Were Lebanese history as simple as promulgating snail-dyes and alphabets -
part 1 - or stubbornly adhering to a besieged faith for centuries -
part 2 - or slowly winning greater autonomy from a crumbling empire, at a price of foreign meddling -
part 3 - your resident historiorantologist might have been able to tell it in one sitting. Alas! As we seem to find every time we take one of these little historio-jaunts, nothing (including Levantine history) is ever quite as cut-and-dried as one might think - hence, a diary series that has gone on as many weeks as the war that spawned it.
Join me, if you will, in the Cave of the Moonbat, where the air is once more freshened by the scent of cedar, and the atmosphere stilled by solemnity at tales of sorrow. Oh, and we finally get to find out what happens when a country apportions legislative seats by religion...
A Note From the Moonbat
The following is a disclaimer that I lifted (and modified slightly) from a diary I did a while back on Persia, but, given the fact that it generated all of 7 comments, I'm thinking many of you historiokossians might not have seen it before. Please feel free to skip forward if you don't dig academic butt-covering, or if you've been visiting the Cave long enough to know how I approach history and controversial topics:
Before we get started on what could wind up being one of the more controversial topics I've taken on, let me be up front about a few things: I am an American of European descent and left/libertarian politics, and so carry with me the inevitable biases that that particular combination of cultures is bound to impart. While I'm on a confessional kick, I might as well also state that my area of historical expertise is not Southwest Asia, nor Israel and Lebanon, nor theology. That said, I do have a degree (in history) that clearly proves I have spent many hours among stacks of books and before flickering computer screens. Ostensibly, a history degree should also serve as proof that I have gained at least some skill in BS detection and differentiation, insofar as such skills are applied in the historiographic arts, and that I've learned how to assemble a narrative from disparate sources. You'll just have to take my word that I'm of a personality that seeks to level playing fields and to approach with integrity every project and job I take on, even when following the rules (of debate, or of decorum) works against me.
As an historian, the idea is to transcend all that negative stuff to the greatest degree possible: the task is to gather available data, assess it critically with an historian's eye, and write down what the historian concludes most closely approximates the truth of what happened. For guidance in approaching controversial topics like the one I'm about to go into, I always like to refer to the Greek writer Lucian (120-200 CE), who had the cajones to entitle a book, How History Should Be Written:
The historian should be fearless and incorruptible; a man of independence, loving frankness and truth; one who, as the poet says, calls a fig a fig and a spade a spade. He should yield to neither hatred nor affection, but should be unsparing and unpitying. He should be neither shy nor deprecating, but an impartial judge, giving each side all it deserves but no more. He should know in his writings no country and no city; he should bow to no authority and acknowledge no king. He should never consider what this or that man will think, but should state the facts as they really occurred.
Everything's Mandatory
In a last-ditch effort to save themselves from the rising flames of the First World War, the Ottomans began eating their own colonies and possessions, and Lebanon suffered badly. Some estimates hold that one-third of the population died during between 1914-1918, to say nothing of the crops, beasts of burden, and timber requisitioned by Constantinople for the war effort. When the British, moving up from the south with Arab allies, moved in and took possession of Lebanon in September, 1918, they found a country that had been ground to its knees.
The Lebanese, especially the Maronites, logically did not want this to happen again, and pressed the European powers for complete autonomy. On November 10, 1919, Georges Clemenceau wrote a letter to the Maronite Patriarch committing the French to supporting an independent Lebanese state, which became a reality (sort of) at the San Remo conference in April of the following year. In a document credited primarily to President Wilson and the South African General Smuts, Lebanon and Syria were both labeled Class A Mandates and placed under French administration. This was codified in Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant:
Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory.
Source: Cedarland.org
Think of it as a "when they stand up, we'll stand down" for the Jazz Age.
The US Occupation of Iraq Lebanon Under the French Mandate
Did you catch that part in the League document about assessing the wishes of communities? Yeah, well, only the US ever sent a commission, and their report was never published. Even so, word got out that not all was peachy in the Class A Mandates: while the Lebanese saw economic and strategic advantages to French protection, there remained a determined resistance in Syria. Still, in the tradition of The White Man's Burden, the French helped to reconstruct Beirut harbor (originally built in the late 1880s, by the French); established a system of primary schools; replaced Ottoman municipal law with home rule for about 120 towns; improved communication systems; and established European-style codes for civil procedures.
