To fully understand and grasp the significance of Lebanon in the conflict in the Middle East, we have broken down this article into several sections.
- France takes over Lebanon
- The 1967 June war
- Why Israel desires southern Lebanon
- The Israeli-Lebanese conflict
- The Lebanese civil war
- Birth of Hezbollah
- 1990-2006
- The Eviction of Israel
- Hariri assassination & the Cedar revolution
- Birth Pangs of a new Middle East
- The Collapse of Lebanon’s economy
- Immigration Blackmail
- Western Intel Agencies target Lebanon
- US embassy in Beirut
- British watchtowers on Lebanon’s borders
- Bibi’s Washington trip, the 3 assassinations & BRICS
1. France takes over Lebanon
When many Jews began to flee Russia due to the May Laws of 1882, Edmond Rothschild decided it was time for the family to relocate many of these to Palestine. And that’s how Zionism began. From this point on, the family began to weaken the Ottoman Empire, which owned the land. During the course of World War 1, the Rothschilds accelerated their plans for the takeover of the region. The family provided a diplomat from each country – Mark Sykes for Britain and George Picot for France. The two diplomats divided the map of one of the most volatile regions in the world, as per their master’s instructions. Later dubbed the Sykes-Picot treaty, the secret agreement was signed by Paris and London on May 16, 1916, to become the basis on which the Levant region was shaped for decades to come. This treaty was followed by the Balfour Declaration, the occupation of Palestine, the Mandate and eventually the establishment of Israel. The family divided the Levant between themselves. London got Palestine and Jordan, while France got Syria and Lebanon.
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the end of World War 1, the League of Nations (created by the Rothschilds) mandated the five provinces that make up present-day Lebanon to France; the final disposition was ratified by the League in 1921 and put into effect in 1922. The territories of what would become the states of Israel and Lebanon were once part of the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1299 until its defeat in and subsequent dissolution in 1922. As a result of the Sinai and Palestine campaign in 1917, the British occupied Palestine and parts of what would become Syria. French troops took Damascus in 1918. The League of Nations officially gave the French the Mandate of Syria and the British the Mandate for Palestine after the 1920 San Remo Conference in accordance with the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.
The largely Christian enclave of the French Mandate became the mandate for Syria and Lebanon in 1926. Lebanon became independent in 1943 as France was under German occupation, though French troops did not completely withdraw until 1946. In 1948, the Lebanese army had by far the smallest regional army, consisting of only 3,500 soldiers.
The League soon entered the conflict on the side of the Palestinian Arabs, thus beginning the international phase of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. They expected an easy and quick victory in what came to be called the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Lebanese army joined the other Arab armies in the invasion. It crossed into the northern Galilee. By the end of the conflict, however, it had been repulsed by Israeli forces, which occupied south Lebanon. Israel signed agreements with each of its invading neighbors. The armistice with Lebanon was signed on 23 March 1949. As part of the agreement with Lebanon, Israeli forces withdrew to the international border.
By 1949, there were 110,000 Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon, and had moved into camps established by and administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency For Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, which became UNRWA. . With the exception of two camps in the Beirut area, the camps were mostly Muslim. Lebanese Christians feared that the Muslim influx would affect their political dominance and their demographics of Lebanon Accordingly; they imposed restrictions on the status of the Palestinian refugees. The refugees could not work, travel, or engage in political activities. Initially the refugees were too impoverished to develop a leadership capable of representing their concerns. Less democratic regimes also feared the threat the refugees posed to their own rule, but Lebanon would prove too weak to maintain a crackdown.
The (PLO) recruited militants in Lebanon from among the families of Palestinian refugees who had left Israel in 1948.
During the 1960s, Lebanon enjoyed a period of relative calm, with Beirut-focused tourism and banking sector-driven prosperity. Lebanon reached the peak of its economic success in the mid–1960s—the country was seen as a bastion of economic strength by the oil-rich Arab states, whose funds made Lebanon one of the world’s fastest growing economies. This period of economic stability and prosperity was brought to an abrupt halt with the collapse of ‘ the country’s largest bank and financial backbone, in 1966. This was a bit of financial warfare conducted by David Rockefeller and his Chase Manhattan Bank.
Lebanon’s history since independence has been marked by alternating periods of political stability and turmoil interspersed with prosperity built on Beirut’s position as a freely trading regional center for finance and trade. Beirut became a prime location for institutions of international commerce and finance, as well as wealthy tourists, and enjoyed a reputation as the “Paris of the Middle East” until the outbreak of the civil war from 1975 to 1990.
2. The 1967 June War
Lebanon rejected calls by other Arab governments to participate in the 1967. Militarily weak in the south, Lebanon could not afford conflict with Israel. Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in this war. Many Palestinians became dispossessed, and became both external and internal refugees. Nevertheless, the loss of additional territory radicalized the Palestinians languishing in refugee camps hoping to return home. The additional influx of refugees turned Palestinian camps throughout the Middle East into centers of resistance activity. Many moved to Lebanon, boosting the Palestinian population in Lebanon.
