All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] The Lebanese Civil War, Explained _ History Documentary [DownSub.com]

hello there and welcome to the Supercut

of my Lebanese Civil War series if you

want to just jump straight into the

history go ahead and check out the

second chapter in the video it should be

at this time code right here

but if you want to listen to my little

opening Spiel stay tuned this series

took a very long time to make and I hope

it shows a lot of research a lot of

filming a lot of editing just a lot and

about halfway through the series YouTube

decided to make a huge change to the

algorithm and how they're enforcing

policies which kneecap the series

halfway through and thus the subsequent

installments after the halfway point got

significantly fewer views and then there

was all the trouble with monetization

and copyright stuff and just so many

other little problems going on with it

that have taken a long time to resolve

but the video you're watching now is the

closest to my original Vision that I

could make and so for all that I like to

thank my patrons for being very patient

with me in the making of that series and

now this compilation video and as you

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now on with the feature presentation the

modern world of foreign policy and

international relations was born in

Lebanon terrorism ethnic cleansing

insurgencies violin Jihad foreign

occupations and uneasy peace I am

talking about the Lebanese Civil War

fought between who knows how many

factions from 1975 to 1990 and all of

the geopolitical issues we talk about

today began there nearly 50 years ago

the Kaleidoscope portrait that has

emerged from this period suggests that

the conflict in Lebanon has been in fact

a complex of several conflicts and that

time is heightened the interaction and

interdependence of the several

components nor do the several conflicts

lie on a single plane they are of quite

different types producing a conflict

Vortex the elements of which are

multi-dimensional as well as interactive

Lebanon went from being the picture of

sectarian Harmony to a byword for

political tragedy Beirut was once called

the Paris of the Middle East it was a

home for political Exiles plotting

revolutions and a playground for Arab

princes looking for debaucherous fun

away from their pure technical homes in

the Gulf the only reason it's not talked

about more today is because it has been

overshadowed by events it arguably set

in motion what exactly was the Lebanese

Civil War about anyways well depending

on who you ask you'll get a different

answer a Lebanese Muslim would blame the

maronites for refusing to give up power

despite the changing demographics in

Lebanon the maronites would blame the

Palestinians for disrupting that

demographic balance and for committing

acts of terrorism that forced the

Israelis to retaliate the Palestinians

would blame the Israelis for making them

refugees in the first place the Israelis

would blame the Arab states for spending

their time and resources arming

Palestinian terrorists instead of

incorporating and assimilating them into

their own countries the way Israel

welcomed and Incorporated Jewish

refugees fleeing Arab states the Arab

states blame the West for Israel and

Lebanon even exist sting and the West is

pulling its hair out shouting why can't

you be normal into the back seat to

fully understand this web of blame we

need to go back but not to just the

French mandate since Roman times the

mountains of Lebanon have been a refuge

for minority religious sex among the

earliest were the Maronite Christians

they received their name from a 4th

Century Syriac monk Saint Marin in the

eyes of the church in Roman

Constantinople the maronites were

Heretics and were initially persecuted

by the church which is what brought them

to Mount Lebanon there they were able to

resist Byzantine Authority and continue

practicing their religion as they saw

fit but this couldn't last forever

eventually the area of Mount Lebanon was

conquered by Muslims at which point they

became second-class citizens in the 16th

century they began reaching out to the

church in Rome the maronites had ceased

the teachings that got them labeled as

Heretics and thus were welcomed back

into the Catholic fold but by this time

the influence of the Catholic church was

waning and they didn't have the power to

protect the maronites from from their

Muslim overlords but in the 17th century

they would finally get outside

protection when the Ottoman Empire

designated France as the protector of

the maronites this was the birth of

political economic and ecclesiastical

ties between France and the Maronite

Community Living alongside them was

another religious minority the druze

what exactly the Jews are is a complex

subject and if you want to dive deeper

into that particular question I have a

couple videos linked in the eye in the

upper right hand corner to explain that

but for the purposes of the history of

the Lebanese Civil War we should

understand the druze as a particular

sect of Shia Islam and that is how they

have been seen in Lebanon more often

than not it was Sunni Muslims who ruled

over Lebanon even though they were a

minority within Lebanon itself the Sunni

Ottomans didn't care about the practices

of the maronites but they did care about

the practices of people who called

themselves Muslims even if they did not

consider them Muslims themselves which

meant the druze always felt on edge and

in order to prove to their Sunni rulers

that they were sufficiently Muslim they

practiced even greater violence towards

Christians than their Sunni counterparts

during times of war the maronites owned

most of the land in the North and the

druze owned most of the land in the

South meaning that anyone from one group

living in the area of the other was

usually a peasant paying rent to someone

of the other group in addition to the

maronites and Drews you had the Shia who

fell isolated from the bastions of Shia

Islam in Iraq and Iran and having been

persecuted by the majority Sunni around

them throughout the centuries there were

periods of sporadic violence between the

maronites and the Drews as the Ottomans

began losing ground to the Europeans

tensions between the two communities

grew the Drews living in Northern

Lebanon rebelled against their ameronite

landlords in 1858 and one claiming the

rented land as their own two years later

the maronites in the South attempted to

do the same but before they could the

Jews landlords massacred eleven thousand

of them this is what prompted

intervention by Napoleon in the third

who sent troops to protect the maronites

the Ottomans formalized this Theta

complee by turning the area of Mount

Lebanon into an autonomous province with

a Christian Governor the French retained

their military presence in Lebanon

through the first world war and during

the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire they

were given a League of Nations mandate

over both Lebanon and Syria now here is

where French colonialism starts making

the history a little more complicated

historically speaking the Ottoman Empire

as well as previous Muslim empires had a

province named either Syria or Damascus

and this province usually encompassed

most of modern day Syria Lebanon Jordan

Israel West Bank and Gaza often referred

to as greater Syria but this territory

was split between the French and the

British so already half of Greater Syria

was cut off but the French would go a

step further the French played favorites

the maronites were privileged over the

druze or other ethnic or religious

groups they were the ones allowed to

start businesses and keep out

competitive editors which usually meant

non-marinites the French could have

carved up its mandate into smaller

realms for each ethnic or religious

group but they feared that a Maronite

State consisting only of the territory

occupied by the maronites would not be

economically viable and they were

probably right so they enlarged the

former Emirate of Lebanon to include

territory occupied by Sunni Arabs in

order to give Lebanon some usable

Farmland the people living in this

Farmland however had more economic and

social ties to the rest of Syria than to

Mount Lebanon the former ruling class of

Ottoman Syria believed Lebanon should be

subservient to them and this population

would serve as a thorn in the side of

any faction trying to control Lebanon

because their loyalties never lied with

the idea of a greater Lebanon for the

French Lebanon was to become an outpost

of French culture and economic interests

in the near East and combat the rise of

Arab nationalism in Syria they helped

the Lebanese draft a republican

Constitution which greatly resembled

France's own they had a parliament which

elected a president and the president

would appoint a prime minister in a

cabinet to run the government the

Constitution was supposed to go into

effect in 1932 with its first scheduled

election but it was called off by the

French the campaign saw a rise in

sectarian tension and the French feared

a civil war would break out so they

canceled the elections the Constitution

would be reinstated four years later

after a leftist government was elected

in France who then allowed the election

to go ahead the Maronite Emile Ed would

win in 1936. World War II would briefly

halt lebanon's practice of democracy

when the Vichy regime suspended the

Constitution an Allied invasion in 1941

drove the Vichy loyalists out of Lebanon

and the free French were able to assert

control restoring the constitution in

1943 with help from the British they

negotiated a political settlement

between the various Christian and Muslim

factions that divided up the seats in

government between the sectarian groups

giving each a piece of the government

that was theirs to dominate each

department became a chiefdom serving the

interests of the faction that controlled

it which meant nepotism and Corruption

became rampant the Christians and

Muslims wouldn't receive equal power in

this government because the population

sites of the different groups wasn't

equal they based this division on a

census taken before the 1932 elections

which calculated the Christian

population to be about 54 percent and

Muslims accounting for the other 46.

