Introduction
The eastern borders of Lebanon touch Syria. It is an Arabic country that is supposedly a strategic ally in opposition to the Zionist state which is situated in Israel that is in the south of Lebanon. The Israeli-Arab conflict started in the year 1948 with the occupation of Palestine using the Zionist movement. Approximately after 30 years, Lebanon was hit by numerous earthquakes which gave it a fragmented entity. In the year 1975, the apprehension had been increasing due to the destabilization of the Zionist region which had already begun in Lebanon (Batschelet 7). When thirty Palestinians who were carrying no weapons to defend themselves got killed on a bus in the Ain El Remaneh, this was done by allies of the Phalange party.
Discussion
The Lebanese civil war is the result of a conflict between one mentality that refuses to share Lebanon, willing to partition it if sharing was forced upon it, and another that claims its right to defend the Palestinian cause in its own country. The catalyst is foreign meddling.
In the early 1970s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization began to use their historical struggle for freedom against Israel as an excuse to interfere lightly in Lebanon’s internal affairs. In fact during the first half-decade tensions grew between the PLO and the Phalange party a right-wing Christian party that refused to share the country with the Palestinian, thus sacrificing Lebanon’s sovereignty and unity. A few years later, the increasing Palestinian intervention became a threat to Lebanon’s stability through their ever-growing military expansion. The opposition of the PLO by the Phalange party reached its pre-war peek with the event that triggered the conflict: the Ain El Remaneh Event.
Facing the Phalange Party, the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party and its mainly Moslem supporters were the basic building blocs of the Druze – Muslim left-wing coalition that supported the right of the Palestinians to wage an unsuccessful war against Israel using Lebanon as a starting point. The coalition leaders were well known for their strong beliefs in the “Arabic” vision of the Middle East, back then headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser President of Egypt. The core of that vision was the liberation of Palestine. As the demands of the right-wing Christian front to halt all Palestinian military actions on Lebanese soil grew, the support of the PLO by the Druze-Muslim left wing front grew as well. This divergence among the left and right-wing front pushed the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party and their allies to go to the mattresses alongside the PLO after the Ain El Remaneh massacre.
Some say that foreign meddling remains the most influential factor of all. The Lebanese civil war ignited during a violent period of the Cold War that opposed the strongest poles of that era: the USA and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The two giants struggled to rearrange the geopolitical map of the world in a way that suits their interests. The Middle East was a central conflict area of the Cold War.
America gave Israel unconditional support. Israel after the starting of the conflict helped in the training and supplying weapons to the Forces of Lebanon a global pact of key Christian parties to make a new right-wing front that was stronger than the old one. The Lebanese Forces joined hands with Israel to overpower a common rival which was the PLO in Lebanon.
The USSR gave support to Arab countries which led the offensive in opposition to Israel these countries included Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. Egypt was considered to be a powerful supporter of the front which is located on the left wing in the area (Biddle 23). Several countries like America and Israel exceeded them by heavy economic as well as technological support, by using direct military movements in Lebanon.
Conclusion
The Lebanese civil war lasted fifteen years and ended ironically in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, an event marking the end of the Cold War. Tracing the history of the Lebanese civil conflict was revealed to be extremely difficult since political parties and international support shifted with the protection of personal interests. It is common for people to conclude that the Lebanese people paid 15 long years of war and suffering for what seems to be very similar to an international chess game; to a higher level of abstraction a chess game between the Kremlin and the White House.
Work Cited
Batschelet, Allen W. Effects-based Operations: A New Operational Model?. US Army War College: Carlisle 2002.
Biddle, Stephen.Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Princeton: UP. 2004.