See also: History of Lebanon, chronological History of Lebanon

Lebanese Crisis of 1958

Rise of the dangers (1966-1975), the Palestinian problem

Starting from the end of the year 1960, the Lebanese political life is sullied with businesses of Corruption generalized of the civils servant, constrained to resign per tens, and the dissensions on the topics of foreign policy and treatment of Palestinian resistance. The leading class undergoes internal conflicts, the stake of this agitation being the division of the positions of being able. The movements are radicalized, and the tension climbs.

The Christian preserving libanists fear for national cohesion, whereas the Moslem arabo-palestino-progressists are interdependent of resistance. The militia start to be armed massively, the clan pro-Arabic being supported by the Palestinians, whereas the libanists turn to the Occident. Waves of confrontations start, they oppose the Phalange to the Palestinians and to the national movement.

The Palestinian problem

The refugee camps are used indeed as bases of military training, and several hundreds of Fedayin S launch operations Commando against the northern border of Israel, or even of the terrorist activities abroad. In front of the resistance which is organized, Israel waits of Lebanon until it ensures its safety by controlling the activity of the Palestinians on his territory, but Lebanon is too weak to solve the problem.

After the War the Six Day old and the occupation of the the West Bank and Gaza by Israel in 1967, then terrible Jordanian repression against the Palestinian Fedayin S in September 1970 - known under the name of black September -, the Palestinian cause enlise.

The Lebanese army tries in 1969 to take again the control of the camps, but it is too weak. A compromise is found with the signature with the Cairo under the aegis of Nasser, in 1969, of an agreement between Yasser Arafat - ordering PLO - and the commander-in-chief of the army. The Extraterritorialité of the camps of the Fedayin S is recognized. This agreement is held secret, because it is contrary with the full exercise of Lebanese sovereignty. Indeed, this agreement sanctions the right of the fedayins to carry out, starting from the Lebanese territory, of military operations and of the attacks within the framework of their armed national fight and while respecting, the text, the sovereignty of the Lebanese State adds. This true distorsion with sovereignty will transform the country of the Cedar into puppet of the Arab powers and especially israëlienne of the area, and will make it possible to the Palestinians to militarily organize themselves, and to create there a true State in the State.

With the difference in the close Arab States, with the strong capacity, which do not hesitate to deal with the Palestinian problem in a radical way, the presence of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and especially the fight of PLO against Israel become the principal point of dissension between the two large blocks. PLO will benefit from the democratic environment existing in Lebanon, as well as fragile multiconfessionnelle nature of the country enabling him to give to the conflict a inter-Lebanese preparing and making impossible the control of the presence Palestinian to Lebanon.

The Israeli army then launches many fatal operations in the South and until Beirut. The Lebanese population undergoes full whip this violence.

The war of Lebanon

Period: 1975-1990

“The two year old war” (1975-1976)

Violence became already common to Lebanon, but it is generally said that the civil war began the April 13rd 1975. The morning, during the inauguration of a church in the western suburbs of Beirut, out of the shootings coming from a car sent by SSNP kill the bodyguard of Pierre Gemayel to avenge death and torture in the prisons inflicted by this last with the prisoners for the SSNP. The afternoon, the machine gunners phalangists attack a bus passing in the same street, and kill 27 Palestinian workers. The spiral towards chaos develops quickly. The " black Saturday " , when four Christians are found killed with blows of axe in December 1975, out of the phalangists mad by the death of their companions kill nearly 600 Moslems close to the seat to their party.

Ambushes, urban guerilla warfare between kalachnikov and M-16, shootings of not identified franc-tireurs are followed soon by the entry on the lists of guns and rocket launcher. The refugee camps who encircle the city are the privileged target of Kataëbs; the Palestinians retort by attacking the town of Damour (January 1976), and massacre the majority of its Christian inhabitants.

All this time is marked by plunderings and destruction which touches even the large banks of the capital. Beirut is quickly divided along famous “the green line”. This state of the things is prolonged during the 17 following years.