this agreement would allow the Muslims

five seats in Parliament for every six

Christian seats the parliament gets to

elect a president who gets to serve a

single six-year term the Prime Minister

and all the cabinet officials are

appointed by the president this

agreement referred to as the national

compact gave the maronites a monopoly on

the presidency the sunnis despite being

the smallest faction were given a

monopoly on the prime ministership the

speaker of parliament would be given to

Ashia and the deputy speaker and Deputy

Prime Minister would be Greek Orthodox

Christians and the chief of the general

staff of the military would be a druze

along with the division of offices in

gov government the national compact also

Incorporated other political compromises

Muslim leaders agreed to drop their

demands for unification with Syria the

Christians agreed that Arabic would be

the official language they both agreed

not to seek outside arbitration over

domestic political questions and to

present themselves to the world as an

Arab country some Muslims rejected the

national Compact and were therefore

never on board with the balance of power

set up by it the more internationally

inclined such as pan-arabus communist

and socialists rejected The Pact as well

in addition foreign powers such as Syria

Egypt and the Soviet Union wanted to

change it in order to take control of

Lebanon but the maronites and the

Western democracies were supporters of

the new status quo they would hold their

last election under French occupation in

1943 with the Maronite and bekara-kauri

elected president the French would fully

pull out of Lebanon in 1946 kauri would

be re-elected in 1949 but he was

pressured to resign in 1952 over

corruption charges with the office open

Parliament elected the Maronite Camille

shamon to fill the presidency Shaman had

been a member of the Socialist National

front which was a predominantly Muslim

party but he would pursue neither

socialist nor Muslim interests while in

office being more interested in foreign

affairs and how Arab nationalism was

becoming a threat to the political

status quo Arab nationalism was on the

rise in the region the creation of

Israel in 1958 triggered the flight of

Arab Palestinians While most of the Arab

states all sent forces to try and wipe

out the new Jewish State we saw similar

instances after the overthrow of

western-backed monarchs as well as with

Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal

these events triggered a radicalism in

the region the Arabs are one people and

must be made one state and all of their

ire was targeted at Israel well most of

it the intellectuals of the pan-arabus

movement always tried portraying

themselves as a secular nationalist

movement but in practice on the ground

pan-arabism was very heavily bent toward

Islam in the mind of your average Arab

nationalist you could not be both a good

Arab and a good Christian because as a

Christian you would always be culturally

and politically guided towards the west

and they kind of had a point especially

when it came to the maronites the

maronites had built up ties to the

Catholic church in France not just prior

to Independence but prior to French rule

and the French privileged them during

colonial rule and they still looked to

France for economic and cultural

guidance but let's keep something in

mind in the Middle East there were only

three countries where Christians were

equal under the law to the majority

population and Lebanon was the only Arab

country where this was the case for the

prior 1300 years the region was ruled

and dominated by Muslim Powers who

relegated Christians and Jews to

becoming second-class citizens you had

to pay a special tax for the privilege

of not converting to Islam Muslims were

forbidden to convert to any religion

under penalty of death construction of

new churches and synagogues was

forbidden and you always had the threat

of ethnic cleansing hanging over your

head the reason the French got into

Lebanon in the first place was to

protect the maronites from genocide so

yes it was really hard to be a good Arab

and a good Christian but that's because

being a good Arab meant not being a

Christian in spite of the spread of

pan-arabism President Shaman thought the

status quo of Lebanon was a model of

stability while all the other countries

in the region were witnessing coups and

assassinations the worst Lebanon saw was

a politician resign over corruption

charges All Things Considered things

were pretty good Shimon kept relations

with the West open despite calls from

Muslims in the cabinet and Parliament to

cut ties with Britain and France after

the Suez Crisis within the International

Community and especially in the U.S

Nassar was seen not only as being in the

Soviet camp but in some cases as being

moscow's puppet thus countries that felt

threatened by Egypt would qualify for

U.S Aid under the Eisenhower Doctrine to

which president xhamon signed up and

this would prove decisive in lebanon's

first Civil War since Independence the

Constitution only allowed presidents to

serve a single six-year term but Shaman

wanted to seek re-election he plotted to

rig the 1957 parliamentary elections so

he could amend the Constitution to allow

him to run again he did this by running

pro-chamant candidates for Muslim seats

in Parliament and he was able to oust

several prominent Muslim MPS with help

from the CIA who contributed funds for

the campaign there are disputes over how

involved the CIA actually was in this

election or the following Civil War but

there's little dispute over the fact

that they helped fund opposition

campaigns if arms could not buy loyalty

in the Middle East the almighty dollar

was still the cia's secret weapon cash

for political Warfare and power plays

was always welcome if it could help

create an American Imperial and Arab and

Asian lands Foster was all for it the

pro chamon faction won 53 of the 66

seats in Parliament and the seeds for

civil war were planted with it on May 8

1958 a liberal Maronite journalist

Nassif Metheny was assassinated he had

served time in prison for criticizing

president shamon and he was suspected of

ordering his death anti-government

protests erupted in Tripoli killing 35

people the SNF orchestrated Nationwide

labor strikes and demanded the

president's resignation chamang declared

a state of emergency and mobilized the

Army and the SNF responded by forming

militias the Maronite phalanges party

would begin forming its own militias in

support of President shamon barricades

were set up around Beirut the leader of

the SNF Kamal jumblat had been one of

the Muslims politicians ousted in the

election the year prior he would set up

his own government in the Drew's

controlled town of mukhara and built up

a 2000 man militia that battled with the

phalange's militias led by Pierre

gamayal the Lebanese Army led by faud

chahab was hesitant to intervene for

fear of turning Muslims further against

the government so he only did so when

the government was directly threatened

on July 14 1958 the pro-western King

Faisal II of Iraq was overthrown which

eliminated Shaman's only Ally in the

region this forced him to request

military aid from the U.S who sent in 10

000 Marines by this point the SNF had

about a third of the country under their

control at the time and were angry at

the use of a foreign army to intervene

the Civil War fizzled out with both

sides agreeing to let General shahab run

for president unopposed as president FAO

jahab attempted to bridge The Divide

between the maronites and Muslims by

blending Christian identity with Arab

nationalism he tried to modernize

lebanon's Administration and politics

which was riddled with nepotism and

patronage he would use parts of the

government that were filled by

appointment such as the bureaucracy and

Military Intelligence agents to suppress

and undermine those that stood in his

way he practiced a moderately prone

Nasser foreign policy in order to

dissuade Muslims from violent revolution

while The maronites Wanted Lebanon to

remain a pro-western Christian Nation he

also began a program of infrastructure

projects in particular roads which

connected poor rural regions to

economically Dynamic urban areas which

resulted in the migration of poor shias

to Beirut who settled around the

Palestinian refugee communities the 1964

presidential election thought shahab's

hand-picked successor Charles hallou win

the presidency unfortunately hallou

lacked a political base of his own which

left him a weak and ineffectual leader

he continued the foreign policy of

shahab which sought to unify the country

and the region against Israel but again

foreign events would influence the

attitudes of Lebanese Muslims since 1949

Egypt Jordan and Syria all participated

in arming Palestinian terrorists or

fedain who were then sent off to attack

Targets in Israel at the time Israel had

a policy of holding its neighbors

politically responsible for these

attacks and thus would militarily

retaliate against them the Arab

governments especially Syria would use

this policy against them an uneasy truth

between the war and States prevailed

until 1965. the next year a new radical

government in Syria increased terrorist

raids against Israel sent an era of

guerrillas across the borders of Syria

Jordan and Lebanon Syria's gold was

twofold force Israeli reprisals against

Jordan and Lebanon thereby helping to

weaken or destroy the moderate

pro-western governments of those

countries and to bring on War

foreign to the Six-Day War of 1967 was

identical to the Prelude of the Sinai

campaign terrorist gangs is actively

encouraged and supported by President

Nassar as the ferian has been in the 50s

where operating against Israel from both

the Gaza Strip and Jordan they included

a new organization founded in 1965 known

as El fatah which under yassar arafat's

leadership subsequently became the most

powerful and well-publicized element in

the Palestine Liberation Organization

the syrians seemed bent on an escalation

of the conflict they kept up an endless

bombardment of the Israeli settlements

below the Golan Heights and Israeli

fishermen and Farmers faced what was

sometimes virtually daily attacks by

snipers hellu's decision not to join the

Arab states in the Six-Day War angered

the Muslim population and the subsequent

influx of Palestinian refugees allowed

the PLO to enter Lebanon and spread

throughout the refugee camps Palestinian

organizations began orchestrating attack

tax on Israel from within Lebanon

Lebanese Christians saw the migration of

Palestinians into Lebanon as a foreign

subversion into Lebanese culture and

politics and opposed it Lebanese Muslims

welcomed them into Lebanon and saw

aiding them and their cause as a

religious Duty the already faint

Christian pan-arabist Movement was

growing weaker as more and more

questioned whether the two could be

reconciled president shahab had tried to

mend the two together but the influx of

Palestinians into Lebanon posed a threat

to the demographic balance within the

country if the Palestinians were ever

given citizenship and the Parliament

ever a reapportioned seats according to

a new census the maronites feared losing

everything not just their privileges

given to them prior to Independence but

their basic rights as well in the 1968

parliamentary elections an alliance was

formed between Pierre gemell's

phalangists former president chamon's

National liberals and the national Bloc

led by Ramon Ed the son of lebanon's

first president they argued that

allowing the Palestinians and the PLO to

continue operating in Lebanon was a

national security risk the Muslims were

right about the maronites not wanting to

lose power but the maronites would prove

to be right about the Palestinians as

well in 1968 Palestinian terrorists in

Beirut attacked planes from the Israeli

airline al-el to which Israeli Commandos

