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Summer 2003

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The land too favored with neigbhors
Maureen McKew

Lebanon has beauty, geography, climate, and culture. It also has conflicting religious sects and some very aggressive neighbors. Survival has not been easy for this “neutral” but volatile country, which has suffered many invasions in the interests of “protection.” It is also an object lesson in why more Americans need to study the nations of the Middle East. A new book edited by Villanova’ s dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences helps elucidate Lebanon’s precarious place.
By Maureen McKew

Not long ago, the Rev. Kail C. Ellis, O.S.A., dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and one of the founders of the University’s Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, received an e-mailed joke from a colleague in Lebanon, his ancestral homeland. God was having a conversation with his angels one day. He told them he was going to create a beautiful country with a mountains and valleys and a beautiful coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. The climate and geography would enable people to ski the mountains in the morning and swim the sea in the afternoon. The natives would be wonderfully intelligent, educated and friendly. “Oh God,” said one angel. “Is this fair? How can you favor one country so much? God replied: “Favor? Wait until you see the neighbors I am going to give it!

Meet the neighbors God “gave” Lebanon: Syria winding from the north to the east border of Lebanon, and Israel to the south. The Mediterranean lies to the west. Lebanon is today a nation in a fragile state of peace; it is rocked by every political earthquake that occurs in Arabia. This little county must perform a daily balance act among the Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shi’i Muslims, Druze, Palestinians and other minorities that have used it as a refuge and a battleground.

The precarious nature of Lebanon’s position in the Middle East is the subject of a book, Lebanon’s Second Republic, Prospects for the Twenty-First Century (2002, University Press of Florida). It was edited by Father Ellis with contributions by leading scholars (including Father Ellis and Dr. Hafeez Malik, professor of political science at Villanova) on the history, politics, economics, culture and ecology of the country. Lebanon, it can be argued, is a microcosm of the complexity that is the Middle East.

A product and a pawn of 20th century politics

Modern Lebanon came into existence a little more than 80 years ago, when the League of Nations, which was formed after the end of World War I, divided up the remains of the Ottoman Empire and gave the mandate for both Lebanon and Syria to France. The State of Greater Lebanon was proclaimed on Sept. 1, 1920; three years later the Lebanese republic was declared. However, the country remained under French mandate until 1941, when it was liberated from Vichy France (which was in collaboration with the Axis powers) by Free French and British forces. On Nov. 26 of that year, its independence was declared and two years later, a “National Covenant” was set out (but not written) stating that Lebanon was an independent Arab country with ties to the west but which cooperated with other Arab states while remaining neutral. Reflecting the various populations jockeying for influence within the county, this charter called for the president to be a Maronite Christian, the prime ministry a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies to be a Shi’i Muslim.

Thus began 60 years of maintaining a nation’s internal balance while keeping its footing in the roiling politics of the Middle East. Lebanon became the place everyone wanted to “protect.”

For example, during the years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was as interested as the West in influencing policy in the region. To counteract that, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced a policy, which came to bear his name, offering American economic and military aid to Middle East countries. The Eisenhower Doctrine received its first test in 1958 when Lebanon’s president, Kamil Sham’um, fearing civil war, asked for U.S. troops. Eisenhower responded with U.S. Marines.
Palestinian refugees added to the volatility

Barely five years after the National Covenant was established, Lebanon found itself playing host to approximately 141, 882 Palestinian refugees from the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. That number, according to an essay authored by Father Ellis, has swollen to more than 400, 000. Among them were some professionals who were able to assimilate in Lebanese life. However, the vast majority were placed in camps throughout the country. Over fifty years, wrote anthropology professor Julie Peteet of the University of Louisville, Ky., the plight of the refugees (now entering their fourth generation) has been one of continual crisis. “The initial trauma of dispossession, statelessness, and exile has been followed by war, sieges, and massacres. Today, Palestinian refugees speak of having less hope for the future than in the immediate past. . . . Uncertainty pervades thing about the present and the future.

The presence of the Palestinians, in addition to being a problem for their host, also has created more than a passing interest among the neighbors. In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization was formed to return the Palestinian to their ancient homeland, a significant portion of which now was the State of Israel.

Although Lebanon played no part in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the aftermath drew the country deeper into conflict. After the defeat of the Arabs, the Palestinians began using Lebanon for as a base for launching activities against Israel; the P.L.O. began recruiting soldiers in the refugee camps. As Father Ellis noted in “The Regional Struggle for Lebanon,” the Lebanese government tried to crack down on this with the result that the Palestinians took advantage of Father Ellis described as “social and sectarian cleavages between Christians and Muslims” to be build bridges to Muslims and leftist Lebanese.

In 1968, Israeli launched an attack against Beirut Airport in retaliation for P.L.O. attack on an Israeli aircraft in Athens, claiming that a nation which harbored an armed force threatening Israel could not expect to remain immune to reaction. A year later, in Cairo, the head of the Lebanese army and P.L.O. chairman Yasir Arafat signed an agreement to control Palestinian guerilla activity in Lebanon. Israel, for its part, continued to raid Southern Lebanon in an attempt to force the country to become more aggressive in controlling activities Israel considered a threat to its national security. This was beyond the capability of the Lebanese government and helped it lead it to its worst nightmare.

