Lebanon: Civil War, Diaspora and Lebanese-American Life

By: Ali Zamin Razak

This project presented me with several choices on what I wanted to explore in the complex world of the Modern Middle East. I had effectively narrowed it down to three choices Israel/Palestine Conflict, Life in Dubai and contemporary Lebanese history. Choosing the latter I have no regrets as I feel as though I had holes through my perception of Lebanon. Being the smallest fully recognized country in Asia its role in the Middle East it is often overlooked in the imminent importance of other countries. Its rich Phoenician/ Canaanite history made it the place of the origination of the modern alphabet. Furthermore, its history under the Roman Empire made Mount Lebanon one of the leading centers for the propagation of what was to be the worlds most followed religion: Christianity. Therefore, choosing this topic presented me with a great opportunity to explore Lebanon with a special focus on the impact of the Lebanese Civil War.

Nonetheless, I did not hesitate to contact my good friend Jawad Lamah, a freshman at the Rutgers School of Engineering. Jawad is a nice guy and I was fully confident in his ability to give me a full narrative of his experience as a Lebanese American. His father left Lebanon during the civil war of 1975-1990 for the United States and has been here ever since. Jawad and his family re visit Lebanon usually every year. My confidence in Jawad to give me an elaborate description of his experience prompted me to come prepared. I spent some time reading Lebanese history especially the events during the civil war.

My readings gave me a great insight into one of the deadliest conflicts in the latter half of the 20th century. Essentially, there have always been sectarian conflicts in Lebanon. From the 1860 Maronite-Druze civil war to the 1958 Lebanon crisis; Lebanon despite being a small country has had many conflicts. In essence,sectarian conflicts are often misunderstood. Do Christian factions fight with Muslim factions because of the blood thirst of simple religious differences? No, the force in these conflicts with is the lust for power. The national pact which put 6 Christians in the parliament for every 5 Muslims led to much polarization in aspects of Lebanese society. However, Ever since the imposition of the National Pact the proportions of Chrisitans to Muslims have tilted in the way of the Muslims.

Eisenhower prevents the escalation of the 1958 Lebanon Crisi

The 1958 Lebanon Crisis was the beginning of certain tensions between both Muslims factions of Lebanon and Christian one's. The 1956 Suez Crisis which pitted Western Nations(including Israel) against Egypt created more fuel to the stark contrast between the western world and the arab world. Such, after this crisis President Camille Chamoun actually sided with the western powers viewing it as a way to curb Arab nationalism. This caused mass uprisings triggered by the Al-Mourabitum, a Sunni faction along with the Lebanese Communist party. The reason why this did not trigger an expected civil war was because of the United States intervention masked as fighting communism. However, all this did was kick the can down the road.

Flash forward to September 1970 and it was "Black September" in Jordan. This conflict that would ensue for about 9 months would tilt the balance of power in Jordan. Would Jordan be ran by the PLO or the Hashemite Monarchy? The result would be the latter and would practically be a dump in of 400,000 Palestianians to Lebanon which a lot compared to the tiny population of Lebanon. Even now Lebanon hosts a large number of refugees from other countries namely Syria in the on going civil war. This would cause mass instability.

In 1975 life in Lebanon would ultimately change. With the imposition of the Lebanese Nationalist movement, a leftist pan Arabist movement, in the early 1970's Lebanon was very polarized. Influxed with more Palestinians, predominantly Sunni, it gave rise to the assumption of more Muslim power in the future of Lebanon. Skirmishes began in early 1975 with the LNM fighting against the Phalange also known as the Kateb party, the predominant political party in Lebanon at the time. The war truly began with the killing of four Phalange members which triggered Phalange's occupation of Beirut. Beirut is now split into West(predominantly muslim) and East(predominantly Christian). On the other hand, the Lebanese Armed forces which was very weak did not have much of a role in the sudden outset of the conflict. Thus, they had to rely on their ally Hafez- Al Assad in Syria to help them out in this sudden instability. The integratino of Syria into this conflict led multiple christian factionsn to united into the Lebanese Front. they fought against Syria in the "hundred days war" and later brokered a truce with them by means of expunging them out of Beirut.

Green Line Dividing West and East Beirut

Meanwhile, things get more complicated as the PLO and Israel are fighting border skirmishes in Southern Lebanon. After numerous incidents between both the Palestinians and Israel; Israel decides to invade in 1982.Despite numerous, UN resolutions telling Israel to respect Lebanese soveringty Israel, nonetheless begins to occupy Southern Lebanon. They then proceed to conduct a siege of Beiurt. Soon, Israel conducted one of the most controversial incidents in its history with its backing of Maronite Christians to kill 3,500 Muslims in a suburb of Beirut which is commonly known as the Shabra and Shatila Massacre. Meanwhile, a coalition of Western countries decides to intervene. However, these attempts were not well recieved as a 1983 terrorist attack in Beirut left hundreds of westerners dead. The terroirst attack is allegedly having had relations with Iran who had just undergone a revolution and in the midst of a brutal war with Iraq. In May 1983;however the May 17 treaty was siged which ended Israeli presence in Beirut.

Lebanon was a in a clear mess. Internal Factions fighting with eachother compounded with the continutation of an Israeli/ Palestinian conflict. The small nation was occupied by two countries with a handful of other western countries having a sphere of influence there as well. On top of that there was a syrian presecense. And then to put more gasoline on the fire in 1983 Iran decides to put some influence by organizing Hezbollah a shiite militia group in southern lebanon.

From 1984,however, there were major conflicts between the Syrians and the PLO along with other muslim factions such as Hezbollah.

However, fortuantely in 1989 the war ended with the Taif agrements. Which resulted in a 1:1 representation of chrisitnas and muslims in Lebanese government.The overall effects also included the PLO expulsion, an Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon with a Syrian occupation of most of Lebanon.

I am glad I was able to uncover a lot of the history surrounding Lebanon's civil war. I knew it was complex from the very beginning but it stunned me how insanely complex it really was. There were many spheres of influence. Now feeling prepared I decided to interview my friend Jawad.

Jawad began to describe the Lebanese Civil War as " a complete mess" and he goes on to describe how his Dad found it unbearable to live in Lebanon anymore let alone start a family. The war as described from his fathers perspective's almost came out of nowhere. I find this to be somewhat accurate mainly because the trigger for the war was caused by the expulsion of the PLO to Lebanon. In essence, the causes didn't come from nowhere but the beginning came out of nowhere. I agree with Jawad when he says that the civil war was unavoidable and its was due to come one day.

Throughout this project although I intended to uncover all aspects of Lebanese society I tended to focus mainly on the Lebanese Civil war prior to my interview with Jawad Lamah. I used the interview also to extract information on Jawad's experience with Lebanon. He describes it as being the "Switzerland and Paris of the Middle East and the only country where you can go skiing and go to the beach on the same day. All of this coupled with a great cuisine makes me want to visit especially the city of Beirut.

To view my full conversation with Jawad Lamah:

https://soundcloud.com/ali-zamin-razak/lebanon