3. Why Israel Desires Southern Lebanon
Israel needs to have full security for its northern settlements. The best way to do that is to have a 20 – 40 km zone in southern Lebanon that is free of any anti-Israel resistance groups such as Hezbollah posing any threat to Israel.
The second, and key, reason is water. Israel is short of water. Besides stealing water from Syria and Jordan, Israel needs the water from the Litani River. Remember, Israel’s goal is to expand Israel such that its borders are the Euphrates River in the East to the Nile in the West. Then there is the north- and that’s where the Litani river is located, some 40 kms from the border.
The third reason is the large Palestinian population within Lebanon. Israel seeks their elimination.
So, for these reasons, Israel needs to keep Lebanon in a state of weakness, so that it does not pose a threat to the Zionist state. Then, we have the financial institutions of the two families (the IMF and the World Bank) that are making sure that Lebanon is not able to stand on its own feet. To maintain this state of affairs in Lebanon, the Rothschilds have the Christian Maronite group within Lebanon, who are then aided by the intelligence agencies of Britain, France and Israel (the Rothschild Trinity), plus the CIA.
Why the Obsession with the Litani River?
The Litani River is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile region west of Baalbek and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding 140 km in length, the Litani is the longest river in Lebanon and provides an average annual flow estimated at 920 million cubic meters. The waters of the Litani both originate and flow entirely within the borders of Lebanon. It provides a major source for agriculture and hydroelectricity and both within southern Lebanon and the country as a whole.
WHEN CHAIM WEIZMANN and David Ben-Gurion attended the 1919 Paris Peace Conference ending World War I, they presented a map containing the boundaries of their hoped-for Jewish state. The map included what is now Lebanon’s Litani River (see map).
Weizmann went on to become Israel’s first president, and Ben-Gurion its first prime minister, when that country was established in 1948. While the two had achieved great success in international geopolitics, they had failed to garner the Litani for Israel. The reason for their failure was the secret Sykes-Picot Treaty of 1915, under which Britain and France already had fixed the border between Lebanon and Palestine. At France’s insistence, Sykes-Picot was upheld at the Paris conference, and the Litani went to Lebanon.
Israel dubbed its March 14, 1978 invasion of southern Lebanon “Operation Litani,” with the stated objective of clearing out Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) bases south of the Litani River in order to secure northern Israel. Its 1982 invasion of Lebanon had the added goal of gaining access to the waters of the Litani. Yet it never fully withdrew from southern Lebanon until 2000, under pressure from Hezbollah—and 22 years after being ordered to do so by U.N. Security Council Resolution 425.
Even after it withdrew, however, Israel remained determined to eventually seize the Litani River waters—as attested to by the Jewish state’s latest attempt to ethnically cleanse the land between the Litani and Israel’s northern border.
We know from Zionist papers and statements, the plan for a “Greater Israel “ encompasses an area that stretches from the waters of the East ( Euphrates) to the waters of the West (Nile), but what they don’t mention is that this plan also encompasses southern Lebanon, mainly the Litani river. So, this is the boundaries of Greater Israel. In the south, the boundary extends to the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. Now, we can better understand the obsession that the Zionists have for southern Lebanon.
4. The Israeli-Lebanese Conflict 1968-2006
Rise of the PLO (1968–1975)
The PLO, from its inception in 1964 by began executing numerous resistance attacks on Israeli civilians in attempt to fulfill its mission charter’s vow to pursue in “the path of holy war” until the establishment of a Palestinian state in place of the State of Israel. The series of attacks drove the (IOF) to strike in return, instigating the long and still unresolved struggle between the PLO and the IOF.
Additional Palestinian refugees arrived after the 1967 war. Following their defeat thousands of Palestinian militiamen regrouped in Lebanon, with the intention of replicating the modus operandi of attacking Israel from a politically and militarily weak neighbor. Starting in 1968, Palestinian militants of various affiliations began to use southern Lebanon as a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
David Rockefeller, Yusuf Beidas & Intra Bank
The importance of flight capital as a potential source of deposits became increasingly evident to the big money banks in New York in the 1960s. Flight capital, like criminal money, was often different in practical terms than it appeared to be. If its origins were dubious, the need for secrecy might well make it behave less like a “deposit “, and more like the long-term capital resources of the bank. But American banks were beginning to wake up to the potential as well.
Citibank had already created a “private international banking “division to help pull the money of wealthy foreigners into the US. Remember, Citibank is the bank of the CIA. As such, it held vast amounts of gold bullion and cash emanating from the gold seized by the US at the end of World War 2- from the Germans, the Japanese, along with Yamashita’s gold. Its major competitors were also eying the hot money hoard.
Early in 1966, a draft memo on the potential of getting into this was circulating amongst the economists at Chase. Among the havens of flight capital that the Chase economists noted was Beirut.
