Word: litany
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...final Syrian checkpoint is at Zahrani, twelve miles north of the Litani River. There a large color poster of President Hafez Assad beams down at the red-bereted paratroopers. South of the checkpoint the road is deserted. The fields are desolate, showing no sign of care or life. Even the crows have flown to richer lands...
Lebanese leftist troops guard the bridge over the Litani, a slow-flowing, dark green stream. No sign or marker indicates that this is the "red line"; the Israelis have warned the Syrians to stay north of it. Beyond doubt, the Syrians are heeding the warning. The Lebanese troops, young, unshaven, carefully check the trunk of our car. Satisfied, they wave us on with a tired look in their eyes...
Meanwhile, the Syrians have looked the other way as the Palestinian command in West Beirut sent troops, ammunition and food supplies south across the Litani River. One of the Christians' goals in the recent fighting was to break out a route to the sea and establish a base near the Israeli border to receive supplies by ship from Jounieh in the north. That failed...
...trigger a fifth Middle East war. Officials in Damascus complained bitterly that the Israelis were deliberately trying to provoke the Syrian troops in Lebanon. Since the official end of the major civil war in Lebanon last October, to avoid any such confrontation, the Israelis have stayed south of the Litani River -Israel's so-called red line (see map). There was also speculation in Damascus that the Israelis might use any response as an excuse for a pre-emptive strike against Syria. Even if they were not spoiling for a fight-and Jerusalem insisted they were not-Arabs also...
Beyond their concern about being outcharmed by the Arabs, the Israelis were plainly worried about Syrian troop movements in Lebanon. Although Defense Minister Shimon Peres acknowledged that Syria had not yet crossed the "red line" (the undefined demarcation point, usually considered to be the Litani River, beyond which Israel feels its security would be threatened), Rabin's government issued several tough warnings to Syria to stay out of the sensitive area and dispatched a show of reinforcements to the border...