The Syrian intervention

In 1976, Syria imposes a Cessez-le-feu because she had always believed and had never accepted that Lebanon is a country and proposes a rebalancing of the division of the capacities between communities.

The president Hafez el-Assad orders the entry of troops and armoured tanks in Lebanon ordered by the Americans in 1976, with an aim “ of preserving the status quo and of putting in failure the ambitions of the palestino-progressists ”.

Thanks to the military intervention and diplomatic of the Arab regional powers, the Lebanese president and the chief of the PLO are convened in Riyadh this same year. They are invited by the Saudi Arabia and the Egypt to recognize the legitimacy of the presence of the Syrian troops in Lebanon, and officialize it by the installation of the Arab Force of dissuasion (FAD).

“Neither war nor peace” (1977-1981)

This military presence blows on embers and locks up the Lebanese one in internal struggles. Syria draws aside Raymond Eddé of the presidency, because it had made departure of the foreign troops the first point of her program. The efforts to restore the national agreement do not progress, and violent ones confrontations oppose the Syrian Armée to the Milice S Christian women in 1978.

In 1978, in the South, the Israeli government, following the many attacks on the cities of the north of Israel organized by the PLO from Lebanon, decides on an offensive in the South of the country, it is the Opération Litani. It aims to push back the Palestinian militia in the north of the country and to seize the river Litani. After several weeks in Lebanese territory , the Israeli troops are withdrawn partially, leaving the area to the Armée with Southern Lebanon.

The strategic interests cause triple confrontation in spring of 1981: initially between the FAD and the Kataëb which seek to occupy Zahlé and to include the city in their control field, then between the Arab Force of dissuasion (FAD) and Israel which provides an air support to Kataëb against the Hélicoptère S of Damas. Israel and the Syria seems the day before a total direct confrontation. But an American cease-fire took seat.

“Peace as a Galileo” (June 1982)

The June 3rd 1982, a commando of the Palestinian organization activist Abou Nidal tries to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov, wounding it seriously. The following day, the Israeli army bombards in Lebanon of the camps of PLO, in reprisals against the attack, in which the organization of Yasser Arafat was not implied (Abou Nidal and the PLO being in conflict since 1974). Very quickly the situation is degraded: the PLO retorts by rocket fires on the North of Israel, involving new bombardments of its positions by Tsahal. The June 6th, the Israeli army starts the Opération Peace as a Galileo to put an end to the shootings of the PLO, and enters to Lebanon, advancing to Beirut. In fact the Israeli line was decided to finish some radically with the PLO, because according to the Israeli generals, its only existence revived Palestinian nationalism in the occupied territories, returning the Palestinians closed with any negotiation with Israel and preventing the israëliens from being established on these territories with as much facility than they wished it. Very many civil losses, a new chaos in Lebanon.

The troops of Tsahal cross the lines held by FINUL, force of interposition placed by UNO, cross the line of the 40 km northern initially announced like limiting objective by the Minister for Defense Ariel Sharon and reach the capital, where they make their junction with the Lebanese Forces of Béchir Gemayel. The Syrian troops crumble with enormous losses.

Approximately a week after the beginning of their invasion, the Israelis begin the head office of Western Beirut (where live 200  000 civilians) where the PLO found refuge in the middle of the civil population. South of the city, or the Palestinian fedayins had found refuge was exposed to quasi-constant bombardments. August 21st, according to an American agreement, PLO left Beirut on ships of the French National marine under international monitoring. Many interpreted this evacuation like the victory Maronite of the war. The leader of the phalangists Béchir Gemayel, regarded as the strong man of Lebanon, was elected president.