After the creation of Israel in 1948, Beirut replaced Haifa as the commercial hub of the Middle East. After the Suez crisis of 1956, it superseded Cairo as Europe’s business beachhead in the area. Lebanon’s geographical location, absence of exchange controls and tight bank secrecy laws made Beirut well situated as a regional hot money refuge and flight capital center. It was soon hosting petrodollars as the elites in the Arab world built up reserve funds for emergencies, while the Lebanese banks would recycle the hot money into local real estate and the US stock markets.
The doyen of Lebanese banks, holding 20 % of the total deposits, was Intra Bank. It was created in 1951 by Palestinian refugee Yusuf Beidas, and by 1966 the assets of the bank’s parent holding company included control of the Port Authority of Beirut, Middle East Airline, the Casino du Liban (the world’s largest), the country’s major radio stations, hotels, movie studios, cement plants and choice real estate in Manhattan and Paris. More than any other factor, Intra Bank had made Beirut the region’s financial center.
But Beidas’s creation was politically very vulnerable. The Lebanese financial establishment resented the control of a large part of the country’s infrastructure by a Palestinian interloper. Furthermore, Beidas was funding the rise of Fatah, soon to be the principal arm of the PLO. Although Fatah was founded by and controlled by men of conservative views, it’s supposed radicalism alarmed the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
In October 1966, the bank was short on cash. There had been losses on commodities and US stock markets. It had money tied up in real estate, and a jump in Eurodollar interest rates diverted hot money from Beirut. At that time, King Faisal had taken over as king, and under advice from Chase Manhattan, Saudi pulled its money out of Intra Bank. This created a run on the bank, forcing the government to declare a 3 day bank holiday. The Lebanese central bank and government sensed an opportunity to strip Beidas of choice assets, refused aid. Chase and other Rockefeller banks in retaliation then froze Intra’s deposits in New York, declaring the deposits would be held hostage until Intra repaid loans from Chase. Beirut’s major foreign banks, including Chase, benefitted from the money fleeing Intra bank and other Lebanese banks. What this did was to kill off any hope of the financial benefits that would greatly benefit the Palestinians and their cause. It also crippled local banks in favor of foreign banks. It greatly reduced the potential for economic development of Lebanon. And, this made Lebanon vulnerable to foreign powers.
In July 1968, a Palestinian group killed an Israeli. At the same time, an Israeli airline was attacked at Athens airport. Two days later, in retaliation, Israel conducted a raid on the Beirut airport, destroying 13 civilian aircraft belonging to Middle East Airlines- an Intra Bank company. Israel defended its actions by informing the Lebanese government that it was responsible for encouraging the PFLP. The retaliation, which was intended to encourage a Lebanese government crackdown on Palestinian militants, instead polarized Lebanese society on the Palestinian question, deepening the divide between pro- and anti-Palestinian factions, with the Muslims leading the former grouping and Maronites primarily constituting the latter. This dispute reflected increasing tensions between Christian and Muslim communities over the distribution of political power, and would ultimately foment the outbreak of civil war in 1975.
Egyptian leader Nasser helped to negotiate the 1969 deal between Arafat and the Lebanese government, which granted the PLO autonomy over Palestinian refugee camps and access routes to northern Israel in return for PLO recognition of Lebanese sovereignty. The agreement incited Maronite frustration over what were perceived as excessive concessions to the Palestinians, and pro-Maronite paramilitary groups were subsequently formed to fill the vacuum left by government forces, which were now required to leave the Palestinians alone.
From 1968 onwards, the (PLO) began conducting raids from Lebanon into Israel, and Israel began making retaliatory raids against Lebanese villages to encourage the Lebanese people to themselves deal with the PLO. The unarmed citizenry could not expel the armed foreigners, while the Lebanese army was too weak militarily and politically. The Palestinian camps came under Palestinian control after a series of clashes in 1968 and 1969 between the Lebanese military and the emerging Palestinian guerrilla forces.
In 1969 the Cairo Agreement guaranteed refugees the right to work, to form self-governing committees, and to engage in armed struggle. “The Palestinian resistance movement assumed daily management of the refugee camps, providing security as well as a wide variety of health, educational, and social services.”
In 1970, the PLO attempted to overthrow a reigning monarch, King Hussein in Jordan and following his quashing of the rebellion in what Arab historians call “The Black September “ incident, the PLO leadership and their troops fled from Jordan to Syria and finally Lebanon, where cross-border violence increased. With headquarters now in Beirut, PLO factions recruited new members from the Palestinian refugee camps. South Lebanon was nicknamed “Fatahland” due to the predominance there of Arafat’s organization- Fatah. With its own army operating freely in Lebanon, the PLO had created a state within a state. By 1975, more than 300,000 Palestinian lived in Lebanon.
