Little good news comes out of Beirut nowadays, but last week the headlines offered some cheer. Saudi Hostages Bakr Damanhouri and Khalid Deeb were freed, evidently thanks to pressure by Syrian President Hafez Assad. Damanhouri, a cultural officer at the Saudi embassy in Beirut, had been held by an unidentified terrorist faction. Deeb, 23, the son of a security official in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, had been kidnaped in late January, apparently by the partisans of Islamic Jihad. The pair's good fortune raised hopes that the Syrians might secure the release of at least some of the 23 other foreigners,...
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