Sabred and Chatila

Three weeks later an enormous bomb was placed in the General headquarter phalangist, killing Béchir and 60 of its partisans. This attack was never asserted, but a person, Habib Chartouni was stopped. In spite of its membership of the Left Social Syrian Nationalist and although militant with enthusiasm against Israel and his allies with Lebanon, in particular Béchir Gemayel and the phalangists, the aforementioned party did not assert the attack, or all at least denied to have financed it. The secret service Syrians was always shown finger. But the Israeli indirect responsibility remains most plausible owing to the fact that Israel had lost the control of Béchir Gemayel: this one had been made elect thanks to Israel in exchange of a peace treaty, promise which it did not hold because of its statute of " of all the libanais" chair; and either of only the Christian phalangists.

After the evacuation of Beirut by the PLO, several hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians remained on the spot were brutally private protection and of framing. The Lebanese militia phalangists enter the camps for the " nettoyer" Palestinian combatants. The Israelis were to control the perimeter of the refugee camps and to bring a logistical support whereas a section of the phalangists directed by Elie Hobeika would have the role of entering the camps, to find the combatants in order to deliver them to the Israelis. September 15th, the Israeli army had completely framed the camps and controlled any access, while setting up observation posts on the roofs of neighbouring buildings.

During the two following nights, the Israelis illuminated the camps using lighting rockets, allowing their troops accompanied by the phalangists, to enter the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila located at the exit of Beirut to punish the “terrorists”. During two days of massacres violent one, they killed a high number of civilians (between 700 and 3500 people according to the sources), among them of the women and the children.

A few hours after the entry of the phalangists in the camps, the chief of the intelligence services of Tsahal receives information speaking about 300 died in Sabra and Chatila. No confirmation can be obtained. Similar rumors, of a massacre in progress in the camps, however start to circulate. But all that seems too vague to justify an intervention.

During this time, the commander of the northern area of Tsahal meets the commander-in-chief of the Lebanese regular army. He tries to persuade it that the Lebanese army must enter the Palestinian camps. He entreats it speech in this direction with the Prime Minister of Lebanon. " You know what the Lebanese one are able to be done the ones with the others " , he says. " It is important, you should act now. " The answer will be negative.

Another version of the facts, supported by many testimonys and investigations claims that on the contrary the Israeli army is only the person in charge of the massacre. The only official Israeli investigation whose conclusion was returned public in February 1983 made by an Israeli commission directed by Itzhak Kahane, the chief of the Supreme court showed with the responsibility for the phalangists and the " responsibility personnelle" of Mr. Sharon. One can read for information, the article of Pierre Pean " Sabred and Chatila, return on a massacre" , Le Monde Diplomatic, September 2002.

The mandate of Amine Gemayel

Amine Gemayel succeeds her brother with the report heading and recalls the multinational force to Beirut. Its sexennat starts under the sign of the hope. Several passages are open between the two parts of Beirut, and from many emigrants return and with them, from the money and the projects.

The the United States offer a financial support for the rebuilding of the administration, the infrastructures and the Armée. An agreement is signed stipulating the end of the state of war and an Israeli withdrawal conditioned by a simultaneous withdrawal of the Palestinian and Syrian forces. Amin Gemayel besides dissolved the command of the FAD on March 31st.

The government of president Gemayel does little case of the opposition of Damas to its negotiations with Israel, and the Assad general chooses to support by all the means the forces of opposition which are mobilized. The chief of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, returns to Lebanon with an small group of combatants, and engages in confrontations against the Lebanese one supported by Syria, but it must leave Lebanon in December 1983.

The “war of the mountain” (1982 - 1984)

The confrontations took place also in the mountains of Chouf. Inhabited by Druzes, sunnites and Christians, the area until had been saved there by the war. The militiamans phalangists badger the civilians Druzes. Well quickly, of the reprisals then religious violences burst. The government threatens to send the army, but the Druzes refuse, fearing that the troops are not combined with the phalangists.

The leader Druze Walid Joumblatt bombards the airport of Beirut then and tackles the positions of the Lebanese army in the city. When the Israelis withdraw mountain, the army joined the phalangists against the Druzes and the militia Shiite, Amal. The Druzes gain the part with the support of the the USSR. Thousands of civilians Maronites are constrained to leave in exile, under fear to be massacred, until the Americans, in their anti-Soviet dash, bombard the positions Druzes and negotiate new a Cessez-le-feu.