But, as the philosophers Hunter and Garcia once said, "Every silver lining's got a touch of grey." Cedarland.org, an unabashedly pro-Lebanon site from which I derived much material for this series, describes the Mandatory period in a manner which might sound familiar to anyone who's read a newspaper recently:
The act of the mandate recognized in principle the independence of both Lebanon and Syria but it was flawed as it lacked implementation for the attainment of that end. It set no specific time limit for the duration of the mandate and fixed no criteria for measuring the people's attainment of capacity for the full exercise of self-government. It left the minor at the mercy of the trustee. The entire act of mandate bears the marks of a hasty and careless document. One article put French side by side with Arabic as official language but maintained Arabic as the medium of public instruction. Of its twenty articles only one, dealing archaeology, was given any thought and is analysed and subdivided into eight sections, constituting a sixth of the entire text. The mandate had to start from scratch. Its task was no less than creating and developing administrative, legislative and judiciary agencies concerned with public safety and the execution of justice, health and education and public works.
The French administrators from 1920-1925 were generals whose main qualifications were battlefield exploits (the first, Henri Gouraud, was a Marne vet/hero). To help them assert their authority, the French dispatched Senegalese troops and imported colonial advisors from around their empire, but it was Gouraud himself who proclaimed an independent Greater Lebanon in a speech upon his arrival on September 1, 1920:
"At the foot of these majestic mountains, which have been the strength of your country, and remain the impregnable stronghold of its faith and freedom, on the shore of this sea of many legends that has seen the triremes of Phoenicia, Greece and Rome and now, by a happy fate, brings you the confirmation of a great and ancient friendship and the blessings of French peace. I solemnly salute Grand Liban, in its glory and prosperity, in the name of the Government of the French Republic."
Source: Cedarland.org
Declaring a nation one big, happy family is a lot easier than making it run that way, however, and each of the French administrators was obligated to beat his head against the centuries-old domination of religious faith in Lebanese politics. Beginning in 1920 with advisory councils, and solidifying in 1922 with representative councils, a system of "confessional" apportionment of seats developed - the more souls a faith could count among its adherents, the more power it had in government.
Can't We All Just Get Along?
Here's a breakdown of some of the major players in Lebanese politics in the inter-war years (1932 census figures):
Christians - approximately 55% of entire population, but had significant rifts between its constituent faiths. Generally favored French rule for the protection it offered them; Greek Catholics (mostly in Beirut and the town of Zhale; 6% of population) and Armenian Christians (urban; together with other Christian sects, approximately 5% of population) formed significant minorities
Maronites - (north and central Mount Lebanon and east Beirut): largest single Christian denomination, at about 29% of entire population - hence, powerful under the confessional system. They're also Roman Catholic, which probably didn't hurt their relations with the French, who were seen as a necessary buffer against Muslim hostility.
Orthodox Christians - (urban; Kura and northern Lebanon; 10% of population): resented Catholic pre-eminence, but recognized the pro-Christian benefits of French influence. Please see teacherken's comment and the resultant thread from the Early Modern Lebanon diary for a discussion of some of the terminology associated with Orthodox Christianity in this part of the world
Sunni Muslims - (urban, coastal cities; 23% of population): resented loss of power they had enjoyed under Sunni Ottoman rule, but slowly the intergenerational process of giving up on regaining former political power began, and cooperation with the Christians increased.
Shitte Muslims - (south; northern Bekaa; 20% of population, mostly rural): suspicious of the French state, but more willing to cooperate than the Sunnis.
Druze - (southern Mount Lebanon; 7% of population): divided; disliked Maronite rule, but favored an independent nation. Staged an unsuccessful uprising in 1925, when Syria attempted to extend its influence into the Chouf region of Lebanon
The French, too, got (more) heavy-handed in 1925, when their colonial administrator attempted to abolish the confessional system in favor of a wholly secular state. In doing so, he stumbled upon one of the very few things upon which all the politically-powerful faiths agreed: none of them wanted to give up a single iota of political power. Out of the resultant series of crises emerged the Constitution of 1926, which re-sanctified the religious apportionment of representative seats in government.
Weird Historical Sidenote: Although I can't really get into it here, there are some classic French Foreign Legion stories that come out of the fighting in Syria and Lebanon in 1925 - so much so that the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment still sings of the deeds done at Rachaya and Messifre.
A Colony At War (Reprise)
The illusion that they weren't a French colony was stripped away from the Lebanese on September 9, 1939, as the mother country ratcheted down for the inevitable German attack. On the orders of French General Pauax, the constitution was suspended, martial law declared, and the representative chamber dissolved. Pauax proved just what sort of guy he was when, the following summer, as the Nazis set up a puppet regime in occupied France, he cast his lot with the Vichy government.