In reaction to the 1972 Munich attack on the Israeli Olympics team, Israel carried out a raid in Beirut. Members of Sayaret Maktal landed by boat in Lebanon on 9 April 1973 and with the aid of Mossad agents, infiltrated the PLO headquarters in Beirut and assassinated several members of its leadership.
Shortly after the end of the 1973 October War, the PLO altered its focus to include political elements, necessary for a dialogue with Israel. Those who insisted on a military solution left to form the “Rejectionist Front “. For its part, the PLO used its new privileges to establish an effective “mini-state” in southern Lebanon, and to ramp up its attacks on settlements in northern Israel. Compounding matters, Lebanon received an influx of armed Palestinian militants, including Arafat and his movement, fleeing the 1970 Jordanian crackdown. The PLO’s attacks in Israel dating from this period were countered by Israeli bombing raids in southern Lebanon, where “150 or more towns and villages…have been repeatedly savaged by the Israeli armed forces since 1968,” Where Lebanon had no conflict with Israel during the period 1949–1968, after 1968 Lebanon’s southern border began to experience an escalating cycle of attack and retaliation, leading to the chaos of the civil war, foreign invasions and international intervention. The consequences of the PLO’s arrival in Lebanon continue to this day.
In 1974, Amal, a Shi’ite political party and former militia was founded and its goals were geared towards improving the social and political conditions of Lebanon’s poor population. Although its primary focus was on the Shi’ite community, the movement operated as a secular entity and enjoyed the support of other communities.
5. The Lebanese Civil War: 1975–1990
Kissinger was the architect of the Lebanese civil war. After the end of the 1973 October War, Kissinger planned a peace deal between Egypt and Israel. This would help Israel neutralize the biggest threat to itself, while it would go on to finish off the weaker Arab states that surround it. But King Faisal wanted to include Syria in this as well, for he knew of Kissinger’s plan. Kissinger did not want to include Syria in this peace deal, so Kissinger laid a trap for Syria. Kissinger intensely disliked Assad.
In early 1975, Kissinger gave instructions to the CIA- Athens station – to cause problems between the PLO and the Maronites. The ensuing provocations by the CIA-directed Maronites Christians, eventually led to retaliation by the PLO- which soon spiraled into a full-blown civil war. This was meant to create a major distraction for Syria. The danger for Syria was that Israel could be tempted to invade Lebanon.
Until that moment in early 1976, the received wisdom in both Washington and Israel was to scare Assad into keeping out of Lebanon as the Christians and the PLO battled it out. This was the instinct of both Israel and Kissinger. But, Kissinger being Kissinger with his Machiavellian mind was to turn the received wisdom on its head. Surely the right policy was not to scare Assad off the scene, but rather to scare him onto it? Instead of saying to him, “if you go in, so will Israel “, the shrewder message was, “If you DON’T go in, Israel certainly will”.
The benefits for the US and Israel would be great: the PLO would be humbled, Moscow thwarted and Assad himself tarnished by a deed heinous in Arab eyes. In 1976, Assad felt compelled to intervene militarily in the civil war. He was filled with horror at the prospect of a radical, adventurist Lebanon on his flank, provoking Israel and alarming the West by giving free reign to the PLO. Assad sent his army into Lebanon on the 1st of June, 1976, to teach the Palestinians a lesson. Syria intervened in the civil war to support the Maronite dominated government, and by October had 40,000 troops stationed within Lebanon. We know what happened from then on.
The Lebanese civil war was a complex conflict in the form of various factions and shifting alliances between and among the Maronites who are Catholics, Lebanese Muslims, Palestinian Muslims, Lebanese Druze, Lebanese Shias and other non-sectarian groups. Governmental power had been allotted among the different religious groups by the National Pact, based partially on the results of the 1932 demographic census of 1932, and increased feelings of deprivation by certain ethnic groups, as well as Israeli–Palestinian clashes in the south of the county all contributed to the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Adding to this was the central government was weak, and it had to contend with various other power blocs within Lebanon, as well as foreign intervention by the Rothschild Trinity (London, Paris and Israel) and the US (Rockefeller Empire). As a result, it could not enforce its will on the country as a sovereign independent state. In short, Lebanese politics was extremely fractured. This created gaps to be exploited by the above two parties, including regional players such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria. In all, it is estimated that more than 100,000 were killed, and another 100,000 handicapped by injuries, during Lebanon’s 16-year war. Up to one-fifth of the pre-war resident population, or about 900,000 people, were displaced from their homes, of who perhaps a quarter of a million emigrated permanently. Thousands of people lost limbs during many stages of planting of land-mines. The civil war involved Israel, Syria, the PLO, Syria, the Maronites, Shias, Druze as well as various other militias acting from within Lebanon. The conflict peaked in the 1980s, and has abated since.
Israeli support to Lebanese Forces
Beginning in May 1976, Israel supplied the Maronite militias, including the Lebanese Army with arms, tanks, and military advisers.