Rebirth Shiite

The international forces arrived at Beirut in 1982. However, American was regarded as allies of Israel, and the opposition was reinforced. In April 1983, an attack against the American embassy killed 63 people and left 100 wounded. Suicide bombings caused the death of 256 marine and 58 French soldiers (attacks station Drakkar). The multinational force beat a retreat, without glory, in February 1984.

A small known organization Shiite under the name of Hezbollah or “religious party” could be responsible for the attacks. However, the chiefs of Hezbollah reject any responsibility. It is more probable than a smaller group and more radical is responsible for the attacks.

The Chiite S, largely évincés of the fight sunnito-Maronite for the capacity and ignored by the government had always been the poor of Lebanon. Concentrated in the south and in Bekaa, they had undergone the attacks in the Israeli raids against the Palestinians, and transformed into refugees, concentrated in the suburbs of Beirut.

The guards of the revolution Iran ienne started to preach and involve the most stripped. The ground was fertile for a message rejecting the Western imperialism, and its will to fight for its cause transformed Hezbollah into a true force of Lebanese resistance which, gaining in popularity in the whole of the communities of Lebanon, started to use one of the most frightening tactics of the Lebanese militia, removal, and caused the end of the occupation in Lebanon.

the Lebanese discussions are better and better of agreement with treating it peace 1988-1989

The outline of a solution putting an end to the war is a long time blocked by the basic dissension on the priorities to observe . The left and the Shiites claim the abandonment of the political communautarism and assert a linked country, whereas the Christians refuse to consider the future in the shade of the foreign troops.

However, truth capacity is still between the hands of the militia. About September 1988, the mandate of Amine Gemayel is on her end, and votes it deputies for a new president is prevented by the militia. Gemayel requires then of its Head of State major, Michel Aoun to hold a military government of interim. The position anti-Syrian woman of Aoun was badly seen in Damas, and the Syrians opposed his nomination, just like the Americans. Gemayel named also three Christian officers and three other Moslems to be used under the orders as Aoun, but the Moslems refused to join their stations, forming their own government in Beirut-west.

Aoun, decided to drive out the Syrians of Lebanon, launches a " war of independence nationale" against Syria, from which the confrontations extend in 1989. France starts, at this time, to provide of the humanitarian aid to the two parties; but being given its traditional friendship with the Maronites, this gesture appears suspect with the eyes of the Moslems.

The agreement Taïf (1989)

An attempt to restore peace took place finally with the autumn 1989. The political efforts of a committee made up of the king Hussein of Jordan, of the king Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and of the president Chadli Ben Jedid of Algérie led to an exhaustive cease-fire and a parliamentary meeting to discuss a “ national reconciliation ”.

The National Assembly met with Taïf in Saudi Arabia. Some amendments to restore the balance of the division of the capacity were ratified on November 5th, 1989. Rene Moawad was elected president, but was assassinated only 17 days later. To avoid new confrontations, the Parlement elects immediately Elias Hraoui in its place.

In front of the opposition of Aoun the confrontations still burst, this time between Aoun and the militia Christian which disapproved its position -- a true fratricidal fight. In recognition of its support during the war of the Gulf, the America authorized Syria to intervene with the Lebanese army to get rid of the general Aoun. After the success of these operations, except for the always occupied south, the first period of durable peace in Lebanon opened since 15 years.

Lebanon under the monitoring of Syria Period: 1990 to 2005

The political scene

In 1992 the first legislative elections took place since 1972, in an atmosphere of handling, frustration and abstention. Rafiq Hariri was elected Prime Minister and started to study the rebuilding of the country. It also tried to restore the balance broken by the Boycott of the elections by the Christians by bringing more Christians in the government. It was stopped at the same time by the Syrians and president Hraoui.