responded by destroying several planes

at the Beirut International Airport

radical Lebanese parties called a

general strike to protest the

government's incompetence which resulted

in the resignation of the Prime Minister

The Raid had been part of Israel's

long-standing policy regarding

Federation attacks both of which would

become more common after the Six-Day War

in the North there was also no peace

Southern Lebanon was gradually being

turned into a playground for the

terrorists Israeli towns Villages and

Farms even school buses filled with

children were regularly being shelled

and fired upon from what was now

nicknamed fataland while the Lebanese

government wept crocodile tears and said

it could do nothing about the activity

of the terrorists or even in the fact

that they were trained and operating

from Lebanese territory the Lebanese

Army began to engage the Palestinian

Fighters hiding in Lebanon near the

borders with Israel and Syria

pro-palestinian protests broke out in

Beirut which resulted in a state of

emergency being declared as fighting

between the Lebanese Army and the

Palestinians continued other Arab

countries protested Nassar offered to

negotiate between the two an accord was

signed on November 3rd 1969. the details

were initially kept secret but leaked in

April 1970. the leak revealed that the

PLO was allowed to govern the refugee

camps and were allowed to establish

armed units inside them along with

certain Transit routes in southern

Lebanon the 1970 presidential election

saw Elias sarkisk one of the last

Jehovahs run against Suleiman Francia

who won by a single vote in Parliament

when he got into office he purged all of

the chavas from the government including

in the re and Military Intelligence the

latter ended up crippling the Lebanese

Army's ability to prevent the PLO from

orchestrating Terror attacks which

inevitably resulted in more Israeli

retaliations the Arab states went on

giving the terrorists money arms and

backing and then screaming to high

heaven whenever we made clear by raiding

the terrorist bases in Syria and Lebanon

that we held the governments of those

States responsible for what was

happening in September 1970 the

Jordanian Army had bloody clashes with

the PLO which resulted in the expulsion

of the PLO from Jordan referred to as

Black September many would go into Exile

in Lebanon and the PLO would relocate

their headquarters to Beirut this

sparked a surge in anti-israeli attacks

from Palestinians in Lebanon which was

followed by increased Israeli

retaliation Jordan learned as did

Lebanon six years later that countries

that Harbor gorillas run enormous risks

that are in constant danger of losing

control over their Destinies because

others determined the question of War

and Peace for them if the gorillas grow

sufficiently powerful they sooner or

later seek to replace the authority of

the host government on April 10 1973 a

raid in Beirut by Israeli Commandos kill

3 al-fatah leaders the funerals turned

into riots a state of emergency was

declared the president claimed he

wouldn't allow a black May to happen in

Lebanon but neither would he allow the

Palestinians to act like an occupying

Army the Army in the PLO clashed in May

1973 when the Army began besieging the

Palestinian camps leftists and Nazarite

militias would fight alongside the PLO

in response Syria had closed its border

to Lebanon the central government didn't

have as much control over the rural

areas of Greater Lebanon and Syria

closing its border made governing these

areas even more difficult on May 17 a

new agreement was reached between the

Lebanese government and the Palestinians

known as the melkart protocols

newspapers at the time reported that it

altered the Cairo agreement from 1969

but in reality it reaffirmed it the Army

would lift its blockade which opened up

access routes for Syria to arm the

Palestinians and once again this

resulted in an uptick of Palestinian

Terror attacks against Israel Lebanon

was disintegrating we held emergency

meetings to review contingency plans for

the open Civil War breakout among our

friends told us either directly or

through envoys of their despair at the

growing radicalization of the region in

1973 a new prime minister Taki al-din

Saul was appointed and formed a new

cabinet it managed to satiate Assad by

appointing several pro-syrian Muslims to

the cabinet when the Yom Kippur War

broke out in 1973 Lebanon was officially

neutral but it allowed Syria to use its

radar stations and gave access to its

fuel supplies the Palestinians in

Lebanon also participated by attacking

Northern Israel with Guerrilla raids

along with artillery and Rocket fire

Israel wasn't able to retaliate against

the PLO due to the IDF being split

between northern and southern fronts the

Lebanese government supported the

Palestinian efforts and hopes they would

create a Palestinian State and finally

get out of Lebanon ultimately the

Israelis were able to Prevail but with a

much smaller margin of Victory Lebanese

Muslims swept up in the pride of Arab

successes on the battlefield were no

longer content with Christian dominance

of the government the war resulted not

only in a Resurgence of Arab Pride but

of Islamic Pride as well which would

begin to compete with each other it also

shifted European interests in the region

from protecting minorities to appeasing

the Arab majorities which meant they

were no longer concerned with preserving

Christian power in Lebanon this resulted

in the maronites Turning more towards

Israel as a backer and because the

maronites were increasingly

anti-palestinian the Israelis obliged

the city of Beirut was more and more

becoming a microcosm of the country as a

whole the capital was divided largely

along religion and class the Western

half of the city was filled with poor

Muslims while the eastern half was

populated with wealthy Maronite

Christians the Eastern outskirts of the

city were popular with Palestinian

refugees and Shia migrants the Muslims

of Beirut have been radicalized after

the Yom Kippur War which not only posed

a threat to the Christian authorities of

Lebanon but to the Muslim authorities

that had cooperated with them Muslims

began shifting their allegiances to

newer more radical political parties and

militias Christian parties began arming

their militias through local purchases

and Western allies while the

Palestinians were being armed by Syria

Iraq and Libya by the early 1970s the

demographics of Lebanon had shifted

estimates from the time claimed that

Christians had gone from 54 percent of

the population down to 46 and Muslims

the inverse the shias had become the

largest individual sect in Lebanon

outnumbering the maronites they were led

by Imam Musa sadar who criticized the

government for its failure to protect

shias in southern Lebanon from Israeli

attacks solder was born in Iran and

arrived in Lebanon in 1957. he had been

a supporter of ruhala Khamenei in the

1963 protests which resulted in him

losing his Iranian citizenship he formed

the Shia communal Council in 1967 in

which he became a spokesperson for the

Shia of Lebanon and like everyone else

they were forming their own militias and

received aid from foreign powers in

particular the Shia in Lebanon looked to

Syria's new leader hafez al-assad due to

him being from the alawite sect of Shia

Islam as Lebanon continued to

destabilize the Israelis needed more

than just air strikes and Commando raids

in 1974 the Israelis began setting up

checkpoints and roadblocks in southern

Lebanon in order to stop the movement of

Palestinian terrorists into Israel the

Lebanese government was unable to stop

it in large part due to the growth of

these militias the impending collapse of

Lebanon was also brought on by the

geopolitics of foreign powers but not

the ones you're thinking of since

nasser's death in 1970 Syria and Egypt

were competing over leadership of the

Arab world hafez al-assad had come to

power that year and wanted to develop

his own base of power in the region

through the strength of the Syrian

military and exerting influence over

Jordan Lebanon and the Palestinians the

early 1970s saw Syria's first sustained

period of political stability since the

French mandate and they had numerous

political interests in Lebanon the

Syrian regime didn't officially

recognize the independence of Lebanon

and laid claim to most of its territory

they also feared that Israel might use

Lebanon to outflank Syrian defenses in

the event of a future War he was also

interested in the Shia of Lebanon and

wanted to use Musa al-sar to give him

and his alawite regime an air of

legitimacy in the event of a war he

expected to have the support of Lebanon

Shia some of the Palestinian

organizations at least half of the

Lebanese bath party as well as Urban

workers to that end Syria had intervened

in the 1972 parliamentary elections in

Lebanon but the final death now would

come in 1975. all sides began building

up their own militias separate from the

Lebanese military in order to protect

their communities someone fighting broke

out in April 1975 everyone was prepared

funding for the civil war came from many

sources both the Palestinians and

maronites had diaspora communities who

sent remittances back to their homelands

or generally donated to various

organizations disguising themselves as

charities in the west by 1975 the plo's

budget was bigger than that of the

Lebanese government and the economic

activity of the Palestinians made up

about 15 percent of lebanon's GDP there

was also plenty of money pouring in from

the Gulf monarchies who were flush with

cash due to the spike in oil prices

after the Embargo during the Yom Kippur

War many Lebanese also worked abroad in

the Gulf sending home both money and

ideas in February 1975 Muslim fishermen

went on strike in Sedona against a new

company owned by former president

Camille shamon the mayor of sedon marouf

Saad was a leader in the protests but he

was assassinated by unknown assailants

riots erupted in sedon with the Muslims

blaming the maronites for saad's death

the government responded by deploying

troops to restore order but this

exacerbated the problem gunfights broke

out between the soldiers and the

protesters who were aided by Palestinian

fighters from a nearby camp in March

Christian parties began demonstrating in

support of the government and the Army

Muslims saw the Army as a tool of the

maronites and therefore not trustworthy

of arbitrating internal conflicts and

saw the Christian demonstrations as

further evidence of this this resulted

in Muslims rationalizing their support

for their own militias and the PLO and

on April 13 1975 phalanges leader Pierre

gamayal was attending the consecration

of a new Maronite Church in a Christian

part of Beirut A car pulled up and

gunfire came out killing four people

including gamayala's bodyguard

phalange's party militias assumed this

attack came from the Palestinians who

were celebrating a successful terror

attack in Israel with a parade at camp

Tila in West Beirut that afternoon a

busload of Palestinians coming home from

the parade passed by the church where

the attack on gamayal had occurred that

morning phalange's militia at the church

ambushed the bus killing 27 and injuring

19. as word of both the assassination

attempt and the bus Massacre spread

across Beirut phalanges militias and PLO

began to clash president Suleiman

Franzia met with hafez al-assad to

discuss how to stop the Israeli attacks

at no point did they ever discuss

getting the PLO to stop attacking Israel

which was by Design the Cairo agreement

of 1969 signed by President Charles

hallou and Gamal Abdel Nasser forced

Lebanon to give de facto sovereignty to

the Palestinian camps on the ground this

meant that the PLO became the governing

body over the camps they guarded them

recruited Fighters and kept Lebanese law

enforcement out you see the Israelis