The British, who held the Mandate over next-door Palestine (among other places), were alarmed at the prospect of Nazi collaborators on Egypt's northern flank (among other strategic concerns), and attacked. Assisted by the Free French, Axis forces were expelled from Lebanon and Syria in the summer of 1941, and on November 26, General Georges Catroux (deGaulle's hand-picked military governor) announced the termination of the Mandate and the "sovereignty and independence" of both Lebanon and Syria. Both Britain and the United States quickly jumped to recognize the newly independent nations - moves that became (surprise, surprise) difficult to retract later.
A new, nationalist-leaning government assembled in 1943. At its head was President Bisharah al-Khuri, a French-educated Maronite lawyer, with a pro-Arab Sunni, Riyad al-Sulh (back from a "perpetual exile" sentence by Jamal Pasha), as prime minister. Guiding them was an unwritten set of rules known as the National Pact (al-Mithaq al-Watani), and with broad public support, they systematically purged the constitution of all references to French control. By November 10, the governor-general had had enough: he ordered most of the government arrested and/or exiled to the castle of Rashayya.
The reaction was as immediate as it was decisive. Lebanese emigrants in the U.S. and Britain protested loudly to their governments, the "Arab street" began saying mean things about the French, and riots broke out in Lebanon itself. After holding al-Khuri for 11 days, the governor-general released him and his government to the inevitable, and on November 22, the government was re-installed under the de-Frenchified constitution on which they'd been working. Most of 1944 was spent transferring day-to-day functions of government over to Lebanese control, and in February, 1945, Lebanon officially joined the allied partnership by declaring war on Germany and Japan (a pro-forma move that was more about qualifying for the proposed United Nations than it was about committing to send troops to Europe or the Pacific).
When the war ended, the pace of decolonization increased markedly. A simple engraving on a rock north of Beirut sums things up with classical simplicity:
On December 31, 1946, the evacuation of all foreign troops from Lebanese soil was completed in the days of His Excellency Bisharah al-Khuri, president of the republic.
Low-Key Governance in a Highly-Strung Part of the World
In 1947, Lebanon's Muslim Prime Minister, Riad Solh, urged the Arab League to resist the creation of Israel; in 1948, the country committed troops to attack the fledgling nation. Lebanese troops crossed the border on May 15 and were engaged and driven back by the Israelis at Rosh HaNikra. When later Israeli action cut off the Arab Liberation Army of General Fawzi Kuakji in the Valley of Jordan, Lebanon took over logistical support, and after the ALA was defeated at the Battle of Sasa on October 31, 1948, the newly-created Israeli Defense Forces pursued the retreat into Lebanon. The IDF withdrew when Lebanon swiftly accepted an armistice agreement, and the border between Lebanon and Israel remained closed, but relatively quiet, until the Six Day War.
Economically speaking, the period from 1946 to 1958 is marked by a pronounced laissez-faire attitude. The population of the country was becoming increasingly urbanized - with only one-quarter of its land arable, it's probably little surprise that by 1970, over half of the country's population was living in towns or cities - and the economy became increasingly service-oriented. Beirut became the banking center of the Middle East as a result of the free trade and free currency exchange policies of the government, and the term Swisra Ash Shark - "Switzerland of the Middle East" - was used more than once to describe various aspects of Lebanon's scenery and monetary astuteness.
But always mixed in with the seeds of economic prosperity, it seems, are the seeds of discontent. The increasing predominance of service-sector and construction industries eroded the earlier power of the agricultural and industrial interests, and, as often happens in such instances, they coalesced around a nationalist movement to regain and reassert their authority. In Lebanon's case, this was the National Front, organized by Jamal Jumblatt and Sa'id Salam, which found it had more in common with the Sunni President of Egypt, Abd al-Nasser, than it did with the government in Beirut. Egged on by Egypt and its fellow Pan-Arab supporter, Syria, the National Front staged demonstrations and riots in the aftermath of their defeat in the elections of 1958.