Starting of the rebuilding

Of 1975 with 1990, Lebanon knew deep upheavals. a considerable deterioration of the fabric Industry L and Infrastructure S. the wave of optimism created around the rebuilding indicates a political will to rebuild Lebanon on new bases. The Lebanese State is confronted with an extremely difficult task. Vis-a-vis this challenge, he entrusts the file to the Council for the development and the rebuilding (CDR). This organization created in 1977 established, in May 1991, an exhaustive study of Planification for the rebuilding.

In parallel, the government of Rafik Hariri drew up an economic recovery package in the short run and another in the medium term. The project, over 25 years, initially envisages to restore the social and economic infrastructure, then definitively to erase the Séquelle S of the war. Lastly, the long-term development of the Lebanese economy, is used as framework with a balanced growth and to lead to a optimal installation of the territory.

The angular stone of this immense operation, for which the needs are evaluated to 10 billion dollars, is the rebuilding of the downtown area of Beirut. The capital is indeed a particularly mobilizing symbol of the restoration of the State and its Souveraineté.

The current plan of rebuilding of 160 hectares in the downtown area allured by its preoccupation of effectiveness and a speed, since all the real estates are gathered and managed by a single operator, released of very forced of administrative type. It also allures by the prospect to see flowing of the Arab capital to take part in the operations of Property development.

The project raised problems centered on two principal questions: the confusion of the private interest and the public interest, and the respect of the Private property. Moreover, this plan of rebuilding, infested by the mixing business and politics contiguous to the Lebanese government in place (Mr. Hariri, Prime Minister, had into clean up to 11% of this company…), was a social failure. The least favoured layer of the Lebanese company (a majority with leaving the civil war) badly lived this rebuilding, not on the bottom, but the form. Indeed, of many cases of families expelled of buildings to demolish by Solidère were not rehoused, or very badly. The width of the Polémique attenuated gradually starting from the January 10th 1994, at the time of the operation closure of subscription for the actions of the Lebanese Société for the development and the construction of the downtown area of Beirut, Solidère.

The global amount of the twenty thousand subscribers reached 926 million dollars, exceeding the request for 650 million defined by the land company. The share of Lebanese is of 600 million, the remainder constitutes that of the Arab subscribers, Saoudis as a majority.

The return to a state of calm in the major part of the country is not the only condition for an economic restarting, this last remainder largely dependant on the political situation. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that Lebanon lost most of its interior and external economic assets, the regional economic situation is very delicate with an evolution towards the introduction of a peace to the the Middle East, moreover than of other actors, whose Israel with its competences and its industry, are present in the fight for economic survival; in addition, the regional economic situation appears unfavourable because of the fall of the oil incomes.

The economic restarting is not immediate as it was the case at the end of the years 1970.

Favorable indicators

Following the political reconciliation. For the first time since years, GDP increases by 12 to 15% of the beginning at the end of first half of the year of 1991. The recovery of the revenue duties, in particular of the customs taxes, make it possible to carry out considerable receipts.

However, the delay of the assistances and the difficulties of the recourse to the external financing of the rebuilding limit the public investment. In this context, the national Debt increases considerably.

On its side, the course of the Lebanese Monnaie knows a clear stabilization after years of sharp declines. The foreign-exchange reserves have more than triplet between the beginning and the end of the year 1991 thanks to repatriations of half of the capital Lebanese placed abroad, and to the placements of the Arab investors, in particular in the sector of the real estate.

Social repercussions of the war

The public authorities multiply their interventions and their expenditure by means of series of measure impromptu. This wasting of the resources and the capacities, leads to an aggravation of the social difficulties which one was supposed to fight. In 1994 the social problems are extremely serious. The prices of the services do not undergo any significant decrease, quite to the contrary, they record a relative rise.

The average revenue is weak, and the distortions are very deep since inflation touches much more the Salaire S and the fixed Rente S that the incomes mobile or coming from the sales. This situation is at the origin of tensions which appear in connection with the employment of the young people. In the same way, one attends the appearance of important a Chômage disguised.

