Word: moslem
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...Jerusalem intends to keep it that way. The Palestinian guerrillas who once launched sporadic terrorist attacks on Israel border settlements have left "Fatahland" to fight against Christians and Syrians in the north. In effect, the southern half of Lebanon has been left without any government, and its 360,000 Moslem, Christian and Druze inhabitants-mostly poor and scrambling farmers-have been abandoned to fend for themselves. Israel is moving determinedly into the vacuum. TIME Jerusalem Bureau Chief Donald Neff last week toured the mountainous 80-mile Israeli-Lebanese border and sent this report...
Three meetings have taken place between Israeli officers and representatives of Ahmed Khatib, leader of breakaway Moslem units of the Lebanese army that are generally friendly to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The meetings-the most recent was two weeks ago-are low key and mainly concerned with such mundane problems as what to do about stray flocks of sheep. But Israel's underlying message is clear. As long as Khatib's men do not help P.L.O. terrorists return to the border, the Lebanese troops will be safe from Israeli attack. With Khatib's tacit permission, Israeli combat...
...soldier's exasperated candor suggests, after more than a year of inconclusive fighting, the patterns of violence in Lebanon have been shaken up by some extraordinary reversals in roles. The Moslem Syrians, who originally entered the Lebanese quagmire in a peacemaking effort, are now deeply committed-on the side of the Lebanese Christians. The Christians, who seemed to be losing the struggle against their Moslem compatriots only a few months ago, are now apparently winning. The Israelis, once just worried spectators, have been quietly shipping arms to the Christians, thus becoming, in effect, allies of the Syrians...
Most surprising of all, perhaps, is what has happened to the Palestinians in Lebanon. Having swaggered into the fighting on the Moslem side for what looked like certain triumph earlier this year, the erstwhile heroes of the Arab world were suddenly being battered by Christians on the battlefield and abused in most Middle East capitals outside of Cairo...
...Palestinians brought their difficulties on themselves. Arafat's decision to take up arms in Lebanon to help the Moslem Lebanese, who had long supported the P.L.O. in its fight against Israel, was a grave error. It was indeed Arafat's worst mistake since 1970, when Palestinian forces operated so openly and defiantly in Jordan that King Hussein's army finally tossed them out in that year's famous Black September...