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“The Land of the Cedars”, “The Switzerland of the Middle East”. These were the names under which the… Lebanon, a country that shone as a shining example of modernity in the obscurantist Arab universe between the end of World War II and the early 1970s. After the end of the French mandate in that country in 1943, the mix of religious beliefs became both a source of fragility and a positive model for other realities in the Middle East. In fact, Christians (Maronites), Sunni Muslims and a small minority of Shiites lived side by side in Lebanon.
The spark that exploded this fragile equilibrium and plunged a rich and modern state into an abyss of violence and misery, It was the mass exodus of Palestinians driven out of Jordan After the events of 1970. Taking advantage of the situation of refugees created by the first Arab-Israeli war, the soldiers of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) under the leadership of this Mr. Arafat began to create a group in Jordan that would host them of the order parallel to the official, act as masters in a country that is not theirs and plan a coup to overthrow King Husayn’s monarchy and take control of the country.
After a series of attempts to kill His Majesty, the Jordanians responded with cruelty to the guerrilla war in their country and dispersed the Palestinians, which would go down in history Jordan’s “Black September.”. These events were followed by mass expulsions of Palestinians pouring into Lebanon. Here, too, the script repeated itself even more tragically given the country’s internal fragmentation. The large number of refugee camps were gradually “infiltrated” and militarized by the usual PLO of the usual nobleman Arafat. Palestinian leaders understood that after the defeat of the Arab countries in the Six-Day War, it was not possible to defeat Israel in the military field. It was therefore necessary to transform conventional war into “resistance”. (read terrorism), a word that still comes to the mouths of the ignorant people who populate the obscene processions in western cities.
Guerrilla warfare and terrorism would henceforth replace traditional warfare. Lebanon therefore became a laboratory for experimentation with this hideous change. In fact, the country and especially the southern part were ideal as an attack base against Israel. Therefore, after infiltrating the refugee camps, the Palestinian soldiers started right back where they left off in Jordan. In 1975 they tried to kill the Lebanese Christian leader Pierre Gemayel while attending the consecration of a church with other people who died in the attack; It is the beginning of the civil war that will lead to a conflict between Christians, supported by Israel, and Sunni and Shiite Muslims, supported by Iran and allies of the Palestinians.
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The capital Beirutfrom a wonderful multicultural city, it becomes a pile of rubble partly controlled by Muslims and partly by Maronites. Islamic leaders intend to establish a state in Lebanon completely governed by Islam and its rules. The Palestinians, for their part, are trying to use it as a base of attack against the Jewish state. The war between Palestinians and Christian phalanxes is leading PLO troops to the south of the country, to the border with Israel. Here Another terrorist attack committed by Palestinians takes place: A bus carrying civilians is hijacked and the people inside are brutally killed. This episode will go down in history as the “Coastal Road Massacre.”
Israel therefore decides to invade southern Lebanon to prevent Palestinian militiamen from establishing a buffer zone. This time in 1982 it was a Palestinian who fell victim to an attack Bashir Gemayel, son of Pierre, who would become President of Lebanon before his death. This act triggers a new series of atrocities, culminating in the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which large numbers of Palestinian refugees were killed by militiamen from the Maronite Christian phalanxes (not the Israelis) in retaliation for the attack in which Gemayel was involved was, massacred, killed. During this time of terror and massacres, another terrorist group emerged that is making headlines today: Hezbollah.
Born in 1982 and of Shiite faith He immediately positioned himself as a new actor in the service of the most radical Islam. In fact, one of its cornerstones is jihad against Israel, which is viewed as something demonic that must be destroyed. In their programmatic statute we read: “Our first goal is the destruction of Israel and the Zionist entity.” They are our most hated enemy. Our fight will not end until we eliminate them. We will never negotiate, there will never be a ceasefire or a peace agreement.” Here too, just as in the case of the Palestinians, Hezbollah fighters are known for suicide attacks, kidnappings and human bombs, terrorist attack. And again, just like Hamas, this terrorist group has the destruction of Israel, its obliteration, as its main driving force.
The Land of the Cedars is no longer the same today. Beirut is the destroyed capital of a state that does not exist. Religious authority has replaced political authority. Hezbollah effectively controls all of the country’s vital centers. The population lives on one hour of electricity per day. Schools are closed for fear that children could be hit by stray bullets fired at leader Nasrallah’s speech. Lebanon was a model of cultural and religious heterogeneity. A modern country where diametrically opposed religious beliefs coexisted, albeit with inevitable tensions. It is now a failed state. A once prosperous strip of land plunged into the darkest Islamic Middle Ages.
The Palestinians, or in this case Hamas, always follow the same strategy: They use refugees as a tool to infiltrate their armed groups into the countries where they are located and then they try to take control of it. Perhaps that is why today Arab countries (led by Egypt, where there is already a big problem called the Muslim Brotherhood) are wary of not welcoming them. After Black September, Jordanians really don’t think about taking a similar risk again. The example of what happened to Lebanon after the Palestinian exodus is unfortunately well known. In this case, Arab countries turn out to be much more realistic than Western ones. Maybe we could at least learn something from them.
Francesco Teodori, November 6, 2023