The displacement of nine hundred and thousand people since the beginning of the war because of serious imbalances in the areas of reception, leading to the squatterisation of spaces not intended for housing: offices, schools, hotels, hospital. The efforts made during year 1993 led to the return in the Mountain, the North and the Bekaa of approximately 80  000 displaced persons in Beirut. However, the problem is still not solved.

The field of health and the hospital sector in particular could maintain and even develop very good structures in spite of the crisis; the number of doctors increases.

However the weaknesses of the prewar country worsened, in particular with regard to the sectors of education and the administration.

Education knew a clear degradation following the fall of the incomes of the teachers. The private sector resisted the difficulties better than the public, but teaching in Lebanon is not conceived that on an academic basis, in total rupture with the economic needs, and the university educations and technical are still exempted without any contact with the manufacturing sectors.

The Productivité of the public sector weakened. The public administration suffers from handicaps in the field of the personnel. The lack of manpower in certain sectors is considerable; on the other hand, one attends a plethora of labor in other sectors.

This alarming report encouraged the Hariri government to start a “operation of purification”. Nevertheless, the success was only partial, since each camp with the capacity made a point of protecting to them his, corrupted or inefficient civils servant. Moreover, of the irrational compromises were often forced to try to leave certain political dead ends.

Lebanon after the Syrian withdrawal

Period: starting from 2005

General data

The physical framework

Contrary to the remainder of the East, Lebanon appears favoured by nature; the Climat is very pleasant, and it assembly line of Mount-Lebanon is a kind of Tower water. However, the crucial factor to include/understand Lebanon remains the relief, a natural Frontière compared to its neighbors the Syria, and Israel.

Denominational mosaic

Lebanon shelters a denominational mosaic and a cultural pluralism single. Indeed, during the centuries, the country served as “ mountain refuge ” for a great number of communities. There are officially seventeen, and each one has a specific private law.

Among the Christian S, the Maronite S are most numerous. Among the Moslem S, they are the Chiite S, then the Sunnite S. As for the Druze S, they have been isolated for almost thousand years of the orthodoxe Islam.

Lebanon was wanted by a minority elite, and it is necessary to build a State, to equip it with a political regime and especially, to forge a nation. -->

“The absence of consensus on the past as on the future of the country”

Between 1926 and 1943, under colonial control, the Constitution is installation. It ratifies the membership of each Lebanese at a religious community, and institutes the “political communautarism”, system by which the communities are represented “equitably” within the State on the basis of census carried out in 1932.

The president was to be Maronite, the Prime Minister sunnite, and the spokesperson of the Shiite Gouvernement. The parliamentary seats were distributed between the Christians and the Moslems. The Maronites also received the control of the army. In return, they were to recognize Lebanon like an Arab country. Independence was recognized by France the November 22nd 1943.

This national convention was a good compromise of short term to arrive at independence, but it proved too weak to ensure the cohesion of the State. As it was often the case, France did not know to bequeath to its old colony a constitution and an administration solids

Why Large-Lebanon?

In the light of the history, the community Maronite seems to have carried out a bad compromise. She insisted to increase Lebanon of the Mount-Lebanon and the plain of Beirut where she was majority to 80%, by uniting there the valley of the Bekaa, and the plains of the south, and to form Large-Lebanon. In this State, the community is represented more only to 51%.

Why did they want this State? The country undoubtedly needed the attic with grain of the valley to ensure its autonomy, but in addition, the Maronites held the conviction of their cultural superiority and did not doubt that they could play the paramount role in this State.

Let us note that Lebanon had the size of large Lebanon before the Othoman occupation which has it divided. And even larger towards the south, where the French charts certified it after the First World War, but a Franco-English compromise limited the length of Lebanon in the south has Nakoura. Also the borders of Lebanon are natural. They are only some arguments to say that the size of Lebanon is not a compromise Maronite but an old reality violated by the occupants.

