In these troubled times, Rayess showed political involvement in creating a poster commemorating the assassination of the Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt.
The Guardians of the Cedars joined the Lebanese Front, a coalition of mainly Christian parties intended to act as a counter force to the Lebanese National Movement of Kamal Jumblatt and others.
Kamal Haasan | Kamal Jumblatt | Kamal Heer | Kamal Amrohi | Kamal | Walid Jumblatt | Kamal Gunaratne | Kamal Givens | Titi Kamal | Thamer Kamal Ali | Syed Mustafa Kamal | Kamal Uddin Siddiqui | Kamal Swaroop | Kamal Salibi | Kamal-ol-molk | Kamal Kharazi | Kamal Kamaraju | Kamal Haasan and Roja Ramani in a still from ''Mattoru Seetha | Kamal (director) | Dan Kamal | Ahmad Kamal Faridi | Ahmad Kamal | 2008 Abu Kamal raid |
In the 1958 Lebanon crisis control of the town was fought over by the Druze forces of Kamal Jumblatt and the Lebanese Government.
Many literary and public figures of Lebanon and the Levant were educated in its schools, such as the poet, May Ziade, the journalist and owner of An-Nahar newspaper, the father of the late Gibran Tueni and former Lebanese ambassador Ghassan Tueni, the politicians Kamal Jumblatt and Maurice Gemayel, and former Lebanese presidents Suleiman Franjieh, René Mouawad, Elias Sarkis.
His daughter, May, married Lebanese politician Kamal Jumblatt and he is the grandfather through her of Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt.