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Line 41: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + − It was a major incident in a long list of ''massacres and crimes committed by the Palestinians and the Syrians Against the Lebanese (1975–90).''<ref name=nisan-2004>Mordechai Nisan: <i>The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz)</i>, (Routledge, 2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=lkWQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 p. 158]+ Line 115:
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Recently, anti-Christian sentiment erupted in Lebanon where ideological and class warfare also split along Moslem-Christian lines.
Recently, anti-Christian sentiment erupted in Lebanon where ideological and class warfare also split along Moslem-Christian lines.
'''Cries for a jihad (Moslem holy war) were frequent. Christians in the town of Damour were driven from their homes. An estimated 20,000 Christians died in the two-year civil war'''.</blockquote>
'''Cries for a jihad (Moslem holy war) were frequent. Christians in the town of Damour were driven from their homes. An estimated 20,000 Christians died in the two-year civil war'''.</blockquote>
Author:<ref name=braley>Braley, R. (1984). "Bad news : the foreign policy of the New York times." Chicago: Regnery Gateway.
p. 576 [https://books.google.com/books?id=uEP-IWBAl0sC&q=%22damour%22][https://books.google.com/books?id=uEP-IWBAl0sC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22Turf%22][https://books.google.com/books?id=uEP-IWBAl0sC&q=%22maverick+faction,+as+is+the+PLO%27s+custom;+Yasser+Arafat+was+directly%22]</ref>
<blockquote>
When Lebanon's enduring civil war reached its climax in 1975-1976, during the period of America's amnesia following its rout by the North Vietnamese, Lebanon was not considered an area where the United States had interests. The context of the war never was reported in the American media.
As the Muslim-Christian modus vivendi in Lebanon broke down into divided clans of Christian Arabs, Sunni Muslims, Shi'ite Muslims, Druse feudal-socialists and Palestinian refugees, the Palestine Liberation Organization, heavily subsidized to buy Soviet automatic weapons, barrage rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, easily outgunned everyone else.
PLO ascendency provided both a pretext and a cover for Syria's moving into Lebanon, where it never had established an embassy because it considered Lebanon part of greater Syria.
The first great bloodletting of Lebanon's civil war occurred in January and February 1976, when the PLO and its allies shelled and overran the Christian town of Damour, consolidating a large, contiguous bloc of PLO turf.
On January 21, after the first days of the battle of Damour, Abu Musa, head of Asifa, the military branch of Fatah, said his men had killed 500 Phalange militiamen. Lebanese air force planes, the Syrian army and the PLO took part in the destruction of Damour, the dead running into thousands. The slaughter could not be blamed on a maverick faction, as is the PLO's custom; Yasser Arafat was directly responsible for Asifa , the spearhead of the attack. As Damour fell in February 1976, fighting had spread in Beirut, where the Hilton, Phoenicia and Saint Georges hotels were blown away,
attracting more attention in the United States than Damour.
</blockquote>
Damour was a major incident in a long list of ''massacres and crimes committed by the Palestinians and the Syrians Against the Lebanese (1975–90).''<ref name=nisan-2004>Mordechai Nisan: <i>The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz)</i>, (Routledge, 2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=lkWQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 p. 158]
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Appendix: The Massacres and Crimes Committed by the Palestinians and the Syrians Against the Lebanese (1975–90)
Appendix: The Massacres and Crimes Committed by the Palestinians and the Syrians Against the Lebanese (1975–90)
assassinated on 15 July 1979 at Cannes in the South of France.''</ref> Yet, [[Arafat]], whose forces participated
assassinated on 15 July 1979 at Cannes in the South of France.''</ref> Yet, [[Arafat]], whose forces participated
in the crimes, was still spared at the time.<ref>Prof. Murray Kahl, [https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/786 Yasir Arafat and the Christians of Lebanon] INN, 13 January 2002.
in the crimes, was still spared at the time.<ref>Prof. Murray Kahl, [https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/786 Yasir Arafat and the Christians of Lebanon] INN, 13 January 2002.
''Although the main 'Butcher of Damour,' Saiqa commander Zuhayr Muhsin, was assassinated in Cannes, France in 1979, the PLO leader whose legions were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Christians in Lebanon, Yasser Arafat, is still alive to bemoan the fact that Israel prevented him from attending Christmas services in Bethlehem.''</ref>
''Although the main 'Butcher of Damour,' Saiqa commander Zuhayr Muhsin, was assassinated in Cannes, France in 1979, the PLO leader whose legions were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Christians in Lebanon, Yasser Arafat, is still alive to bemoan the fact that Israel prevented him from attending Christmas services in Bethlehem.''</ref><ref name=braley/>
==Israel to the rescue: 1982==
==Israel to the rescue: 1982==