weren't the only ones the PLO were

attacking PLO gangs also attacked

Lebanese citizens as well as foreigners

in the country

one must admit that the Palestinians

themselves by violating the Lebanese law

and carrying arms and functioning in a

Police role at the entrances of the

Capitol have facilitated the preparation

and conception of the conspiracy

in certain cases Palestinian patrols

used to arrest government employees and

director generals to check their

identification and in other cases

Lebanese and foreign residents were

kidnapped and imprisoned these

violations taken lightly at first became

unbearable

Palestinians should have collaborated

with the Lebanese authorities so that

law Breakers who take refuge in the

Palestinian camps cannot escape the law

had there not been this degree of

transgression or violation of law we

would not have seen this level of

outrage

the Christians grew particularly angry

at the Palestinians because they did not

remain neutral in lebanon's politics

previously we used to resort to

political pressure only as the only

means for reform and equity

then the Palestinian cause emerged and

we found ourselves United with the

Palestinians because together we form

one ideology we and the Palestinians are

one in terms of Arab identity religion

and nationalistic views

the Christians weren't the only ones

angry at the Palestinians the Shia who

lived in the Becca Valley in southern

Lebanon also suffered from the Israeli

retaliations

Musa solder urged the Lebanese state to

redress the plight of the Southern

Lebanese but to little effect

as an Iranian trying to make Headway in

an Arab environment he founded expedient

to publicly and repeatedly declare his

antipathy toward Israel and his support

for the right of the Palestinians to win

back their Homeland

yet despite his declarations and genuine

feelings of Sympathy for the

Palestinians solder could see that the

actions of the PLO were bringing ruin

and misery to his constituents in South

Lebanon

he found it increasingly difficult to

reconcile his sympathies for the

stateless Palestinians with the Reckless

Behavior of the PLO in the south

as the fighting spread the apparatus of

government began to fall apart the

Lebanese Army and Civil Service began to

fracture along sectarian lines only

defending or servicing their communities

the Israelis backed one of these

officers Saad Haddad who took control of

a Christian Enclave along the southern

border with Israel which made it easy

for the IDF to funnel weapons and

supplies to his forces this became known

as the good fence policy this was not an

unusual practice for Israel they had a

history of supporting ethnic or

religious minorities against hostile

Arab governments

having supported the Kurds in a rock

the yemenites against the Egyptians

as well as the Christians in Sudan

against the Arab government and Khartoum

the Israelis felt a kind of kinship with

the Christians of Lebanon they are both

ethnic and or religious minorities

surrounded by a hostile Arab Muslim

majority

seeing the erosion of their position the

Lebanese Christians took a stand to

defend their Heritage while Syria lay in

weight to extend its hegemony over

Lebanon and realize its dream of a

greater Syria

in the eyes of the Rabin government

supporting the maronites in Lebanon was

a logical extension of this policy if it

was in Israel's interest to help the

Kurds 600 miles away and the Ethiopians

over a thousand miles away no one had

any doubt about the need to support the

Christians who were fighting for their

lives against the PLO on our very

doorstep the first fights were between

Palestinian and phalangious militias in

the streets of Beirut Tripoli and sedon

the Palestinians and their Lebanese

allies targeted Maronite owned

businesses while flanges targeted the

Palestinian camps there were no firm

battle lines and barricades were hastily

thrown up the Arab League managed to

secure a ceasefire on April 16th but no

one knew for how long Maronite leaders

began resigning their positions in

president for India's Government after

leaders of the Lebanese national

movement a coalition of Muslim and

leftist factions led by Drew's leader

Kamal junblatt sought to have the Army

disarmed phalanges militias while their

own militias remained are termed

fighting resumed shortly thereafter with

former president Camille chamoon and

Kamal jimblatt leading the respective

sides president Francia tried to get a

new government formed but Prime

Ministers kept resigning Rasheed karami

managed to secure another ceasefire on

June 30th after forming a new cabinet

consisting of a member from each major

sect the maronites wanted to provoke the

Palestinians into breaking the ceasefire

so they could justify expelling them

from the country juneblock made sure to

place the L M militias between the

phalanges and the PLO so as to prevent

such provocations in the negotiations

Kamal jimbla and the L M demanded that

Christians and Muslims have equal

representation in Parliament and that

confessional monopolies over cabinet

offices be abolished all other reforms

were secondary and presumably achievable

if the former were achieved the

maronites who saw Sunni and Arab

populism as threats to their power and

rights opposed these reforms while the

sunnis leftists and Palestinians were

fighting against the maronites the Year

we're putting up a pacifist facade they

had managed to keep their own militias a

secret from the others all the while

receiving training from the PLO in

cooperation with Syrian officials Musa

al-salder had made a big show of

protesting the Civil War and the

militias by going on a hunger strike but

a training accident in early July

resulted in over 30 casualties among

solder's Amal Fighters he claimed his

militias were for protecting the Shia

community in southern Lebanon from the

Israelis but nobody was buying it and

solder was now seen as a hypocrite the

June 30th ceasefire ended on August 24th

when fighting broke out between Amal and

phalangists in the Becca Valley August

29th saw fighting breakout in Tripoli

between The zagarta Liberation Army and

the PLO with Sunni militias the zla was

led by Tony frangia the son of President

Suleiman frangia prime minister kurami

tried to stop the fighting with the

Lebanese Army but after it killed Sunni

militiamen the Army lost all Muslim

support in response to the death of the

militiamen Kamal juneblock called for a

general strike on September 15th in

protest jumbla also reached out to Assad

for Aid who would send the Palestine

Liberation Army to Tripoli the Palestine

Liberation Army or pla were Syrian

organized divisions of Palestinian

troops and were functionally extensions

of the Syrian military Assad used them

when he wanted to pursue Syrian foreign

policy goals without dragging Syria

itself into war hafez sent his foreign

minister to Beirut to form a committee

to resolve the fighting the committee

agreed to a new ceasefire on September

25th which broke down on October 22nd

and the Army was unable to contain the

hostilities a fez sent in more pla

forces to Beirut in agreement with prime

minister karami but president Francia

opposed this move fearing it would

exacerbate the tensions between the

maronites and the Palestinians

especially when the pla were so

obviously Syrian proxies and foreigners

in Lebanon felt trapped by the interests

of outside Powers as the violence

reached system after peroxism and the

world watch with indifference are at

best revulsion even while feeding it

with more weapons I have felt as much

impatience with what the world has anger

at invading armies local Warlords and

Anonymous car bombers outsiders look at

Beirut from a weary distance as though

it had nothing to do with them they

speak of Beirut as if it were an

aberration of The Human Experience it is

not Beirut was a city like any other and

its people were a people like any other

what happened here could I think happen

anywhere the phalanges began to push

into the Muslim and mixed neighborhoods

of West Beirut but were pushed back by

the L M kidnappings and massacres became

common militias began attacking Muslims

and Christians in downtown Beirut at

random another ceasefire was accepted on

December 15th after military threats

were made by Syria and the PLO at this

point both sides began to eliminate

hostile areas within their own enclaves

Maronite militias blockaded Palestinian

camps and destroyed muslim slums in East

Beirut fatah and the Democratic front

for the liberation of Palestine ended

their faux neutrality and formally sided

with the l m Palestinian and L M

militias attacked Christian towns along

the coast the PLO would be the first to

introduce Heavy Artillery into the

fighting whereas before it consisted

mainly of rifle and Small Arms fire this

forced the Lebanese into bombing the

Palestinian positions Muslim militias

from Sudan Advanced North to help

capture the Christian Port City of Gia

the maronites captured karantia and

muslok while the Muslims of Palestinians

captured damur most of the Christian

residents of that City had fled but

those Left Behind were massacred in the

more rural areas Sunni tribesmen raided

Christian villages in Tripoli the zla

fought against the Sunni militias and

the PLO and in the Becca Valley among

militias and the PLO attacked Christians

and Syria would send more pla to join

them by 1976 Lebanon was in a virtual

state of Anarchy government buildings

were subject to attacks by mobs and

arson inmates were released from prisons

migrants and refugees began to occupy

empty homes and apartments in West

Beirut his failure to stem the

disintegration resulted in prime

minister krami resigning on January 18th

president Francia asked Syria for help

who were able to establish a new

ceasefire on January 21st that same day

Lieutenant al-hitab of the Lebanese Army

mutinied informed his own militia the

Lebanese Arab army or la which sided

with the Muslim and Palestinian militias

in March the Sunni Brigadier General

Aziz al-adab led a coup against

President Suleiman Francia and demanded

that he resigned but the president

refused at this time the Christian

militias began to organize themselves

under a unified command calling

themselves the Lebanese forces or

Lebanese front under the leadership of

Bashir Jamail the son of phalanges

leader Pierre Jamil they began

advocating a partition of Lebanon into

separate Christian and Muslim states

which the Muslims Palestinians and

syrians opposed the maronites were

receiving support from Maronite

businessmen abroad as well as the

pro-american Arab states such as Egypt

and Saudi Arabia the Muslims received

their arms from the syrians who in turn

got them from the Soviets the syrians

feared that if the Civil War dragged on

too long the Israelis might intervene so

when the LA began besieging the

Christian towns of andika and al-qabaya

Assad was asked to intervene by those

communities so the syrians got president

Francia to sign on to constitutional

reforms which ordered the distribution

of seats in Parliament be equal between

Muslims and Christians and for the

election of prime minister to be handled

by Parliament rather than appointed by

the president but to the L M these

reforms were insufficient PLO leadership

also began to fear the Syrian presence

might threaten their autonomy because

despite the PLO in Syria being nominally

allies they both wanted to control

Lebanon for themselves the first

objective was to obtain gradually full

control over Lebanon by installing

certain kinds of puppet rulers who will

be in harmony with the Palestinians the

actual rulers however another objective

evolved while work on the first was

going on their second objective was to

establish a Palestinian Homeland a part

of which will be in the south of Lebanon

of a size dependent on the magnitude of

their victory over the Lebanese at this

point the Palestinians and the leftists

