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Syria & Lebanon -- writing about them is NOT easy
Re What’s coming to Tehran and That was easy
I ended my last piece with these questions -- ”As for Syria, IS Syria giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese? If so, what support and how did it come about?” In fact, answering them is NOT easy. If I understood The Canadian’s comment, it was related to how easy it is to cause a crisis in Lebanon. Unfortunately, there HAVE been a lot of crises there, and trying to make sense of them (and of all of the political parties) is quite hard. So here I won’t include much about the Palestinians or even that much about Syria. I’ve divided it into 3 parts -- ”Some basic facts about Syria and Lebanon,” “How the two countries became involved with each other,” and “Recent events in Lebanon.”
I’ve also developed ONE criteria for determining my own opinion of the Lebanese leaders, parties, and events there. It has all to do with what is called the “National Pact” (see below), set out when the country gained its independence. Given the country’s religiously mixed population (see below), it is of vital importance. Thus, to me, those who fail to follow it are betraying Lebanon -- rather like how those not acting according to the US Constitution are betraying the US.
Some basic facts about Syria and Lebanon:| |
• Syria is mainly Arabized Levantines (related to the Palestinians, Lebanese, and Jordanians) who are mostly Sunnis, and the country’s ruling party for some time has been the secular Baath Party (in Lebanon secularism hasn’t really caught on). Syria proclaimed independence in 1941, but this wasn’t recognized until 1944.
• Lebanon is an Arabic speaking country (as is Syria) with 58-59.7% Muslims (35% Shiites), 39-40% Christians, and 1.3% other. There are also about 400,000 Sunni Muslim Palestinian refugees there. Lebanon was part of an Ottoman Empire region known as Greater Syria for over 400 years, and when the French took it over, it was administered under the French Mandate of Syria until it gained independence in 1943.
• Related to the National Pact -- the president must be a Maronite Catholic Christian (elected by the parliament), the prime minister a Sunni, (appointed by the President), the speaker of the parliament a Shiite, and the deputy speaker of the parliament a Greek Orthodox. Importantly, the Maronites must not seek foreign intervention and must accept Lebanon as an “Arab” affiliated country, instead of a “Western” one, and the Muslims must not seek to unite with Syria. The pact also sets the ratio for seats in the parliament-it used to be 6:5 in favor of the Christians to Muslims, but in 1990 this was changed to 50:50. |
How the two countries become involved with each other:| |
• Both Syria and Lebanon aided the Palestinians early on. In May, 1948 Israel declared independence despite Arab rejection of the partition of Palestine plan. Just after that the Arab-Israeli War began along with the arrival of Palestinian refugees who went to both countries. Both countries have faced Israeli attacks at various times, usually disproportionate attacks, usually related to the Palestinians. Both have lost territory to Israel. The Golan Heights were part of Syria but have been occupied by Israel since 1967 (over 40 years). A “security zone” for Israeli control in Lebanon was occupied from 1978-2000 (22 years) and another territory called the Shebaa Farms is still held by Israel.
• As far as I can tell, Syria and Lebanon became closely involved due to the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). It was actually one of two main Maronite groups then that called for Syrian aid. Israel was also supporting the Maronites -- the other of the two. In 1976 the Arab League gave Syria a mandate to restore calm. The civil war ended for a while with the Christians, Palestinians, and Syrians controlling different parts. In 1978 Israel invaded (due to a Palestinian attack on 2 buses in Haifa) and held control of the southern part of Lebanon until they got their “security zone” instead. In 1981 Israel bombed buildings in Beirut -- the offices of Palestinians. After this, a cease-fire was maintained for a year.
• In 1982 Israel bombed buildings in Beirut again -- after the attempted assassination of an Israeli ambassador in London. This seems to have led to a Palestinian response seen as a violation of the cease-fire. Then, Israel invaded. This led to the deaths of 20,000 and the wounding of 30,000 people. From later in 1982-1984 there were multinational forces in Lebanon. During this period the Shiites started dividing and Hezbollah emerged (impressed by the Iranian revolution) -- it was just one of the many armed groups that backed up the political parties of the Christians, Sunnis, Shiites and others in Lebanon.
• The dividing of the Shiites occurred because some of them (Amal) remained a part of the Syrian coalition that was ousting (from Lebanon) some of the Sunni Palestinians (the ones that Syria felt threatened by) while others joined the Hezbollah, which was developing new ideas -- they were/are against imperialism, against those trying to control or occupy Lebanon (US/Israel), and against those trying to monopolize power (such as the Christians backed by Israel violating the National Pact in 1989) in Lebanon. They also had noted that it was the Christians (backed by Israel that violated the pact) who had been involved in the massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps.
• As the civil war ended, Iraq (due to the Iran-Iraq war) also backed the Christian group backed by Israel, while Syria backed a Sunni leader who became the prime minister. The US was said to have backed Syria in 1989 (in ousting the Israel/Iraq backed Christian group violating the National Pact) in exchange for support against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War (1990). This brought about the end to Christian dominance and more equality between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon.
• In 2001 Syria withdrew nearly all of its troops from Beirut, and in 2005 Syria withdrew the rest of its troops. Thus, Syria’s influence has been REDUCED. |
Recent events in Lebanon:| |
• Today Syria’s interest in Lebanon requires that it stay stable so that the many Syrians working there can continue to do so. The Syrian business community also relies on Lebanese banks. For the Lebanese, 35% of their exports go overland through Syria and an important amount to Syria. Both Syria and Lebanon’s biggest trading partner is the EU.
• The recent events began on May 6 with Prime Minister Siniora calling Hezbollah’s telecommunication network “illegal” and vowing to take legal action against it along with reassigning the head of airport security. On May 8, a general strike related to price increases and wages (and unrelated to the May 6 actions) called by the main labor union turned into violent demonstrations against the government. Then, clashes began to escalate (with protests against the May 6 & 8 actions, government “loyalists” attacking protestors, and the Hezbollah “opposition” defending them?). Things have now settled down due to the fact that Hezbollah turned over the areas it gained control of to the Lebanese Army as soon as they captured them, and the Lebanese Army is recommending the overturning of the measures taken against Hezbollah.
• This comprehensive “real world” vs. “Bush world” article discusses how things are being settled, and after explaining why, names the losers and winners -- the big winner is Hezbollah. The author uses the term “Welch Club” which I think means “unnamed senior US officials” except that he found the name of one of them -- David Welch. He’s also written about the various US “projects” in Lebanon intended to damage Hezbollah and finger Syria. Interestingly, the “real world” article indicates how far the “propaganda world” will go--especially when you compare it to this article. |
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Marie K.
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