On 11 March 1978, eleven PLO militants made a beach landing 30 km. south of where they seized a bus, full of people, killing those on board in what is known as the Coastal Road Massacre. By the end of the incident, nine hijackers and 38 Israeli civilians were dead. In response, 4 days later, Israel launched Operation Litani, occupying southern Lebanon, except for the city of Tyre with 25,000 troops. The objective was to push the PLO away from the border and bolster a Lebanese Christian militia allied with Israel, the South Lebanese Army (SLA).
However, the PLO concluded from the name of the operation that the invasion would halt at the Litani River and moved their forces north, leaving behind a token force of a few hundred men.
As a result, the casualties were almost all civilians.
On 19 March 1978, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 425, which called for Israel’s immediate withdrawal and the establishment of a UN Force in Lebanon. When Israel forces withdrew later in 1978, they turned over its positions in Lebanon to the South Lebanon Army which would continue fighting as a proxy for Israel against the PLO until Israel drove the PLO out of Lebanon in 1982.
On 22 April 1979, Samir Kunta and three other members of the PFLP-GC, a sometimes faction of the PLO, landed in Nahariya Israel from Lebanon by boat. After killing a police officer who had discovered their presence, they took a father and his daughter hostage in an apartment building. After fleeing with the hostages from police back to the beach, a shootout killed one policeman and two of the militants. Kuntar then executed the hostages before he and the remaining invader were captured.
In April 1981, the United States brokered a cease-fire in southern Lebanon among Israel, Syria and the PLO.
1982 – Israel invades Lebanon
Israeli troops in the Lebanese port city of August 1982. Sharon was the general leading the IOF at this time. His mandate from the French Rothschilds was to take over/pacify the Wet Bank. But, in order to do that, Sharon had to neutralize the support that the Palestinians in the West Bank used to get from its people in Beirut. So, to gain uncontested control over the West Bank, Sharon had to eliminate its support from Beirut. This was the real reason for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Another very important lesson is an overlooked point. Look at it from the perspective of the Zionist state. In Israeli minds, Syria is identified as an adversary quite different from either Egypt or Jordan, a view summarized by the IOF: “On the Jordanian border we have civilian settlements but no enemy. On the Egyptian border we have an enemy but no settlements. On the Syrian border we have both. If the Syrians get to our settlements it will be calamitous.” This was said in 1974.
Fast forward to today. Do remember that the Iranian revolution in 1978 brought about the downfall of the Shah of Iran, and the clergy took over. Following the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel, Iran began assisting the Lebanese Shia groups battle Israel. They were successful in driving the Israelis out of Lebanon in 2000.
Now, the above quote can now include Lebanon and Hezbollah. As we see, Hezbollah had driven out of the north roughly 200,000 settlers and thieves, plus has demolished the IOF infrastructure in the north.
The war began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded again for the purpose of attacking the PLO. The Israeli army laid siege to Beirut, and destroyed large parts of the Muslim-dominated areas. . During the conflict, according to Lebanese sources, between 15,000 and 20,000 people were killed, mostly civilians.
Fighting also occurred between Israel and Syria. The United States, fearing a widening conflict and the prestige the siege was giving PLO leader got all sides to agree to a cease-fire and terms for the PLO’s withdrawal on 12 August. The Multinational Force arrived to keep the peace and ensure PLO withdrawal. The PLO leadership retreated from Beirut on 30 August 1982 and moved to Tunisia.
1983 Israeli-Lebanese accords and their collapse
In 1983, the United States brokered the peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon in all but name. The agreement called for a staged Israeli withdrawal over the next eight to twelve weeks and the establishment of a “security zone” to be patrolled by the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon, but was conditional on Syrian withdrawal as well. In August 1983, as Israel withdrew from the areas southeast of Beirut to the Awali River. Lebanese factions clashed for control of the freed territory. The National Assembly of Lebanon narrowly chose Bashir Gemayel as President – elect, but was assassinated (most likely by Syria) on 14 September 1982, Israel reoccupied West Beirut. In parallel, Maronite militia – the Kataib Party carried out the Sabra and Shatilla massacres under Israeli supervision.
In February 1984, the Lebanese Army collapsed, with many units forming their own militias. In early 1984, the Maronites were defeated by the Shia groups. The National Assembly of Lebanon, under pressure from Syria and Muslim militias, cancelled the 17 May Agreement on 5 March 1984.
On 15 January 1985, Israel adopted a phased withdrawal plan, finally retreating to the Litani river to form the 4–12 kilometers deep Israeli “occupation zone “ while using the native SLA militia to help control it.
6. Birth of Hezbollah
On 16 February 1985, Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin declared a manifesto in Lebanon, announcing a resistance movement called Hezbollah, whose goals included combating the Israeli occupation. During the south Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia waged a guerrilla campaign against Israeli forces occupying Southern Lebanon and their proxies. Throughout the period of 1985–92, there were very few limited exchanges between Israeli and Hezbollah or Amal forces in southern Lebanon, and with the exception of 1988, during which twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed, the number of Israeli fatalities per year over this period was in the single-digit figure .Hezbollah won. The result was the expulsion of the Christians from the Southern Mount Lebanon. Israel withdrew southward and would remain only in the “security zone” until the year 2000.