were winning the Civil War in Lebanon

but Assad feared the PLO gaining too

much autonomy because he wanted them to

remain dependent on Syria and this is

the real reason for Syria's intervention

into the Lebanese Civil War by early

April the L M laa PLO Alliance

controlled 2 thirds of Lebanon

consisting of all the lowlands added by

France during the Mandate period Assad

responded by sending in more pla into

Lebanon and attempted to break up the

PLO l m Alliance but failed to which he

then sent in even more pla Assad called

on President Francia to resign but once

again the president refused the

baronites reached out to the U.S for

protection but after Vietnam the U.S was

in no mood for Foreign Wars nor was

France or any country in western Europe

due to their dependence on Arab oil

since the Yom Kippur War the Arab states

had been using the threat of oil

embargoes to get Western countries to

cut off support to Israel and to coerce

them into working with the PLO whom the

Arab League had declared the only

legitimate representative of Palestinian

interests in 1974. the maronites also

considered reaching out to Israel but

they knew this would alienate Assad who

was for the time being holding the

islamists Erebus and Palestinians back

from Total Victory they reached out to

president frangia and decided to openly

endorse the recent constitutional

reforms in exchange for his support now

this was supported by Assad who got the

pla to switch sides to the Lebanese

front in exchange for the maronites in

Parliament voting for his presidential

candidate Elias Sarkis along with the

traditional us leaders of both factions

jumbla and the L M initially supported

the move preferring the maronites to be

dependent on an Arab power rather than a

western one or even worse on Israel

Assad's goal in Lebanon was to

re-establish the pre-crisis status quo

in which the PLO were dependent on his

support and would continue to attack

Israel who would subsequently retaliate

and then turn the world against it on

May 8th circus would be elected

president however constitutionally

frangia's term didn't expire until

September 1976 and he refused to step

down until then which threatened

negotiations between the maronites and

Muslims Syria was inching towards

intervention in Lebanon but they had

additional worries namely Israel

it found itself in a no less

uncomfortable position regarding Israel

because the involvement of the Syrian

Army in Lebanon inevitably weakened its

deployment along the Seas fire line in

the Golan Heights at the same time it

was clear that if the Syrian Army

occupied Southern Lebanon we would be

forced to take pragmatic steps to push

it back Israel could not tolerate having

Syrian troops stationed along two of her

borders Syrian troops would enter

Lebanon on June 1st with the intent of

weakening the PLO and L M giving the

Lebanese government a chance to

re-establish a standing army behind the

scenes they negotiated with Israel using

the U.S as an intermediary they agreed

to a red line in Lebanon which limited

the size of Syrian forces or forbade

Syria from placing surface-to-air

missiles in Lebanon it found itself in a

no less uncomfortable position regarding

Israel because the involvement of the

Syrian Army in Lebanon inevitably

weakened its deployment along the cease

fire line in the Golan Heights at the

same time it was clear that if the

Syrian Army occupied Southern Lebanon we

would be forced to take pragmatic steps

to push it back Israel could not

tolerate having Syrian troops stationed

along two of her borders the fighting

intensified to the point where foreign

officials were now at risk in Beirut on

June 16 1976 U.S ambassador Francis e

milloy Jr was assassinated two days

later President Ford ordered the

evacuation of U.S citizens from Lebanon

an inverse of the Eisenhower

administration's actions nearly 20 years

earlier as the syrians invade intense

fighting breaks out around Beirut

Tripoli sedon between the latani and

owali rivers and Mount Hermon

the syrians overpower the L M and PLO

forces along the Damascus Beirut Highway

Christian militias attack hostile Muslim

enclaves in their territories and the

syrians disrupt the LNM PLO supply lines

the maronites also begin an offensive

against the Palestinian camps of

talzitar and Jasir Basha much of the

Arab world had opposed Syria's

intervention into Lebanon on June 23rd

the Arab League met in Riyadh to approve

of an Arab peace Force to replace Syrian

troops the L M and PLO supported the

Arab League intervention while the

Lebanese bath party began to turn on

Assad the Arab world and the Soviet

Union would condemn Syria for its

cooperation with the U.S and Israel

hafez tries to turn this narrative

around in a speech on July 20th in which

he claims that the Lebanese Civil War

was a plot by zionists and imperialists

to commit genocide against the

Palestinians and partition Lebanon and

two Israeli puppet States He declares

that Lebanon is rightfully part of Syria

and therefore he was obligated to

intervene to protect the Lebanese from

Israeli aggression in contrast to

Assad's claims Yasser Arafat claimed

that the Palestinian resistance had

nothing to do with the conflict in

Lebanon by July 22nd the syrians had

achieved most of their initial goals by

weakening the PLO enough to ensure their

dependency on Damascus the syrians got

the PLL to approve the recent

constitutional reforms which they had

initially opposed fearing it would

weaken support for their cause among

Lebanese Muslims this deal also included

president frangia who agreed to restore

the Cairo agreement and on paper the

pre-crisis status quo Bashir Jamail

begins to consolidate his authority over

the Maronite factions after the fall of

the talzatar camp to phalanges on August

12th in which three thousand

Palestinians were killed Elia circus

finally became president on September

23rd he was widely viewed as a puppet of

hafez al-assad never making any serious

decisions without approval from Damascus

on October 26th an Arab League Summit

again called for an international Arab

Force to replace the Syrian troops to

which Assad finally agreed this new body

known as the Arab deterrence force or

ADF would have 30 000 troops ninety

percent of which would be made up of the

Syrian forces that were already in

Lebanon functionally this just meant

that the other 10 would be

reinforcements from other Arab states

Syria also arranged a new ceasefire with

the l m which called for the Cairo

agreement to be back and forth as well

as for the new ADF to be placed in Syria

by November once in the country the ADF

was supposed to be under the command of

President Sarkis but the maronites did

not support this ceasefire not trusting

the Arab League to be a neutral Arbiter

especially because Sarkis was widely

seen as Assad's puppet as of November

1976 the L M PLO laa and syrians are now

all allied with Japanese government

while the maronites grew more

apprehensive they continued to hold

their enclaves in East Beirut as well as

communities north of the capital the

Israelis continued to support Saad

Haddad in southern Lebanon who was

actively fighting against the PLO for

control of Southern Lebanon in January

of 1977 the Maronite factions held their

own conference to discuss how they

should respond to the Syrian

government's agreements with the Muslim

Palestinian and leftist factions they

came to three main points first they

refused to comply with the Cairo

agreement second they called for the

expulsion of the Palestinians from

Lebanon and for them to be resettled in

other Arab League States and third they

refused to cooperate with the Arab

deterrence Force as the syrians

solidified their position in Lebanon

more Christian officers in the Lebanese

Army began to defect and set up their

own militias taking control of pockets

along the southern border with Israel

the IDF would send weapons and other Aid

to these militias as well using them as

a front-line defense against PLO raids

expanding on the good fence policy on

March 16th Kamal jimblot was

assassinated jimblad did not support a

long-term occupation of Lebanon by

Syrian forces and it is suspected that

Assad had him killed

Kamal was succeeded by his son while

Legion blot who became the new leader of

the progressive Socialist Party and the

L M and in this position he bent the

knee to Assad despite all of the

evidence that it was Assad who had Kamal

killed the druze blamed the Christians

for his death and in retaliation they

slaughtered Christian communities within

their enclaves on Mount Lebanon after

having weakened the PLO enough to no

longer pose a threat to the Syrian aims

Assad resumed aiding them again in

southern Lebanon who fought against the

Maronite militias along the southern

border back in Israel a worsening

economic situation along with numerous

scandals in the rabeen government

resulted in the political right gaining

a majority of seats in the knesset for

the first time in the country's history

in May 1977. this political Revolution

was led by Menachem begin a former

member of the ergon and the head of the

likud party the policy of retaliating

against PLO Terror attacks with Commando

raids and bombing runs was common

practice under are the prior left-wing

governments but under begin and laku the

IDF would take a more active role in the

fight against the PLO and they would

reach out more to the Lebanese front led

by Bashir jamile who were more receptive

to Israeli Aid after the syrians resumed

arming the PLO in the south in July of

1977 another Summit of the Arab League

called for the PLO to pull further back

from the border with Israel and to let

the Lebanese Army and the ADF replace

them along the border the maronites

opposed this because it legitimized the

PLO as a negotiating partner with the

Lebanese government all the while they

were being allowed to govern Lebanese

territory the Israelis also opposed this

measure because it would make

retaliating against the PLO targets more

difficult the various ceasefires began

to break down in late summer Christian

militias capture Kiam and the PLO

resumes firing katusha Rockets into

Northern Israel the newly elected

President Jimmy Carter in the U.S had an

acute interest in the Middle East and

was trying to negotiate a ceasefire

between the various factions in his

Memoirs he is quite critical of the

Pagan government's bombing of Lebanon

although he fails to mention that this

policy was a holdover from previous

labor governments and were in

retaliation for terrorist attacks and

Rocket fire into Israel Carter's plans

were a tad ambitious believing that he

could resolve all the conflicts in the

region with a big peace conference we

still had two basic problems in setting

up the Geneva meeting there pointed

maximum Palestine participation but this

release wanted none and the Soviet Union

was reluctant to alienate any of its

Arab friends or to deal failure with

Israel despite the failure of his Geneva

plan he was able to mediate a temporary

ceasefire on September 25th but the

fighting would resume in November the

cold war between Syria and Egypt would

take a decisive turn in serious favor

when Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem in

the fall of 1977. Sadat was seen by many

as a traitor to the pan-arabus cause by

negotiating with Israel this led more

Arab and islamist groups to look to

Assad for leadership but in Beirut the

maronites had become more hostile to

Assad holding anti-syrian demonstrations

in North Beirut these resulted in

clashes between the Maronite militias

and the Syrian ADF in January of 1978

president Assad began pressuring

president Sarkis to sign a defense

treaty with Syria so he could keep

Syrian troops in the country after the

ADF mandate ended but in February the

Lebanese Army under the command of

Antoine Baraka an ally of former

president shamoon and the national

