Word: druze
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...Arabs who invented the art of distilling fermented beverages into alcoholic spirits, and then exported it during the Islamic conquests of the Middle Ages. They practice it still by making arak, a grape-based anise-flavored drink. Today, the majority owners of Lebanon's two largest wineries are, respectively, Druze and Sunni Muslims. The workforce that picks the grapes, and the landowners who grow them are almost all Muslims. And only God knows how many of Lebanon's wine drinkers are also Muslims...
...unlike their previous situation in Gaza, Israelis like Matzliach feel little pressure to leave from the Golan's Arab inhabitants - unlike the huge Palestinian majorities in the West Bank and Gaza, there are now just four Arab towns in the Golan. Their Syrian inhabitants are mostly Druze Muslims, who speak Arabic and Hebrew, run apparently prosperous businesses and farms, and mingle easily on the streets with Israeli soldiers. "I've got many Israeli friends," says Yahyah Abu Shaheen, a 51-year-old contractor in the town of Buq'ata. "We've grown up together and we're human beings...
...while many Golanese Druze carry Israeli ID cards, most refuse to become Israeli citizens, either out of loyalty to Damascus, or out of concern that they might be seen as traitors if the territory is returned to Syria. Abu Shaheen and his neighbors also chafe under the restrictions of a closed border that cuts them off from family, friends and country. One of Abu Shaheen's daughters married a Syrian cousin and moved to the suburbs of Damascus earlier this year, and he doesn't know when he'll see her again...
...including all five Shi'ites - quit the government. Siniora and his allies accuse Hizballah of pushing an agenda on behalf of Iran and Syria. The frail government has survived strikes and an indefinite opposition sit-in that has paralyzed central Beirut. It retains broad support among Lebanese Sunnis and Druze, and the sympathy of moderate Arab states and the West. The Shi'ite community, Lebanon's largest sect, overwhelmingly sides with the Hizballah-led opposition. Lebanon's Christians are divided between the two camps. As a result, analysts say, the country's fate rests on the outcome of the regional...
...abandoned car found later in the suburb of Shiyeh. Their disappearance - an ominous echo of the kidnappings and murders of the 1975-1990 civil war - triggered a massive police manhunt. The Ghandour and Qabalan families are both connected to the political party of Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon's Druze community and arch-foe of the militant Shi'ite Hizballah. And Lebanese long accustomed to a tradition of clan blood feuds immediately drew attention to the grievance of the Shamas family, a tough Shi'ite clan originally from a village in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, some of whom...