An unfavourable international context

Unfortunately, the international context plays in their discredit. In 1952, Gamal Abdel Nasser reaches the capacity in Egypt. It marks a turning in the Arab identity movements, by adopting the doctrines of “non-alignment”. It awakes nationalisms pro-Arabic, and the anticolonialism. The Franco-British mobilization at the time of the Nationalization of the Suez Canal is the last start of the colonial powers. A hostile mobilization in the Occident serves the interests Maronites and reinforces their adversaries

The echo of the crises of the Middle East

With the favor of prosperity and Freedom of expression, contrasts about it with the Censure of the Neighboring states, Beirut shelters many Intellectuel Arab S and political opponents, and becomes a hearth of reflection and dispute. The publishers and the daily newspapers, as well as the new political organizations, multiply.

Lebanon becomes a place of privileged dialog, not only between the Arab S and the rest of the world, but often also for the Arab States between them. Founding member of UNO and UNESCO, the country takes part in the principal specialized institutions.

A ground of emigration and immigration

However, the old tradition of reception of the country remains. Lebanon accommodates the refugees Arménie NS during the fall of their country, it also shelters Kurdish S. Beirut becomes a “agglomeration refuge”, reflection of all the human dramas which followed one another the the Middle East.

In 1948, at the time of the Israeli-Arab war which will end in the birth of the State of Israel, approximately 140.000 Palestinians took refuge in Lebanon. The arrival of a not very demanding Labor and of a middle-class undertaking was an aubaine for the country, but a large majority of the refugees is placed in camps of UNO. This population, Moslem with 80%, settles in the long run in Lebanon, and weakens national convention. Very badly seen by the Christians, their right of circulation and their political activity are restricted…

Economic imbalances

The presence of permanent or temporary workers Palestinian or Syrian ensures the contractors a wheel of Labor at a cheap rate, badly protected, replaced regularly, and 10% of the active population are with unemployment in 1970, with most extremely of Lebanese economic success.

The social inequalities and economic present a double regional and denominational character. The Shiite community is poorest, while the fortunate ones are at the Greek S orthodoxe and that the middle-classes are at the Maronite S. In the years 1970 Lebanon passes through a socio-economic crisis. In question, the absence of a policy of redistribution of the richnesses and protection of the employees. The Community cleavages are often exceeded by misery and proletarianization, and the trade union mobilization and policy develop.

Political clouts with the capacity: clientelism

In Lebanon, the company refuses the Laïcité, the personal relations are preferred with the anonymity of the administration. Within this framework, the political clouts which dominate the Lebanese scene are not Parti S with the modern direction the term, but rather of the gatherings around notable, supported by its henchmen, the abadays , recruited on a Community and local basis. The political confrontations thus turn generally around a competition of Clan S.

This system is an open door with the Corruption because various honesties are initially family and local, then regional. Each decision passes by a consensus between the leaders who must make sure of the support of their respective community. The policies are not limited to the division of the capacity: the management of the state enterprises is entrusted to the partisans and to the close relations.

Years 1970 see flowering some “modern” political parties, whose two play a fundamental role as from the years 1950, they represent the ditch which opened between the Lebanese one. The socialist party progressist of Kamal Joumblatt - notable a Druze - with which the laicizing and egalitarian ideology equips an organization quasi Féodal E in a language Marxiste, while the party Kataëb ( Phalanges ) becomes the first of the country in 1975, with 80.000 members. Based by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, on the not ideological, but organisational model of the parties Fascistic S Europeans, it mobilizes the average layers Maronite S around social objectives and of the defense of Christian Lebanon.

Assessment of the situation

In a more and more divided country, the central problem remains that of the restoration of the authority of the State: actually, the president exerts his authority only on 400 km ² around the presidential palace.

While Syria makes reign a minimal order in North and Bekaa, at the price of a heavy taxation on all the productions, including the culture of the Haschich; the militia enjoy a freedom close to the Anarchie, and the competitions are often solved in an expeditious way as the assassination in 1977 testifies some to the charismatic chief of the national movement, Kamal Joumblatt.