Liberal Party attacked ADF troops at

phiadia the ADF responded by attacking

the national Liberal Party headquarters

and other Christian neighborhoods in

East Beirut another ceasefire is signed

to end the fighting Syria begins pushing

the PLO back into Southern Lebanon by

sending in asakai the militant wing of

the Palestinian Bathurst party which was

part of the PLO and who managed to

capture maroon Ross on March 9 1978 13

PLO terrorists from fata left by boat

from Coastal Lebanon with the intention

of landing on a beach at Tel Aviv and

taking a hotel hostage the goal was to

either get the Israelis to release a

number of imprisoned PLO members or if

that failed to kill as many Israeli

civilians as possible the operation was

planned by Khalil al-wazir he was a

co-founder of fata and had planned a

similar operation three years earlier at

the Savoy Hotel which resulted in the

deaths of eight Israeli civilians three

IDF soldiers and seven of the eight

fatah terrorists that have been sent in

al-azir however was not present at

either operation during the journey two

of the PLO drowned in the Mediterranean

and a navigation error resulted in their

boat landing on the wrong Beach they

landed near Magan Michael north of Tel

Aviv where they met an American

photographer Gail Rubin and asked her

where they were after she told them they

killed her Gail Rubin as it turned out

was a niece of U.S senator Abraham

ribikov of Connecticut who would refer

to the attack as an indefensible act of

terrorism that deserves Universal

condemnation the 11 terrorists made

their way to a nearby Highway and

started opening fire at passing cars

they hijacked a white Mercedes taxi

killed its occupants and started driving

toward Tel Aviv they found a charter bus

driving down the highway which they also

hijacked holding the Riders hostage

however at least one person was killed

and their body thrown out of the bus

they then hijacked another bus and

forced the passengers from the first to

get on the new bus at one point they

stopped so one of the terrorists could

get out and fire indiscriminately into

traffic killing at least one more person

Israeli police were eventually

dispatched and had a standoff at gallat

Junction and as the passengers tried to

escape the terrorists murdered them

encounter terrorism unit would finally

arrive at the scene nine of the 11

remaining PLO were killed taking the

last two into custody one of the

surviving attackers told the Israelis

that the intent of the attack was to

derail the peace talks between Egypt and

Israel Anwar sadak condemned the attack

as an irresponsible action all the while

trying to discourage the Israelis from

retaliating President Carter called it

an outrageous Act of lawlessness and

senseless brutality the plo's official

statement said the operation stems from

The Firm belief of fatah and the

necessity of carrying on the armed

struggle against the Zionist enemy

within the occupied land prime minister

Menachem begin compared the attack to

Nazi atrocities

they came here to kill Jews they

intended to take hostages and threatened

as the leaflet they left said to kill

all of them if we did not surrender to

their demands we shall not forget and I

can only call upon other nations not to

forget the Nazi atrocity that was

perpetrated Upon Our People yesterday

and this was at least at the time the

most devastating terrorist attack in the

country's history and Israel's first

right-wing government wasn't going to

take it lying down three days after the

attack the IDF retaliated with their

first military intervention into Lebanon

operation latani the goal was to create

a 10 kilometer buffer zone along Lebanon

Southern border but ended up going as

far north as the latani river over 20

000 IDF were sent in and The Invasion

resulted in one thousand deaths and 160

000 displaced persons while in southern

Lebanon the Israelis built roads and

made connections with local Christian

communities giving Lebanese Christians

in the region access to work Visas so

they could work in Israel President

Carter pushed a U.N resolution to order

the withdrawal of the IDF from Lebanon

Carter feared that the Israeli

intervention would undo the ongoing

peace talks between begin and Sadat the

latter blaming Israel for the entire

conflict in Lebanon a ceasefire would be

brokered on March 20th with 1 resolution

425 it called for a U.N Force referred

to as unifil to police Southern Lebanon

but it would take time for the IDF to

fully pull out as the Israelis began to

withdraw the syrians began to provide

anti-aircraft cover for the PLO in

southern Lebanon which violated the red

line agreement made prior to the Syrian

intervention back in 1976. Assad would

also allow International volunteers to

freely pass through Syria and Lebanon to

join the PLO fighting breaks out again

between the maronites and the ADF in

Beirut president circus tries to appease

the Christian leaders by replacing

Syrian ADF troops with Saudi and

Sudanese ones at this time Sarkis tries

to assert more independence from Syria

by rejecting a defense treaty Assad had

been pressuring him to sign he also

begins to take the Maronite Lebanese

friends position regarding the

Palestinians and wanting to abrogate the

Cairo agreement but hafez wouldn't allow

this in May of 1978 Pierre jamiel and

Camille chamoon took a secret trip to

Israel in which they arranged for arm

shipments to Lebanon most of this was

paid for by the Maronite diaspora back

in Lebanon Bashir Jamaya puts more

effort into consolidating the Christian

forces under his leadership this

involves having phalange's militias

attack moderate Maronite leaders such as

Ramon Ed who survives the attack but

goes into Exile in France for his own

safety another opponent of the jamails

were the frangias a member of the

Lebanese Parliament and Son of former

prime minister Suleiman franjia Tony

frangia had his own militia the cigar

deliberation Army but over the course of

the war he found that he was not

trusting the phalanges and believing

that they were going to escalate

violence and so he had the cigar

deliberation Army Target leaders of the

philanges believing that they were going

to escalate violence while the phalanges

weren't going to take this lying down so

they eventually massacred the frangia

family at their Clan estate in Eden Tony

frangia being amongst those massacred

former president Suleiman franjia one

sympathetic to the Lebanese friends

goals and now has a vendetta against

them and in particular the phalangists

he would use his own Clans militia the

maratha to Massacre the phalanges in

baldeck that same day the IDF finishes

its withdrawal from Lebanon but instead

of handing over control of the Border

region to unifil or to the Lebanese Army

as resolution 425 ordered they would

hand it over to Saad Hadad and the army

of Southern Lebanon whom they trusted to

protect Northern Israel from the PLO

more than the U.N president zarkas

continues his campaign to distinguish

himself from the syrians by implementing

a program to distance the ADF from parts

of the country with higher tensions and

replace them with the Lebanese Army but

Assad disapproves the Lebanese front

fires on Syrian ADF units to which Assad

responds by shelling East Beirut the

attack weakens the confidence of

Christians in president circus who would

then threaten to resign from office

unless Assad agrees to hand control of

the ADF to him and to disarm all

non-government forces in Lebanon but

Assad Allied to the PLO and L M looked

into a placing circus with Suleiman

frangia aiding his Vendetta against the

jamiles and the Lebanese front Pierre

Jamil and Camille chamoon visit Israel

again in July to formalize plans to

create an independent Christian

government in the event that Sarkis

resigns but due to International

pressure Sarkis decides to stay on

Bashir Jamail visits Israel himself in

July making first contact with defense

minister Ariel Sharon adad's forces

begin clashing with the Lebanese Army

near kalakba and marji ayum the Lebanese

Army manages to repel Haddad's militias

but they are then attacked by the PLO

under this pressure the unit

disintegrates by mid-august in August of

1978 the leader of the Lebanese Shia

Musa al-sar visits Libya but he goes

missing many of his most devoted

followers believe that he is still in

hiding to this day going into an

occultation-like State like many of the

imams from Shia Islam Sauders Imam

militias would come under the leadership

of Muhammad Madi Shams al-din and

husseini El Hussein who have close ties

to revolutionaries in Iran in the fall

of 1978 the ADF began attacking Lebanese

front positions in batron and ashrafia

resulting in over 200 000 Christians

displaced in East Beirut who then fled

to Maronite strongholds in the mountains

and Syria tries to blockade the Lebanese

Coast but the Israelis managed to breach

the blockade in order to deliver food

and arms to the christian-controlled

port of Jania another ceasefire is

brokered in October after Sarkis failed

to get Syria to limit its involvement to

Lebanon the Arab League extended the ADF

mandate for another six months none of

the factions in Lebanon wanted the

syrians to completely pull out including

most of the maronites and Assad would

use this knowledge to get his way by

threatening to pull out in order to get

what he wanted such as getting circus to

replace cabinet members in the winter of

1979 president zarkas became openly

supportive of the Lebanese front in

response the pro-syrian parliament voted

to take control of the military away

from the president and put into the

hands of the cabinet it which as applied

earlier would be stacked with Pro Syrian

puppets fighting breaks out around East

Bay root between various Maronite

factions Muslim divisions of the

Lebanese Army clash with Haddad and

Southern Lebanon who declares his

controlled territory as the free state

of Lebanon and starts receiving aid from

the Lebanese front by spraying most of

the non-syrian divisions within the ADF

had pulled out of Lebanon making it an

essentially searing and controlled body

in addition the Iranian Revolution

ousted the Shah and Iranian

revolutionaries began making contact

with Shia forces in Lebanon in the

spring of 1979 Syria began a political

campaign to isolate the Maronite

factions that had any ties to Israel

refusing to work with any Maronite or

Maronite group that had any this

campaign made its way into the Lebanese

cabinet the Lebanese national movement

demanded that the Lebanese front be

disarmed but the Christian militias

refused to disarm until the Palestinian

issue was taken care of the Lebanese

front in response demanded that the

Lebanese Army take over the policing

activities of the ADF Bashir jamile

continued his campaign to unify the

maronites under his leadership and to

take full control of East Beirut he did

the latter by removing non-christians

from East Beirut through violence and

intimidation which won him the Loyalty

of other Christian groups to achieve the

former the phalanges clashed with the

Armenian militias of the toshnak party

in March of 1979 the Camp David Accords

are signed in which Israel agreed to

withdraw from the Sinai over the course

of three years and that formal relations

between Egypt and Israel be established

this shakes up the Middle East and Egypt

would be expelled from the Arab League

and labeled as a traitor to the Arab and

Palestinian cause

I want to tell Carter and begin that

when the Arabs set off their volcano

there will be only Arabs in this part of

the world our people will continue to

fuel the torch of the Revolution with

rivers of blood until the whole of the

occupied Homeland is liberated not just

part of it back in Israel under Ariel

Sharon the IDF changes its tactics in

dealing with the PLO in Lebanon instead

of retaliating against individual PLO

attacks in Israel they would begin a