When the Lebanese civil war ended and other warring factions agreed to disarm, Hezbollah and the SLA refused. Combat with Hezbollah weakened Israeli resolve and led to a collapse of the SLA and an Israeli withdrawal in 2000 to their side of the blue line.
The end of 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the war, and was ratified on November 4.
In May 1991, the militias with the exception of Hezbollah were dissolved. The Lebanese Army began to slowly rebuild themselves as Lebanon’s only major non-sectarian institution.
By early November 1992, a new parliament had been elected, and newly-elected Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri had formed a cabinet, retaining for himself the finance portfolio. The formation of a government headed by a successful billionaire businessman was widely seen as a sign that Lebanon would make a priority of rebuilding the country and reviving the economy. A private real estate company set up to rebuild downtown Beirut, was a symbol of Hariri’s strategy to link economic recovery to private sector investment.
The Israeli forces finally withdrew from south of Lebanon in May 2000, though the Syrian occupation of most Lebanon still continued. A 50-square-kilometre piece of mountain terrain remains under the control of Israel. The UN has certified Israel’s pullout, and regards the Shebaa Farms as occupied Syrian territory, while Lebanon and Syria have stated they regard the area as Lebanese territory.
Citing Israeli control of territory, Hezbollah continued cross-border attacks intermittently over the next six years. Hezbollah now sought the release of Lebanese citizens in Israeli jails, and successfully used the tactic of capturing Israeli soldiers as leverage for a prisoner exchange in 2004.
7. 1990 – 2006
From 1985 through 2000, Israel continued to fund the South Lebanon Army. In 1992, Hezbollah won ten out of 128 seats in the Lebanese Parliament.
On 25 July 1993, Israel launched Operation Accountability, known in Lebanon as the Seven-Day War. The given reason was to retaliate for the death of IDF soldiers in “security zone “, which Israel had created in 1985 in southern Lebanon to protect its northern borders from both Hezbollah and the (PFLP-GC). On 10 July Hezbollah undertook an operation in which 5 Israeli soldiers were killed; a further attack on 19 July caused several further casualties to the IDF, and on the 23rd, another Israeli soldier was killed. Cross-border raids were frequent from both sides, and Operation Accountability arose from the escalation in hostilities.
Thousands of buildings were bombed, resulting in 120 dead and 500,000 displaced civilians. Israeli forces also destroyed infrastructure such as power stations and bridges. According to Michael Brecher, the aim of Operation Accountability was to precipitate a large flight of Lebanese refugees from the south towards Beirut and thereby put the Lebanese government under pressure to rein in Hezbollah.
Hezbollah retaliated with rocket attacks on Israeli villages, though inflicting significantly fewer casualties. After Lebanon complained to the UN, the Security Council ordered Israel to withdraw its occupying forces from Lebanese territory. A truce agreement brokered by the US secured an Israeli undertaking to stop attacks north of its security zone in Lebanon, and a Hezbollah agreement to desist from firing rockets into Israel.
Grapes of Wrath & the Qana Massacre
In April 1996, the cease fire that had ended the July 1993 fighting between Israel and Hezbollah broke down. During the five weeks of fighting between March 4 and April 10, seven Israeli soldiers, three Lebanese civilians and at least one Hezbollah fighter were killed. The tally of injured was sixteen Israeli soldiers, seven Lebanese civilians, and six Israeli civilians. On April 11, after initial strikes against Hezbollah positions, the Israeli government, through (SLA) radio stations, warned residents in forty-four towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate within twenty-four hours.
Within forty-eight hours, Israel launched Operation Grapes of Wrath. On April 11, the IDF bombarded southern Lebanon and Beirut, first with artillery and later laser-guided missiles. On April 13, Israeli warships initiated a blockade against Beirut, and Lebanon’s main ports of entry.
8. The Eviction of Israel
In January 2000, Hezbollah assassinated the man responsible for day to day SLA operations, Colonel Akel Hashem. The Israeli Air Force, in apparent response, on 7 February struck Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure, including power stations at Baalbek, Deir Nbouh and Jambour. Eighteen people were reported to have been injured. Following its declaration of intent to implement UN Security Council Resolution 425, on 1 April 1998, and after the collapse of the South Lebanon Army in the face of a Hezbollah onslaught, Israel declared on 24 May 2000 that they would withdraw to their side of the UN designated border, the “Blue Line “, 22 years after the resolution had been approved. The South Lebanon Army’s equipment and positions largely fell into the hands of Hezbollah. Lebanon celebrates 25 May, as a national holiday.
