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- THE WEEK, Page 12WORLDExile to Nowhere
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- Making heroes of fundamentalists was not what Israel had in
- mind
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- Israeli authorities never imagined what media stars they
- would make of 415 alleged Palestinian militants when they
- deported the lot to Lebanon two weeks ago. But celebrities they
- have become. The Lebanese government refused to grant asylum to
- the deportees, so the group spent the week shuffling through
- freezing weather between a checkpoint manned by the Lebanese
- army and another, three miles away, guarded by the Israelis and
- their proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army. At least two exiles
- were injured when the S.L.A. fired warning shots and mortars at
- the group as it approached Israel's proclaimed "security zone."
- The Israelis had hoped that deporting the fundamentalists would
- strengthen the hand of the rival Palestine Liberation
- Organization, which is indirectly engaged in peace talks with
- Israel. Instead, the P.L.O. has embraced the deportees. The main
- fundamentalist group, Hamas, for the first time attended a major
- meeting of the P.L.O. hierarchy in Tunis last Wednesday, while
- supporters of the two groups in the territories issued an
- unprecedented joint call for cooperation. Conditions for the
- deportees continued to deteriorate. The men threatened to swarm
- across Israeli lines, raising fears of potential slaughter.
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