continuous air campaign against the PLO

the logic was that the PLO couldn't plan

or orchestrate any attacks on Israel so

long as they were under Fire in Lebanon

and it did work in curtailing the number

of attacks the PLO committed in Israel

but it also resulted in more human and

collateral damage which turned more of

the world against Israel it also

threatened to break the recently signed

treaty with Egypt which made the Carter

Administration extra worried and angry

with Sharon and began in response to

this change in policy the l m wanted

Lebanon to adopt an explicitly

anti-israel foreign policy advocating

for increased hostility towards Israel

and country or group that Allied or

affiliated with it Syria responds by

sending its Air Force to patrol the

Skies of South Lebanon beyond the red

lines set by the 1976 agreement to

discourage Israel Air Raids against the

PLO the November Summit of the Arab

League called for the arming of

Palestinians against the Israelis in

Lebanon as well as sending monetary Aid

to the Lebanese government Arafat plays

his role in continuing the PLO strategy

of internationally isolating Israel

the other face of the battle is the

mounting War of Attrition against the

Lebanese and Palestinian peoples the

most modern weapons even the

internationally banned ones are being

used in this war this is resulting in

the destruction of many Lebanese towns

and Villages and Palestinian camps and

in the eviction of hundreds of thousands

of Lebanese and Palestinian people

actually this terrorist and hellish plan

is still continuing and the Zionist

enemy leaders continue to implement it

this however will neither intimidate us

nor make us hesitate to reply to the

enemy actions both in the occupied land

and in southern Lebanon and with all

forms of the military and political

struggle the Lebanese Army would attempt

to deploy to Southern Lebanon in order

to take care of the PLO problem itself

before the Israelis could attack but

Assad and the ADF blocked them in the

winter of 1980 Syria began moving its

forces away from the coast and further

South to discourage potential Israeli

Air Raids Assad also wants to weaken the

maronites by fostering and fighting

between their various factions he gets

his wish when violence breaks out

between the phalanges and Morata but

fighting would also break out between a

mall and the PLO and Southern Lebanon

more Maronite infighting breaks out in

the spring between the national Liberal

Party and the phalangists the fighting

broke out over Kamil chimoun being

accused of having contacts with the PLO

to achieve in the NLP accused the

phalanges of working with the syrians in

early July Bashir jamai orders the

phalanges to attack the NLP in East

Beirut which ends with the NLP militia

leader Danny chamoon going into Exile in

Paris afterwards Camille jamun and

Pierre Jamail announced the merger of

their two parties the NLP militias were

supposed to hand over their positions in

Beirut to the phalanges but out of spite

they handed them over to the Lebanese

Army instead the phalanges would finish

off the remnants of the NLP in October

the region would turn against Assad in

the summer of 1980 when the Iran Iraq

war broke out in this conflict Assad had

sided with Shia Iran instead of Sunni

Arab Iraq the phalanges and the Lebanese

front decided to reorganize themselves

and their activities the phalanges would

take over all militant activities while

the Lebanese front would take over all

political actions they began to

conscript all party members aged 16 to

45 into the militia and organized

themselves to supplant the Lebanese

government and the areas they controlled

the Lebanese front would publish a

Manifesto calling for a Lebanon to be

transformed into a Confederation and for

the removal of all foreign interference

especially Syria and the Palestinians by

this point the maronites either wanted a

guaranteed place in the Lebanese

government or their own independent

state and as Jamail tightened his

control over the Christians of Lebanon

his ties with Israel tightened as well

he eliminates all Christian opposition

groups in zal and then attacks the

nearby Syrian ADF the syrians retaliate

by besieging the city and shelling it a

ceasefire is called allowing bashir's

forces to pull out of the city and 4

fortify their positions outside of it

during the winter of 1981 the Lebanese

forces began linking up with other

Maronite enclaves that have been out of

reach up to that point some of which

were connected with the Israeli good

fence policy in particular Bashir Jamaya

wanted the Lebanese forces to connect up

with Saad Haddad and the South Lebanon

Army who already had ties to the IDF

this would give the phalanges access to

a steadier supply of arms and Munitions

from Israel the syrians feared this

happening and armed the PLO and its

other proxies in the region to hold out

against the Maronite attacks and at this

time a third U.S president would try

their hands at making peace in Lebanon

as every president since World War II

has learned no region of the world

presents America with more difficult

more frustrating or more convoluted

problems than the Middle East it's a

region where hate has roots reaching

back to the dawn of History it's a place

where the senseless spilling of blood in

the name of religious faith has gone on

since biblical times and where Modern

events are forever being shaped by

momentous events of the past in the

Exodus to the Holocaust an art and cold

warrior President Reagan wanted to use

this conflict to try and displace the

Soviets as the Region's primary arms

dealer

we wanted at the outset of the

administration to make some substantial

gesture to the moderate Arabs as an

Earnest of American friendship and

resolve the sale of aircraft to Saudi

Arabia provided that opportunity we

believe that Israel's security would be

enhanced rather than threatened by our

policy and that the peace process would

be Advanced by it but he faced

opposition due to the Arab State's

hostilities toward Israel Reagan wanted

to expand the Camp David process begun

under Carter to bring the Gulf States to

recognize Israel after the assassination

of Sadat there were fears at Jose

Mubarak might reneg on Camp David this

process was made more difficult when the

Pagan government destroyed an Iraqi

nuclear reactor as well as when they

annexed the Golan Heights into Israel

proper in private Reagan was actually

supportive of Israel destroying the

Ozark reactor but due to the U.S

supporting Iraq and his war against Iran

he was forced to public publicly

condemned Israel's attack the annexation

of the golons however was viewed by the

administration as having little benefit

to the overall peace process in their

meetings and Communications the IDF had

promised Bashir Jamail that if the

syrians attacked his position with

warplanes Israel would militarily

intervene the Lebanese front wanted to

gain control of zal so it could continue

constructing its own Road Network

connecting the Christian enclaves in the

South to the Maronite positions in East

Beirut outgunned Bashir looked for a way

to drag the Israelis into the fight so

he could dislodge the syrians the

Lebanese forces attempted another attack

against the ADF around zal in April of

1981 but they were outmatched by the

Syrian Superior Firepower who retaliated

by shelling the city and attacking the

Maronite positions dug in around zal

with the help of the L M and PLO in

retaliation prime minister begin stepped

up Israeli airstrikes against the PLO

south of the red line and threatened

Assad that if the syrians tried to

Massacre the Lebanese Christians Israel

Trail would intervene directly against

them the Reagan Administration went into

overtime trying to ease the tensions but

negotiations broke down after the

syrians began attacking Maronite

positions west of zal in retaliation the

Israelis shot down two Syrian

helicopters the first direct engagement

between the two since the Yom Kippur War

Syria responds by violating the last

remaining provision of the 76 Red Line

agreement by sending in surface-to-air

missiles into Southern Lebanon in order

to deter Israeli airstrikes against the

PLO who were also backed by the L M and

Amal Ariel Sharon and Bagan planned an

attack to destroy the Sams on the day of

the attack bad weather forced them to

postpone which allowed tensions to cool

down despite tensions cooling between

the Israelis and syrians the PLO resumed

its own rocket attacks against Israeli

civilians under the protection of the

Soviet Sams in addition to this the PLO

had constructed a series of tunnels

across Southern Lebanon that allowed

them to hide their men as well as

Weapons Depots from Israeli bombing

raids U.S ambassador Philip Habib making

emergency runs between Beirut Damascus

and Jerusalem presented a ceasefire

agreement that prime minister begin

could support but his defense minister

Ariel Sharon was not on board in the

Kaepernick debates that followed I

strenuously opposed the ceasefire

starting that if we accepted it we would

soon find ourselves in a very difficult

situation no doubt the PLO would reduce

its activity along the Lebanese bottle

in a code with the letters of the

agreement but at the same time I will

show that it would step up their

activities elsewhere sending squads into

Israel through Jordan and intensifying

terrorism from their sales on the West

Bank and in Gaza they would also be free

to undertake actions all over the world

these two orchestrated from the

headquarters in Beirut meanwhile our

hands would be tied by the ceasefire

some of these criticisms would amend the

ceasefire agreement to cover the PLO

attacks in all of Israel not just the

Galilee but this left Jews and Israeli

citizens abroad as fair game for

assassination which is exactly what

happened the PLO began building up their

weapons caches in southern Lebanon

including Rockets they also failed to

keep their word on not committing acts

of terrorism within Israel itself Sharon

wanted to retaliate against the PLO but

begin under International pressure

decided not to for the time being but by

summer of 1981 they resumed their

attacks against the PLO at this time

Bashir jamai was engaging in secret

discussions with President circus in

Beirut Bashir offered to cut all ties

with Israel if it would make serious

progress in National reunification this

happened shortly before he made a visit

to Washington DC with the Lebanese

presidential election coming up in 1982

Bashir was interested in running for the

office but being seen as a puppet of

Israel would have harmed his chances of

winning so he began testing the waters

despite his offers to president Sarkis

the deal was rejected by Assad but in

the September meeting of the Arab League

Syria demanded that the Lebanese front

cut ties with Israel which its leader

had just offered privately as Assad

would have a history of doing this and

public he demands that he wants someone

to do X then that person offers to do X

in private to which he says that's not

enough anymore only then to in public

say all he wants is X at another Arab

League Summit in November he also Arafat

promised Elias circus that he would end

PLO attacks on Israel from Southern

Lebanon at this same meeting Assad tries

to keep the attention focused on

Southern Lebanon so he can keep their

attention on what Israel is doing to the

Palestinians and not what Syria has been

doing to the Christians and the rest of

Lebanon the winter of 1982 saw Assad's

war against Bashir Jamal's campaign for

president go public at this time Assad

was having problems with the Syrian

branch of the Muslim Brotherhood so he

accused Bashir of working with them

which was patently untrue he also

accused him of keeping up secret ties

with the Israelis which was true he had

recently met with Israeli defense

minister Ariel Sharon it is believed

that Bashir offered Israel a peace

