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THE MYSTIC WHO GOES TO WAR
In the mountain resort Aley, Leftist Leader Kamal Jumblatt one day last week sat in his temporary headquarters, directing the siege of the nearby Christian stronghold of Kahale. Suddenly, a mortar shell whistled through the air and exploded 50 yds. away with an ear-splitting blast. Aides jumped to their feet; one suggested running for cover. "Shells like that don't do much damage," said Jumblatt calmly. He remained unruffled when an assistant rushed in to tell him that the explosion had damaged his black Mercedes. Replied he coolly: "We shouldn't park our cars over on that side of the street."
Kamal Jumblatt, 58, may have been one of the few men in shattered Lebanon who could summon up such reserves of serenity. He was also, for the moment, the nation's most powerful political figure, as leader of the disparate leftist coalition known as the National Movement, whose forces until the ceasefire were locked in battle with Christian militiamen. More than any other Lebanese leader, Jumblatt was responsible for the collapse of Syrian President Hafez Assad's plan to end the civil war through a Pax Syriana. Jumblatt's reason: such a settlement would only perpetuate the sectarian bitterness dividing the nation.
"We want to westernize this country as a secular, democratic state," Jumblatt told TIME Correspondent Wilton Wynn. "We can no longer be segregated as Druzes or Sunni Moslems or Maronites. This system makes this country look like a zoo full of different kinds of animals. It's really undignified to be part of it."
There is a certain irony in that statement, since Jumblatt first came to power as the hereditary feudal chieftain of Lebanon's 300,000 Druzes, an esoteric branch of Islam that emerged in the 11th century. Other curious paradoxes mark his career. He is both a dedicated socialist and a millionaire. Despite his fidelity to Druze beliefs, he was educated at Roman Catholic schools, and studied law and philosophy at the Sorbonne. He knew and was deeply influenced by Jesuit Theologian-Anthropologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, quotes Thomas Aquinas frequently, and is respected as an authority on the mysticism of St. John of the Cross. He is also a practitioner of yoga and a published poet to boot.
Jumblatt is widely regarded as the "Mr. Clean" of Lebanon's tainted politics and a longtime influential kingmaker. The founder of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, he backed Camille Chamoun for the presidency in a bloodless coup in 1952. Jumblatt soon turned on his protege for failing to enact economic and social reforms; in 1958 he was among the leaders of an anti-Chamoun uprising that disintegrated after U.S. Marines landed on Lebanon's beaches to restore order. Jumblatt has generally taken a strong socialist and pro-Palestinian line. Although he is nobody's man by any means, Jumblatt is admired in Moscow: he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1973 and the Order of Lenin in 1974.