In September 2000, Hezbollah forged an electoral coalition with the Amal movement. The ticket swept all 23 parliamentary seats allotted for south Lebanon in that region’s first election since 1972.
On 7 October 2000, three Israeli soldiers were abducted by Hezbollah across the Blue Line. The soldiers were killed either during the attack or in its immediate aftermath. After Hezbollah killed an Israeli soldier in an attack on an armored bulldozer that had crossed the border to clear bombs on 20 January 2004, Israel bombed two of the group’s bases.
On 29 January 2004, in a German-mediated prisoner swap, one time Amal security head Mustafa Dirani, who had been captured by Israeli commandos in 1994, and 22 other Lebanese detainees, about 400 Palestinians, and 12 Israeli-Arabs were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for Israeli businessman who had been captured by Hezbollah in October 2000. The remains of 59 Lebanese militants and civilians and the bodies of the three Israeli soldiers captured on 7 October 2000 were also part of the exchange. Hezbollah requested that maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon be included in the deal.
In May 2004, Hezbollah militiamen killed an Israeli soldier along the border within the Israeli held Shebaa Farms.
Between July and August 2004, there was a period of more intense border conflict. Hezbollah said the clash began when Israeli forces shelled its positions, while Israel said that Hezbollah had started the fighting with a sniper attack on a border outpost. Meanwhile, Hezbollah continuously bombarded northern Israel with katyusha rockets. The IDF continued to bomb Lebanon’s infrastructure.
On 11 April 1996, Israel initiated Grapes of Wrath, known in Lebanon as the April War, which repeated the pattern of Operation Accountability, which was triggered by Hezbollah Katyusha rockets fired into Israel in response to the killing of two Lebanese by an IDF missile, and the killing of Lebanese boy by a road-side bomb. Israel conducted massive air raids and extensive shelling in southern Lebanon. 106 Lebanese civilians were killed, when a UN compound was hit in an Israeli shelling. The conflict ended on 26 April 1996 with the Israeli-Lebanese Cease fire undertaking in which both Hezbollah and Israel agreed to, respect the “rules of the game” and forgo attacks on civilians.
The Qana massacre took place on April 18, 1996, near Qana, a village in southern Lebanon, when the Israelis fired artillery shells at a UN compound. The artillery barrage had been launched to cover an Israeli special forces unit after it had come under mortar fire launched from the vicinity of the All told, from summer 2000, after the Israeli withdrawal, until summer 2006, Hezbollah conducted approximately 200 attacks on Israel—most of them artillery fire, some raids and some via proxies inside Israel. In these attacks, including the attack that precipitated the Israeli response that developed into the war, 31 Israelis were killed and 104 were wounded.
On 2 September 2004, UN Security Council Resolution 1552 was approved by the United Nations Security council, calling for the disbanding of all Lebanese militia. An armed Hezbollah was seen by the Israeli government as a contravention of the resolution. The Lebanese government differed from this interpretation.
On October 20, 2004, Prime Minister resigned; the next day former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a loyal supporter of Syria was appointed Prime Minister.
After the conflict, he acted as an envoy of the Saudis to Lebanon. He laid the groundwork that led to the 1989 Taif Accord which Saudi Arabia organized to bring the warring factions together. Taif put an end to the Lebanese civil war, building goodwill for Hariri politically. While acting as the Saudi envoy to Lebanon, he spent more time in Damascus than in Beirut where he ingratiated himself with the Assad regime. He had a new presidential palace built in Damascus as a gift to the Syrian leader but Assad didn’t use it personally.
9. Hariri Assassinated & the Cedar Revolution
After the US invaded Iraq in March 2003, it found out that the Iraqi resistance was killing 1000s of US soldiers. US intelligence found that there was a large arms-supply pipeline into Iraq from Syria and Lebanon. It had to stop this. Plus, there was an urgent need to evict Syrian troops from Lebanon. It was time to accelerate the plan for the takedown of Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Sudan, Libya, etc., in order to give birth to the “greater Middle East “ map, a new re-drawing of the regions borders.
Rafik Hariri was the PM of Lebanon. He served the Lebanese government at various times. Close to the Saudi royal family and to Bashir Assad in Syria, he became wealthy in the construction business. He rebuilt Beirut up from the ashes of the civil war.
On 14 February 2005, Hariri was killed when explosives equivalent to around 1,800 kg of TNT concealed inside a parked van were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut; 23 people, including Hariri himself, were killed. Among the dead were several of Hariri’s bodyguards and his friend and former Minister of the Economy.
This was done by either the Mossad or the CIA, as a means to accelerate the eviction of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Then the CIA organized a color revolution, nicknamed the “Cedar Revolution”, wherein the people were incited to protest against the presence of Syrian troops in the country.
The Cedar Revolution was a chain of demonstrations, especially in the capital Beirut, triggered by the assassination of former Hariri. On February 21, 2005, tens of thousands Lebanese protestors held a rally at the site of the assassination calling for the withdrawal of Syria’s peacekeeping forces and blaming Syria and the pro-Syrian president Lahoud for the murder.