The Most Complex War I've Ever Heard Of
1958 saw the beginning of a cycle of crises that has continued, with only occasional abatement, to the present day. In its preface to a much-more-detailed account of the Lebanese Civil War than I could ever hope to provide here, Cedarland.org says the following:
The Lebanese war is very complex and has many dimensions so is not considered, as some have claimed, to be a 'civil war' as many non Lebanese nationals were very heavily involved, indeed armies of neighbouring countries took part in much of the fighting. It is unfortunate that there is reference to 'Christians' and 'Muslims' in the following account as this may cause those unfamiliar with the events to think that the war was one of religion. This would be unfair and simplistic as religion was just used as a convenient umbrella to stereotype and group the many factions and thus divide them between two opposing sides. There were many 'Muslims' on the 'Christian side' and vice versa. The opposing sides were not fighting each other simply because of their religion but as a result of major differences of opinion on matters such as who should run the country and how the country should be run. It was a war about ideology, identity, nationality, insanity, and stupidity.
The dimensions of the war comprised of a Lebanese-Palestinian war, a Lebanese-Lebanese, a Palestinian-Syrian, a Palestinian-Israeli, a Lebanese-Syrian, a Syrian-Israeli, and a Lebanese-Israeli war. Add to these dimensions Libyans, Iraqis, Americans and Russians, and the resulting chaotic soup of well over seventy groups fighting in Lebanon would confuse the most ordered of minds.
In the interest of brevity (for a detailed look, Cedarland's page is excellent), I'll try to Moonbatify some of the major events of Lebanon during the Cold War period:
1958 - with Syrian and Egyptian backing, the National Front launches a revolt; riots in Tripoli compel Eisenhower to dispatch the 6th Fleet; July 14th coup in Iraq imperils US strategy in Middle East; Marines land July 15th (see Weird Historical Sidenote); situation stabilized after British send paratroopers to back Jordanian government; Syrian/Egyptian/Soviet/Pan-Arab plans foiled at a cost of 2000-4000 Lebanese lives
1968 - Though Lebanon did not take part in the Six Day War, Palestinian refugees, living in camps in southern Lebanon, did; Israel launches raid on Beirut airport on December 28; large number of Palestinians creates problems for confessional system of government, especially among the increasingly-outnumbered Christians
1969-70 - Raids and counter-raids increase between the PLO and IDF; Yassr Arafat signs Cairo Agreement, pledging to stop attacks; Lebanese army attempts unsuccessfully to hold the Fatah faction leader to his word
early 70s - Jordan expels numerous Palestinian refugees, increasing the burden on Lebanon; Israel continues to launch reprisals for nearly every PLO attack, including the one in Munich; in 1973, 3 Palestinian leaders are assassinated by the Israelis in Beirut
1973 - according to cedarland.org, things looked like this: "As the PLO's military influence in the south grew, so too did the disaffection of the Shia community that lived there, which was exposed to varying degrees of unsympathetic Lebanese control, indifferent or antipathetic PLO attitudes, and hostile Israeli actions. The Frangieh government proved less and less able to deal with these rising tensions, and by the onset of the War in April 1975, political fragmentation was accelerating."
1975-76 - flagrant violations of Lebanese sovereignty by Arafat's PLO followers result in violence and the collapse of the government; Beirut falls into anarchy and looting as various factions vie for control; Syria intervenes in 1976; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine sacks, commits atrocities, and sets up headquarters in the formerly-Christian town of Damour; Lebanese Army breaks apart, falls into factional fighting; Christian forces fall back to Allenby Road in Beirut, fortify their side of it, defend port against combined Leftist-Palestinian-Muslim attacks - vegetation grows in the no-man's land, creating the "Green Line"; Arab League finally intervenes and brokers a cease fire in October
Weird Historical Sidenote: In what the Defense Department described as "like a war but not a war" - an odd foreshadowing of Rumsfeldian "logic" - the Marines came ashore near one of Beirut's most popular beaches. Soft drink vendors and bikini-clad sunbathers attended the landing, and the Marines were obligated to turn away the help of some local boys who began helping them offload their equipment
An Occupation By Any Other Name...
By odd coincidence, Syria was tapped to provide most of the "peacekeeping" forces deployed by the Arab League, and they quickly sided with the Maronites, who were about to be overrun. It was under these auspices that Syria would initiate an hegemony over its neighbor that would last until the Cedar Revolution of 2005. The PLO was driven into southern Lebanon, but the shifting alliances endemic to the region meant that eventually, the Syrians would be allied with the PLO, while some Maronites forged ties with Israel.
On March 14, 1978, Israel launched the Litani River Operation in reprisal for cross-border PLO attacks. This spurred the UN to action: resolutions 425 and 426 were passed, calling for a international peacekeeping force to be created and deployed, and for the withdrawal of Israeli and PLO combatants from the area north of the border. Israel, which turned over security of the region to the largely-Christian South Lebanese Army, complied with the resolution and withdrew; the PLO did not.
