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THERE is no love lost between Alawite and Sunni quarters of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city. It lies just half an hour by car from the border with Syria, where violence increasingly pits the sects against each other. Here, bullets have often flown across the road that divides them, the aptly named Syria Street. In February Tripoli’s gun battles left three dead and provoked the army to intervene. Yet now cooler heads seem to be prevailing.Alawites, an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam, are far rarer in Lebanon than in Syria, where they account for 12% of the population but dominate the regime. In Jebel Mohsen, their Tripoli stronghold, pictures of the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, adorn walls and doors. Not surprisingly, since he, as a powerful Alawite, is seen as something of a godfather. Yet a local furniture-maker says residents are not personally attached to Mr Assad: “We have no problem with a different leader, as long as we stay protected.”Lebanon’s Sunnis are noisier but appear no more keen on conflict. Their main figurehead, Saad Hariri, a former prime minister, has accused Mr Assad of leading a murderous campaign against his own people. But for all the bluster there is little sign that the Sunnis, who make up a third of Lebanon’s people, are sending large amounts of money or weapons to the Syrian opposition. For one thing, Lebanon’s Sunnis are badly organised...