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04/21/2005
Lebanon, Part I
[Next column...May 5]
While I have written of Lebanon extensively in my “Week in
Review” column since the February 14, 2005 assassination of
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, I want to update the current
situation over the next few columns on this link, as well as
provide a brief history of the nation. There’s a personal reason
for my doing so at this time. Unless things change in the next
few days I will be over in Lebanon myself very shortly.
Lebanon is one confusing country to try and understand. For
starters, there hasn’t been a census since 1932, reflecting the
political sensitivities. Roughly one-half the size of New Jersey,
Lebanon has an estimated 3 million people with up to half living
in the greater Beirut area. [Other figures have the population at
4.4 million with Beirut at one million.] It’s not clear to me if the
figures necessarily include the 400,000 Palestinian refugees
living here, none of whom enjoy the legal rights accorded the
rest of the population.
As to the history, in a nutshell Lebanon is the historic home of
the Phoenicians. It was conquered by the Romans in 64 B.C. and
Christianity was introduced in AD 325. The Arabs arrived on
the scene in the 7th century and while Islam made inroads at this
time, Christian Maronites still predominated. And it’s here you
begin to get a sense of the religious divisions that have existed
ever since. The Maronites go back to Syria and St. Maron, a
Syrian hermit from the late 4th century. 400,000 of 1 million
worldwide live in Lebanon.
Lebanon was one of the principal battlefields of the Crusades,
after which it became part of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish
rule continued until World War I. After World War II, both
Lebanon and Syria were mandated to France and in 1945
Lebanon was granted its full independence, with the French
pulling their troops out the following year.
During the 1950s Lebanon’s economy boomed and it adopted a
pro-Western foreign policy. The Arab populations were none
too pleased, however, and by 1958 U.S. troops were sent in to
quell a rebellion. Later, in the 1960s, Israel began to apply
military pressure against Palestinian guerrillas operating out of
South Lebanon.
Then in 1975 civil war broke out between Maronite, Sunni,
Shiite, and Druse (also spelled Druze) militias. Just to give you
another sense of how complicated it is for a casual observer to
understand all the players, the Druse go back to the 10th century
and are an offshoot of the Ismailis. The Ismailis are one of two
branches of the Shia faith. An estimated 200-300,000 Druse live
in Lebanon with the charismatic Walid Jumblatt as their leader.
During the civil war, 1975-90, anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000
were killed. [Like other numbers here, it’s difficult getting exact
counts.] In 1978 Israel (which has been in a declared state of
war with Lebanon since 1973) invaded the south of the country
in order to suppress attacks from Palestinian bases there. The
same year Hizbollah (Hezbollah), “Party of God,” was founded
with the express mission of destroying Israel.
As the civil war raged, European and U.S. troops were deployed
in 1983 and they were met by a bombing campaign, including
Hizbollah’s attack on a U.S. / French barracks, also in ’83, that
killed 241.
[Hizbollah’s primary sponsor is Iran, which sends a reported
$100 million a year out of which Hizbollah funds schools and
orphanages in their attempt to win over the hearts and minds.
But the lion’s share of the money is spent on weaponry and
maintenance of Hizbollah’s 25,000-strong militia.]
By 1990 a truce was called and Syria was permitted by the
international community to maintain what was to be a temporary
presence in Lebanon which then evolved into far more.
President George H.W. Bush paid this price for Syria’s support
in Gulf War I, though what Syria did then was limited
Lebanon has maintained a democracy since independence,
though power has been split along religious lines with the three
largest sects, Maronite Christians, Sunnis and Shias, sharing the
top positions. But as the rest of the world forgot about Lebanon
after the war, Syria made sure its handpicked leaders had the
most power.
Over the past 15 years, though, during a period of relative
stability, Lebanon was able to mount a reconstruction effort,
thanks to the efforts of businessman / Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri. It was last October that Hariri, who had generally been a
supporter of Syria while he built his business empire, had a
falling out with Damascus and President Bashar Assad over
Assad’s attempt to extend Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s
six-year mandate. Assad showed Hariri, prime minister for 10 of
the previous 12 years, little respect and Hariri was furious.
But Hariri, no fool, knew he couldn’t fight Damascus from
within so he submitted his resignation and announced he was
going to explore his options.
During this crisis, the United Nations Security Council adopted
Resolution 1559, sponsored by France and the United States, that
called for a “free and fair electoral process in Lebanon’s
upcoming presidential election (and for) all remaining foreign
forces to withdraw from Lebanon.” Nonetheless, the Parliament
rubber-stamped the extension of Lahoud’s tenure.
Then on February 14 of this year, Rafik Hariri was assassinated
in a horrific bomb attack that killed 17 others. While the actual
perpetrators have yet to be identified, all eyes remain on Syria
either President Assad sanctioned it or his intelligence forces
acted on their own.
As the most respected political force in Lebanon, particularly
among the Sunnis, Hariri’s death unleashed forces that shocked
Syria. Fouad Ajami commented in U.S. News & World Report
as hundreds of thousands poured into the streets of Beirut in
mourning, “No one could have foreseen the mass grief of the
captive country.”
“Hariri’s historic role, the gift that his cruel murder gave the
Lebanese people, was the knitting together of a country given to
communal feuds. The ‘cedar revolution’ had been gathering
force; it now had its martyr and a simply rallying cry held atop
banners in Beirut’s plazas – al-haqiqa, the truth. The Lebanese
wanted the truth of their world: the truth about Hariri’s
assassination, the truth about the secret services that disposed of
their public life, the truth about a young, inexperienced Syrian
ruler (Bashar Assad) who had come to believe that Lebanon was
his personal inheritance. People bullied into submission, or
simply indifferent to the call of political causes, wanted their
country back. Arabs had always viewed Lebanon as an ‘easy,’
frivolous land. Now the Lebanese were treating the other Arabs
to a spectacle of peaceful revolt and genuine change.”
Today, as Ajami adds, the “apparition of Hariri haunts the servile
regime in Beirut and its puppeteers in Damascus.”
I’ll pick up the story after my trip to Beirut.
Sources:
“The American Desk Encyclopedia”
Dexter Filkins, Michael Young / New York Times
Fouad Ajami / U.S. News
Fouad Ajami / Foreign Affairs, May / June 2005
Ralph Peters / New York Post
Lee Smith / Wall Street Journal
Jackson Diehl / Washington Post
Hott Spotts will return May 5.
Brian Trumbore
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