Word: phalangists
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Haig said that the U.S. would oppose the creation of any Lebanese nation that would be a puppet of Israel. The Secretary of State also said that the Administration would not tolerate any deal that allowed the Christian Phalangist militia, acting as Jerusalem's proxies, to destroy the P.L.O. in Beirut. That, Haig said, would make unification of Lebanon impossible. As the talk went on, Haig got the feeling that Israel would accept any Lebanese government that Habib could patch together, as long as it was stable, friendly to Israel and determined to prevent the return of the P.L.O...
...concoct a truce, the roar of tanks and the thump of artillery fire threatened to make a mockery of their efforts. The 60,000-strong Israeli force, still trying to consolidate its control over southern Lebanon, advanced to the outskirts of Beirut. There the Israelis linked up with Christian Phalangist allies to impose a stranglehold over 6,000 Palestinian guerrillas and 1,500 Syrian soldiers trapped inside the western part of the city...
After discussing strategy with Phalangist leaders over tea at Baabda's town hall, Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon issued a call for Syria's 85th Brigade to withdraw from the Beirut vicinity and join the bulk of Syrian forces in the Bekaa Valley to the east. Damascus abruptly rejected the demand, insisting that unlike the Israeli occupation troops, Syrian forces had been dispatched to Lebanon as part of an Arab peace-keeping contingent in 1976 with the approval of the local government. Sputtered an angry Syrian official: "We do not, I repeat, do not tolerate ultimatums from that...
Just south of Beirut, the Israelis slowly began to tighten the noose around Palestinian defenses, establishing commanding positions above the city's airport, east of the runways. Backed by Israeli artillery barrages, Christian Phalangist forces on Wednesday captured a Palestinian stronghold on the science campus of the Lebanese University at Shuweifat. Israeli officers denied that their commandos were involved. "The Christians are doing the fighting," explained an Israeli colonel. "We are just looking...
...late in the week, the surviving core of the Palestinian guerrilla army was completely surrounded in West Beirut. Phalangist guides directed Israeli armor through the streets of East Beirut, not far from the capital's so-called Green Line dividing the Christian and Muslim sectors. Israeli gunboats patrolled the port and coastline, thwarting nearly all naval traffic. To the south, invasion troops occupied a wide arc, stretching from the Khalde road junction into Beirut's surrounding hills, merging with Phalangist forces and blocking any escape...