Arabs Who Look to the West

With guns and crosses, Lebanon's Christians try to survive

At the placid Maronite monastery perched high above the Mediterranean, Patriarch Antoine Pierre Cardinal Khoraiche had convened a meeting of religious leaders from Lebanon's Christian communities. Even as they discussed the worsening crisis besetting their country, the distant thud of heavy artillery sounded in the hills beyond, and reports circulated of mistreatment of Muslims by Christians and of Christians by Muslims. Before parting, the clerics called for a combined effort by Lebanon's religious leaders to seek an end to sectarian bloodletting. Within hours, preparations...