Hariri’s murder triggered increased international pressure on Syria.
The primary goals of the activists were the withdrawal of the Syrian armed forces in Lebanon since 1976, the replacement of a government heavily influenced by Syrian interests by more independent leadership, the establishment of an international commission to investigate the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri, the resignation of security officials to ensure the success of the plan, and the organization of free parliamentary elections. More generally, the demonstrators demanded the end of the Syrian influence in Lebanese politics.
At the start of the demonstrations, Syria had a force of roughly 14,000 soldiers and intelligence agents in Lebanon. Following the demonstrations, the Syrian troops completely withdrew from Lebanon on 27 April 2005. On the anniversary of the ignition of the Lebanese Civil war, the last remaining Syrian troops left Lebanon, ending their 30-year presence.
Following the Syrian withdrawal a series of assassinations of Lebanese politicians and journalists allied with the anti-Syrian camp had begun.
During the Cedar Revolution Hezbollah organized a series of pro-Syrian rallies. Hezbollah became a part of the Lebanese government following the 2005 elections. With the resignation of the pro-Syrian cabinet on 19 April, the Lebanese general elections, and the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the main goals of the color revolution were achieved.
10. “Birth Pangs” Of a New Middle East
As US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sets off Sunday on her short trip to a Middle East that is increasingly engulfed in violent confrontations and political turmoil, she has described the massive destruction, dislocation and human suffering in Lebanon as an inevitable part of the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.” Remember the Pentagon had a plan to “invade seen Arab/Muslim countries over the next five years.” The invasion/destruction of Lebanon and Syria were part of this plan.
The coming years would witness the initial dying gasps of the Western-made political order that has defined this region and focused primarily on Israeli national dictates for most of the past half-century
2006 Lebanon War
In June 2005, an Israeli paratroop unit operating near the Shebaa Farms engaged three Lebanese it identified as Hezbollah special force members, killing one. Videotapes recovered by the paratroopers contained footage of the three recording detailed accounts of the area.
Over the following 12 months, Hezbollah made three unsuccessful attempts to abduct Israeli soldiers.
On 26 May 2006, a car bomb killed Palestine Islamic Jihad leader Mahamoud Majgoob and his brother in Sidon. The PM of Lebanon called Israel the prime suspect. Two days later, rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel.
On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah initiated diversionary rocket attacks on Israeli military positions near the coast and near the Israeli border village of while another Hezbollah group crossed from Lebanon into Israel and ambushed two Israeli Army vehicles, killing three Israeli soldiers and seizing two.
Hezbollah promptly demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel, including Samir Kunta, the only survivor of the Coastal Road Massacre, in exchange for the release of the captured soldiers.
In response to the Hezbollah feint attacks, the IDF conducted a routine check of its positions and patrols, and found that contact with two jeeps was lost. A rescue force was immediately dispatched to the area, and confirmed that two soldiers were missing after 20 minutes. A Merkava tank, an APC and a helicopter were immediately dispatched into Lebanon. The tank hit a large land mine, killing its crew of four. Another soldier was killed and two lightly injured by mortar fire as they attempted to recover the bodies. Hezbollah named the attack after Hezbollah’s public pledges over the prior year and a half to seize Israeli soldiers and swap them for Lebanese prisoners. Nasrallah claimed that Israel had broken a previous deal to release these prisoners, and since diplomacy had failed, violence was the only remaining option. Nasrallah declared that “no military operation will result in rescuing these prisoners… The only method, as I indicated, is that of indirect negotiations and a swap of prisoners”. Heavy fire between the sides was exchanged across the length of the Blue Line with Hezbollah targeting IDF positions near Israeli towns.
Thus began the 2006 War.
Israel responded with massive airstrikes and artillery fire on targets throughout Lebanon, an air and naval blockade, and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. In Lebanon the conflict killed over 1,100 people, including combatants, severely damaged infrastructure, and displaced about one million people. Israel suffered 42 civilian deaths as a result of prolonged rocket attacks being launched into northern Israel causing the displacement of half a million Israelis. Normal life across much of Lebanon and northern Israel was disrupted, in addition to the deaths in combat.
A UN brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006. The blockade was lifted on 8 September.
In May, Washington gave the green light for the Israeli government to execute an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. This was in line with the plan to cripple Hezbollah and weaken Lebanon, as part of the “new Middle East”.
Olmert “had been preparing for such a war at least four months before the official cause.
Israeli Response
Israeli Prime Minister described the seizure of the soldiers as an “act of war” by the sovereign state of Lebanon.
The IOF attacked targets within Lebanon with artillery and airstrikes hours before the Israeli cabinet met to discuss a response. The targets consisted of bridges and roads in Lebanon. An Israeli airstrike also destroyed the runways of Beirut’s airport. Forty-four civilians were killed.
The Dahiya Doctrine
