Cadres, Guns and Money Hafiz al-Asad marched into the Palace of the People in Damascus on the evening of January 6, 1985 to convene the eighth regional congress of the Baath Party. The standing ovation which greeted his entrance was immediately broadcast to the most remote corners of Syria by a platoon of television camer Yahya Sadowski • 20 min read
From the Editors (July/August 1985) The recent TWA hijacking episode provided the latest occasion for the Reagan administration to display its single-minded devotion to the pursuit of world counterrevolution. There was no advantage in military action in Lebanon, pace Henry Kissinger Associates. But under the all-purpose rubric of “com The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Becker, The PLO Jillian Becker, The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984). Welcome to the weird world of Ms. Jillian Becker—a world in which the PLO wreaks senseless vengeance on the hapless Palestinian people, PLO prison officers decorate their office Helena Cobban • 2 min read
MER Article Adams, Israel and South Africa James Adams, Israel and South Africa: The Unnatural Alliance (London: Quartet Books/Namara, 1985). James Adams, a senior executive at the Sunday Times of London, scores an overwhelming victory in undermining the thesis of his own title. After even a few pages, his book convinces us, albeit unintent Tim Frasca • 2 min read
MER Article Kwitny, Endless Enemies Jonathan Kwitny, Endless Enemies(New York: Congdon and Weed, 1984). This book canvasses the record of US government intervention in every corner of the Third World (Europe, Canada and Australia are omitted), and concludes with an essay entitled “On Capitalism, Communism and Freedom.” That's a good Claudia Wright • 4 min read
MER Article Reflections on a Village in Time of War It is easy to talk about “then.” The “now” is far more difficult. Memories confronted with that “now” take on a sense of fantasy and unease. A strange light is shed over the inner landscape by the changes in the outer. Since I speak of Lebanon, the light is also lurid. I am not sure what shadows it Michael Gilsenan • 17 min read
MER Article The Resistance Front in South Lebanon Though it fell like a piece of ripe fruit into the hands of the Israelis, southern Lebanon rapidly became a quagmire for the most powerful armed forces in the Middle East. An armed resistance developed, which by early 1984 was carrying out two attacks daily. Popular mobilization did not diminish in Samir Kassir • 8 min read
MER Article Eyewitness to the Iron Fist Jim Yamin is Middle East program coordinator for Grassroots International, a relief organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with programs in Lebanon and the Horn of Africa. He spoke with Joan Mandell and Kathryn Silver in April, 1985. You’ve just spent ten weeks in south Lebanon. What were Joan Mandell • 8 min read
MER Article A Lebanon Primer Lebanon is a microcosm of the peoples, cultures and religions found in the Middle East region as a whole. Under Ottoman rule from the 16th century until World War I, that province of mountainous eastern Syria known as Mt. Lebanon was home and refuge for various religious and ethnic communities. Leba Tom Russell • 8 min read
MER Article Roots of the Shi'i Movement Many saw the Shi‘i revolt in west Beirut and its southern suburbs in February 1984 as the sudden and unexpected mass uprising of a rapidly expanding social group in the midst of a tumultuous religious revivalism. But the February uprising was a significant social movement, with roots in the profound Salim Nasr • 24 min read
MER Article "People are suffering tremendously" Dan Connell, a contributing editor to this magazine, is executive director of Grassroots International, a relief agency working in Lebanon and the Horn of Africa. Jim Paul spoke with him in New York on June 17, 1985. James Paul • 9 min read
MER Article The War of the Camps, the War of the Hostages June 19,1985. In Beirut, TWA flight 847 stands desolate on the empty tarmac, a huge hulk of white metal shimmering in the heat, a picture off the cover of some bungled tourism brochure. Some 40 Americans are unwilling guests in the southern shantytowns known as the “suburbs” of Beirut. More than a h Joe Stork • 14 min read