Civil War and occupation

I On April 10, 1973, Israeli commandos raided Beirut and killed the Palestinian associates of Arafat. The Lebanese government resigned the following day. A serious of violent confrontations broke out in April, allegedly in retaliation for a shooting in a Christian church. Phalangist gunmen cut down 27 Palestinians in bus ambush in Beirut. Lebanon was engulfed in civil war and its neighbors watched warily.

A year later, in June 1976, Syria troops entered Lebanon to restore peace and curb the Palestinians and the following October, a cease fire was arranged with a Syrian Arab Deterrent Force (ADF) to maintain it.

Then it was Israel’s turn. In March of 1978, after a Palestinian incursion in its territory, Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The United Nation Security Council passed a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw. At the same time, the Security Council established an interim UN force to confirm the Israeli withdrawal and help the Lebanese government reassert itself in the area. Israel, however, handed over the territory to the Christian militia.

Four years later, June 6, 1982, Israel launched “Operation Peace for Galilee,” which was a full-scale invasion of Lebanon. This included a three month siege which all but destroyed the beautiful city of Beirut. In September, a peace-keeping contingent of largely U.S. French and American peace keepers arrived in Beirut at the request of the Lebanese government. The following May, Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement for Israeli withdrawal to “security region” in south Lebanon. However, in October 0f 1983, two explosions in Beirut took the lives of 241 U.S. Marines and 56 French paratroopers. Two militant Shi-i groups, one of Hezbollah, claimed credit. In May of 1987 Lebanon abrogated its 1969 agreement with the PLO and cancelled its 1983 agreement with Israel. However, Israel remained in South Lebanon until May 2000.

For 15 years, from 1985 to 2000, Lebanon was in the throes of civil war, with assassination, reprisals, more assassinations, kidnappings and, in 1988 two rival governments: Muslim in West Beirut and Christians in East Beirut.

Finally, in 1990, the Civil War ended and Lebanon slowly, laboriously rebuilt itself. However, its meddling neighbors continued to use it as a pawn until May 2000 when the Israel forces pulled out. The Syrian army remains there, however, making Syrian a dominant force in the country. The Palestinian refugees continue to draw watchful glances from both their host and the Israelis.

That is quite a history for a nation that is just 60 years old. However, it is the price of being a small country caught in vice created by two super-powerful neighbors. For the future, Lebanon must fight to continue the stabilization of its internal factions and deal with the plight of its 400 thousand Palestinian guests, all the while balancing the interests and activities of Syria and Israel.

As the U.S., Britain and other members of their coalition invaded Iraq in March, at least one observer wondered if he might be watching history repeat itself. In an “Editorial Observer” essay published in The New York Times on March 30, journalist Ethan Bonner wrote:

The central aim of the military operation was to smash the looming terrorist threat, but it was also a stab at refashioning the Middle East by installing a pro-Western government. The first troops in the south took Shiite Muslim towns, where locals were relieved to be rid of an oppressive regime. Some cheered the foreign invaders.

That may sound like a description of the current war in Iraq, but the military in question was Israel's, the invaded country was Lebanon and the date was 1982. It would be 18 years before the last weary, despised Israeli soldier left. And while there are never exact historical parallels, Israel's experience in Lebanon — an ambitious invasion that turned into a draining quagmire — is a cautionary tale for the American war in Iraq

Lebanon’s Second Republic is more than a primer on one small country in the Middle East. Its essays address the complexities – political, religious, cultural – that engage many of the nations of the Middle East and which are a mystery to a large number of Americans

Addressing the knowledge gap

How did Saddam Hussein come to power? What are the differences between Shi’i and Sunni Muslims?* Could Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden really be co-conspirators? There is no shortage of sound-bite sized answers for these questions. However, such responses are inadequate. Educators realize that before Americans (or anyone else, for that matter) can attempt to answer these questions, they must see the Middle East and Islam through the eyes of experts in the field as well as by encountering more Arabs and Muslims socially and culturally.

In 1983, Villanova University established the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies in 1983 in recognition of the critical importance of the Middle East socially, culturally, politically and economically.

In addition to its interdisciplinary curriculum, the Center sponsors lectures, seminars and cultural events, which are open to the entire University community and the public. On occasion, the activities sponsored by the center have been criticized by cultural groups and religious sects outside the University, which have accused it of bias. However, the program has proved to be no more threatening to those groups than the Irish Studies program is to the British people.

According to the current chair of Arab and Islamic Studies, Dr. Mine Ener, the bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center raised the level of interest on the part of Americans in the Middle East. The Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, ratcheted up its outreach by offering on-campus seminars, by making faculty members available to speak to church and civic groups, and by directing those who are interested to resources on the region.

As this magazine goes to press, the war in Iraq has reached Baghdad and some members of the Bush administration are criticizing what they perceive as support by Syria for Saddam Hussein. If Syria is drawn into the conflict or becomes a target itself, neutral Lebanon with its Mediterranean coastline and the strong influence of Syria in its politics, might well find itself once caught up in war made by its neighbors. In that part of the world, situations and alliances can change overnight.