly taking a backseat to deeper feelings of loyalty to the clan and sect and unity against the outsider. "We are believers in peace and co-existence, but we will not accept any aggression against us," said Shawki Zeidan, a veteran Druze militia commander who led some 300 fighters against Hizballah on a 6,000-foot...