Seated inside his 18th century palace, hung with portraits of his late father Kamal, an Arab socialist with a fondness for Buddhist philosophy, Jumblatt junior conceded defeat.
"The fanatics have won the day," he said gloomily, as we drank sangria in a vaulted stone room lined with oriental pillows. "The Israelis are arrogant and won't admit they've lost, but they have. Hezbollah can afford this tactic of burnt earth." "We're squeezed," he concluded, "between Karbala and Masada." Jumblatt allowed himself a slight smile for coining the expression and then sighed heavily. By invoking Karbala, the Iraqi city where the Shiite saint Hussein and his followers were massacred, Jumblatt was referring to the Shiite glorification with martyrdom. Masada, the hilltop fortress where ancient Israelites committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans, symbolizes the Israeli penchant for viewing every fight as a fight to the death.
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