Kim Ghattas

And he was impressed by the discipline and all of that.

And that party, if my memory serves me right, was founded in the late 30s.

And then it becomes eventually a military party, a militia.

during the civil war.

So what they were trying to do when the civil war started, and certainly Bashir Jumayil

wanted to do is unite the Christian rifle so that there would be one Christian faction fighting the others rather than lots of different Christian factions trying to do their own thing.

So that idea of uniting the Christian rifle in Arabic is something that Bashir Jumail

begins to do as the the the war unfolds and he feels that he needs to bring everybody under one one umbrella and it's a very bloody this is where you have civil war that comes into play because he starts

confronting his own people, killing his own rivals within the Christian parties.

But to go back to the Christians courting Syria and Israel, some of the first conversations that happen, happen off the coast of Lebanon in a boat between Pierre Jmeil, Bashir Jmeil, Amin Jmeil on the one hand, but also Israeli officials like Yitzhak Rabin from Labour.

And it's a very interesting conversation

Because Pierre Jmeil is quoted as saying, in a way, and I'm paraphrasing, I bow my head in shame that I'm coming to ask you, because I am an Arab and I don't want Israel's help, but that's the only option that we have.

And so that is an interesting nuance that is sometimes also lost, sometimes on purpose, and sometimes, yeah, it's just how history gets retold.

It was a controversial move, even within the phalange, but it is one that they embraced.

So it starts with this, yes, boat diplomacy in 1976, I believe, when Yitzhak Rabin and the Labour Party are in power.

And the Israelis, in essence, tell the Christian phalangists, Pierre Jmeil and his son, whom they describe as a sort of slightly whiny boy initially.

They don't really like him because he's begging for weapons.

And their attitude is, we'll help you help yourselves.

So here are some weapons, but we're not going to get involved.

And all that changes when Begin comes into power in 77, and then Ariel Sharon becomes Minister of Defense.