Israel again invaded on June 6, 1982, advancing as far north as Beirut. Again the international community attempted to play mediator, and Ronald Reagan deployed the US Marines to the volatile area in August. After car bombers destroyed the US Embassy in Beirut (killing 63) and slaughtered 241 members of the United States armed forces on October 23, 1983, the Great Cold Warrior and Patron Saint of Neocon Chickenhawks cut and ran - the US washed its hands of Lebanon by the end of February, 1984. Israel began a less panicked withdrawal; by 1985, it had removed its forces to a "security zone" along the border.
Israel withdrew from north of the border in 2000, but significant issues still festered even before the current hostilities began. The two nations, while never having officially declared war on one another, do not maintain diplomatic relations, and cartographers on both sides continue to argue over the ownership of certain patches of land (see Shebaa Farms).
The Party of God
Hezbollah was officially founded on February 16, 1985, when Sheikh Ibrahim al-Amin declared its manifesto, though its roots can be traced to at least as early as 1982. It follows a Shia philosophy based on the teachings of Ayatollah Khomeini (Moonbatified here), was organized primarily to fight the Israeli occupation, and found a great deal of support among the Shiite minority. Taken in the context of a Lebanese tradition of representation by religious constituency, that oft-quoted neocon line about "they've got terrorists in their government" starts to make a bit more sense.
There are both civilian and military wings of Hezbollah, and neither the European Union nor Russia consider it a terrorist organization. The Dutch and the Australians consider the Security Organization (the external military wing) to be terrorists, but not the civilian side, while the US, Canada, and Israel draw no distinction between the different groups. Regardless of how the world saw them, Hezbollah moved to fill what it saw as a security and social vacuum in southern Lebanon, and its actions engendered considerable support.
Since time's running a little short on my self-imposed deadline, I'll let Wikipedia tell a little of the story of what comes next:
1988 and 1989 saw unprecedented chaos. The Parliament failed to elect a successor to President Amine Gemayel (who had replaced his slain brother Bachir in 1982), whose term expired on 23 September. Fifteen minutes before his term expired, Gemayel appointed an interim administration headed by the army commander, General Michel Aoun. His predecessor, Selim al-Hoss, refused to accept his dismissal in Aoun's favour. Lebanon was thus left with no president, over 40 armed militias, and an interim government led by the General Aoun. This government aimed for free election, without the interference of either the Syrian or the Israeli occupation forces. This required either the withdrawal of these two occupation forces or the supervision of the elections by the United Nations.
The military side of the war ground to a halt with the Taif Agreement in 1989, which called for free elections. Aoun attempted to comply, but was driven into exile by the Syrians. For the next decade-and-a-half, shots in Beirut would be called from Damascus.
The Cedar Revolution
Rafik Hariri was a self-made billionaire and the single biggest shareholder in Solidere, the company largely responsible for the rebuilding of Beirut in the 1990s. He served as Prime Minister from 1992 to 1998, when he resigned under Syrian pressure. Though no one ever took responsibility for the act, Hariri was blown up by a bomb as his motorcade passed Beirut's St. George Hotel on Valentine's Day, 2005.
Reaction in Lebanon was swift and highly anti-Syrian. The phrase "Cedar Revolution" was coined by someone at the US State Department, and it stuck in the international press. On February 28, 2005, a massive protest involving upwards of 700,000 demonstrators resulted in the resignation of the pro-Syrian government. A few days later, Hezbollah organized an even larger counter-demonstration, but freedom was once again in the Lebanese air: the last Syrian soldier departed on April 26.
The parliamentary elections which followed left a divided government in charge of a fractured land. Hezbollah and some other elements on the Lebanese political scene were pro-Syrian rule, while others were just as decidedly against. Attempts at reconciliation were limited in both scope and success, and Hezbollah continued to operate as an entity separate and distinct from the Lebanese government.
Historiorant:
Jay Elias' excellent diary, Why, part 1 provides a recent history of the Lebanese/Israeli border in much more detail (and with a slightly different perspective) than I can provide here - so do about a thousand others. About all I can add is that I'm sorry it's taken a war for me to get to know that fascinating story of Lebanon's past - from the Canaanites and the Phoenicians to the Druze and Hezbollah, this is above all an ancient land whose patient, freedom-minded people can always say they've endured worse than whatever travail happens to befall their nation in the future.