In the zone of Christian Lebanon, military capacity and political power are unified by stages at the price of bloody confrontations which the Kataëb leave victorious. From now on, Béchir Gemayel governs the command of the militia of the area, the Lebanese Forces, and substitutes its law for that of the army and the police force. It is in favor of federated Lebanon, placed under the sign of “cultural pluralism”, i.e. of decentralization cultural, administrative, even political.

Kataëbs multiply the contacts with Israel, which provides them military equipment and councils. With its ports and its authorities customs, with its taxes, its social services and its co-operatives, the Christian zone constitutes the “released area” from which the Béchir young person hopes to launch out to the reconquest of all Lebanon.

The influence of Damas

Later the same year, Syria formalized its influence on the Lebanese policy with the signature of the treaties of fraternity, co-operation and coordination, and of an agreement of defense. Many are the Lebanese one, in particular Christians, who there see the establishment of a Syrian Protectorat on their country and challenge blow the Légitimité new mode. But, the agreements held.

Giving an opinion by stages in all the areas of the country, the Lebanese army, helped by the Syrian troops, their heavy weapons with the Milice S. the south, occupied by Israel through militia SLA confiscates remains the exception. The Palestinian bases remain in the South, and Hezbollah is authorized to keep its weapons to fight the occupation.

Violence continued to make rage in the south with attacks with the mortar punctuated by Israeli offensives. The Hezbollah becomes the pet peeve of Israel. In front of its incapacity to manage this delicate situation, the useless violence of sound Operation Grapes of anger in 1996, Israel preferred to withdraw its troops of Lebanon without conditions in May 2000.

End of the engagements

• 1990 : Violences of the civil war and Lebanese nun end following a intercommunity agreement of Taef, this agreement put an end to the war and legitimated the Syrian military presence. Since, the Syrian military presence as well as the political influence of the Syrian mode are far from achieving the unanimity within the Lebanese population and of her politicians. This tension is to be given in the more general context of the conflict of the Middle East.

With the fall of the General Aoun after a syro-Lebanese offensive the October 13rd 1990, the war takes officially fine. It will have made 150.000 died, 17000 missings and of the hundreds of thousands of exiled and of moved.

Chronology specifies war

• 1975 : 26/2 to the 1/3 confrontations with Saida between civilians and soldiers. 13/4 in the church of Ain-Remmaneh in Beirut of the Christians are grapeshots. As reprisals, Christians draw on a Palestinian bus making 27 dead. the 15/5 Solh government resigns. 23/5 to the 25/5 military government of the Rifai general. 29/5 government of Rachid Karamé. 28/8 to the 1/9 confrontations between Christians and Moslems with Zahlé (26 dead). In September, confrontations in Tripoli and Zghorta (+ of 100 dead). the 10/9 army creates a buffer zone. 12/9 to the 14/9 of the Palestinian activists of Georges Habache and Hawatneh kill out of the Christians with Beit-Mellat (northern country). the 18/9 cease-fire in Beirut, it is not respected. 26/9 truce in Beirut. 30/9 resumption of the engagements in the city. 1/11 declaration of the 12th cease-fire in Beirut. Mid-November the engagements include in the capital. Many removals between Christians and Moslem progressists. Failure of the mission of peace of Broods of Murville. In December: artillery combat in Beirut causing several hundreds of deaths. 5/12 4 young Christians are killed in the mountain. 6/12 in reprisal the phallangists kill 110 Moslems in Beirut. 12/12 200 Moslem civilians carried out; new cease-fire not respected. 28/12 calm in Beirut.

• 1976 :

See too

Internal bonds

• Lebanese Crisis of 1958

External bonds

• the war of Lebanon, article of the review X-Passion

Random links:

Common wheat | Shimon Peres | Rube Goldberg | Episodes of Earth 2 | Pedro Alves da Silva