Word: syrians
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...bandaged hand, he said that he had injured it slightly when he fell down some steps. But despite the brave performance, the P.L.O. chairman's prospects were dour indeed. Baddawi, the last of the Palestinian refugee camps loyal to Arafat, had been overrun by P.L.O. rebels backed by Syrian troops, tanks and artillery; the end of Arafat's long rule as head of a more or less united P.L.O. was at hand...
...Muslim western quarters as well. The continuing peace negotiations among Lebanon's warring factions were hampered by bickering over some of the decisions made at the all-Lebanon conference in Geneva three weeks before. Lebanese President Amin Gemayel had planned to fly to Damascus to see Syrian President Hafez Assad, who is clearly the strongest factor in the continued fighting in Lebanon. But that trip had to be delayed when Assad underwent an appendectomy. In the meantime, Israeli and later French warplanes bombed and strafed positions in eastern Lebanon held by pro-Iranian Shi'ite Muslims believed...
...moderate newspaper Al Quds declared that there was no difference between last year's massacre of some 700 Arabs by Lebanese Christian militiamen in the outskirts of Beirut and "the massacres now being perpetrated by Syria and its Palestinian helpers." Another paper, Al Sha'ab, mocked the Syrian mobilization of reserves, asking, "If you have something serious to fear, why are you still bombarding the Palestinian camps...
...young Palestinian reflected on the effect the current fighting would have on the generation that has come of age under the Israeli occupation. "We grew up seeing the fedayeen [the Palestinian guerrillas] as hero figures," he said. "That has been shattered now." Others bridled at the fact that the Syrian-backed rebels were led by men who had originally come from the West Bank. Said an East Jerusalem journalist: "The moment they lifted arms against other Palestinians, they lost the right to be called Palestinians...
Whatever the outcome of the conflict, Arafat will almost surely be diminished in the eyes of West Bankers. A politician pointed out that if Arafat is cast aside and the P.L.O. comes to be perceived as an adjunct of the Syrian army, its role as sole legitimate voice of the Palestinians could be easily challenged, most probably by King Hussein of Jordan. "The King would be released from previous restraints and could enter into negotiations [with Israel and the U.S.] if he wanted to," said the politician. "And if he called for the support of the people in the West...