treaty between Lebanon and Israel if he

became president but he would need their

military aid to win since the ceasefire

back in 1981 the PLO had continued

Terror attacks against Israeli targets

abroad as well as within Israel itself

with the IDF occasionally retaliating

U.S Secretary of State Alexander Hague

had received word from begin that Israel

was considering another military

intervention into Southern Lebanon

calling it a matter of conscience at

that same time the U.S had tried to get

the syrians to remove the Sams from the

Becca Valley but Assad refused to budge

in March 1982 Israeli officers in Paris

and Athens were attacked by the PLO as

well as IDF soldiers and Jenna nagaza

being killed on April 3 an Israeli

Embassy official was killed in Paris a

pair of Israeli soldiers were inspecting

the buffer zone in southern Lebanon when

their vehicle was blown up killing the

soldiers and on May 7 Israeli planes hit

PLO Targets in southern Lebanon to which

the PLO responded by firing Rockets into

Northern Israel the PLO was divided and

Yasser Arafat did not have nearly as

much authority over them as he led on on

May 16th leaders of the PLO factions not

aligned with Arafat declared the

ceasefire to be null and void the

continued terrorist attacks against

Israel and Israelis in order to trigger

a regional war against the Jewish State

on June 4th the Israeli ambassador to

the UK [ __ ] argov was shot he survived

the attack but was left with permanent

injuries one of the assailants was

killed by a Scotland Yard security

officer and in the Assassin's pockets

they found a list of other Jewish and

Israeli Targets in the UK and Europe

begins cabinet met that same day to

formulate a response it is inconceivable

that these malevolent criminals should

be allowed to strike our ambassadors we

cannot wait for our ambassadors in

Athens or Rome to be Melody tomorrow and

it is easier for the terrorists to

operate than in London again the Reagan

Administration was trying to talk Israel

down from military intervention we tried

very hard to persuade began and Sharon

that these radical Palestinian elements

events were trying to goad manipulate

and provoke them into war they listened

but they did not hear as far as they

were concerned any Act of terrorism by

any Palestinian anywhere in the world

was a violation of the Seas fire in

Lebanon and they claimed the right to

take whatever steps they thought

necessary to defend the people of Israel

yeah of shooting was merely the match

that ignited the fuse belly was the

chain of terrorist attacks and the

continuing buildup of long-range

artillery in southern Lebanon all of

which had taken place during the 11

month long supposed ceasefire the

Israelis responded with airstrikes

hitting PLO bases in the suburbs of

Beirut and in southern Lebanon to which

the PLO responded by indiscriminately

firing Rockets into Northern Israel this

was the final straw for begin Israel

would invade Lebanon again but this time

instead of a quick in and out operation

it would drag on for nearly two decades

and it would occupy a similar space in

the Israeli mind that Vietnam Nam does

in America begin wanted to avoid the

military taking actions on its own like

they had in previous Wars so he ordered

that no Advance passed the minimum goal

post of 25 miles be made without an

explicit order from the cabinet they

were also adamant on avoiding conflict

with the syrians whose Soviet provided

frog and scud missiles could hit most of

Israel they would send a steady stream

of messages to the syrians telling them

that they only wanted to take out the

terrorists behind their lines Sharon

also ordered the Army to avoid harming

civilians in order to avoid the mistakes

made during the latani operation back in

1978. Ariel Sharon wanted to weaken the

grip of the PLO over the West Bank and

believed expelling them from Lebanon and

Beirut in particular would do this he

also wanted Syria out of Lebanon so it

couldn't protect the PLO nor interfere

in lebanon's political process Sharon

also wanted an israeli-friendly

government in Lebanon and believed this

could not be achieved so long as the PLO

and Syria were in the country the

Soviets blamed the U.S for Israel's

invasion of Lebanon accusing it of

okaying the operation the U.S had

suspected that Israel might invade

Lebanon but they had no idea a Time

manner or what would trigger it Reagan

replied that the Soviets were just as

responsible for the conflict in the

Middle East by not supporting the Camp

David Accords and by encouraging Syrian

actions in the region as the Israelis

advanced in the Becca Valley the syrians

responded with artillery fire and moving

their forces to block the Israeli path

toward terrorist targets as the syrians

advanced the PLO began firing into

Northern Israel the cabinet approved an

alteration to the 25-mile limit in order

to allow the IDF to fake a flanking

maneuver against the syrians in hopes

that they would pull back out of fear of

being cut off from reinforcements IDF

soldiers ran into trouble when engaging

the PLO such as civilians being taken

hostage or used as human Shields the

order to avoid civilian casualties

resulted in the IDF taking more

casualties itself which slowed down the

Israeli timetable for completing the

operation

while listening to my father's War

Stories growing up I often wondered I

would conduct myself under Fire now I

knew my Zionist bravado shrank before

the reality of whizzing scraps of white

hot metal much time and warfare would

pass before I grew indifferent to the

hiss of projectiles overhead or the

sight of scattered body parts

had ordered his armies in Lebanon to

fire on the IDF if they Advanced up the

central route in Lebanon the Israelis

tried to send a message to hafez through

U.S ambassador Philip Habib asking them

to remove the terrorist artillery in

rocket launchers as this message was

being delivered the syrians were

mobilizing their reserves and sending in

more anti-aircraft Weaponry as well as

firing on Israeli forces from their own

Jets on June 9th the Israelis attacked

the Syrian Sams destroying all of them

the Soviets had been backing the syrians

but after the attack they asked the

United States to broker a ceasefire

Reagan sent a message demanding a

ceasefire go into effect at 6am June

10th but the syrians had made no moves

towards a ceasefire themselves at that

same time the cabinet received a message

from Assad saying that he couldn't stop

the PLO from continuing to fire Rockets

the Israelis needed the syrians to

withdraw before the ceasefire went into

effect so they could take out the PLO

they also wanted to have control of the

Damascus Beirut Highway which would

prevent the syrians from installing

another puppet government in lebanon's

1982 elections it would also allow the

Israelis to link up with their Maronite

allies the surrounding Beirut which

would allow the Christians to take the

capital on June 10th the syrians began

retreating from the Becca Valley the IDF

received orders to complete their new

operations that being to prevent the

syrians from re-establishing their old

positions and at noon on June 11th a

unilateral ceasefire from Israel would

commence

the IDF had failed to capture the Beirut

Damascus Highway by the time of the

ceasefire but after the ceasefire had

gone into effect the PLO near Beirut

began firing on the IDF to which they

responded Sharon met with Bashir Jamail

and discerned that he and the Lebanese

front had no intention of continuing or

aiding in the fight against the PLO the

Syrian forces in the city were cut off

from the Syrian forces in the northern

part of the highway and the terrorists

in Beirut were cut off from

reinforcements PLO members began joining

the Syrian positions and foreign

volunteers from Syria Libya Iraq and

Iran began arriving in Beirut to join up

with the PLO we were walking a tightrope

some six thousand armed PLO are holed up

in Beirut president Sarkis of Lebanon

can't say openly but he apparently wants

Israel to stay near until the PLO can be

disarmed and he wants to restore the

central government of Lebanon allow

Palestinians to become citizens and get

all foreign forces to withdraw from

Lebanon the world is waiting for us to

use our muscle and Order Israel out we

can't do this if we want to help Sarkis

we can't explain the situation either

some days are worse than others in the

negotiations the Americans were asking

the Israelis to leave Lebanon but allow

the syrians to stay they also proposed

the PLO be allowed to stay but be

disarmed and made exclusively political

rather than militant the Israelis

however were demanding the expulsion of

the PLO from Lebanon not a disarmament

and should not just be the leadership at

this time the Reagan Administration was

in the early phases of drafting its own

solution to the arab-israeli conflict

but it had not informed the Israelis of

this yet they wanted to use Lebanon to

bring the PLO to the negotiating table

the Americans were also trying to bring

the syrians closer into their orbit and

away from the Soviets Israel's goals

were more limited secure Northern Israel

from terrorist attacks from Lebanon and

turn Lebanon into another Regional

partner like Egypt behind the scenes

Reagan and Megan were very angry at each

other President Reagan was telling

Israel that they needed to withdraw from

Lebanon while allowing the syrians to

stay while began was complaining that

the Reagan Administration was selling

weapons to all the neighboring Arab

states whom at that point did not

recognize Israel and it looked like they

never were going to and the Israelis had

refused to okay any negotiations with

the PLO until they recognized Israel's

right to exist but after that meeting

begins cabinet began secretly asking the

Reagan Administration to open up

negotiations with the PLO had the enemy

also stopped shooting then everything

would have been quiet from that point

the entire struggle would have been

political the idea would not have moved

towards bayot and there wouldn't have

been any more battles with the syrians

it was the terrorists that said that

they would continue to fight and they

had continued Israel had West Beirut

surrounded but they didn't want to

engage in more house-to-house fighting

they asked us here in the Lebanese

Christians to go in themselves but as

the fighting had continued he was trying

to publicly distance himself from the

Israelis thus the IDF begins a Siege of

the city it's radically cutting off

access to food water and electricity

with an occasional shelling in response

to PLO attacks

as The Siege continued the U.S was busy

in negotiations with Sarkis Arafat Assad

and begin to negotiate an end to the

fighting one thing was certain the

Israelis refused to leave Lebanon until

the PLO was expelled the Lebanese

government wanted a multinational Force

rather than a U.N Force to oversee an

evacuation of the PLO the U.S National

Security Council was initially opposed

to U.S involvement in such an effort but

it had changed its Minds by July 3rd

some CIA officials had been

communicating with Arafat through back

channels the PLO were saying that they

were willing to negotiate and to accept

the U.S terms but only if the U.S

supported an independent Palestinian

state which the U.S was not willing to

do at that time the PLO was busy

lobbying representatives in Washington

while some officials wanted Israel to

militarily break the back of the PLO in

order to make them more pliable during

negotiations as such negotiations

continued the U.S wanted the

Palestinians to accept U.N resolution

242 which called for Israel to return

occupied territories in exchange for

peace and that Israel had the right to

exist which had been rejected by the PLO

and most Palestinian groups since before

the Six-Day War but as fighting

continued and pressure mounted on July

17th secretary George P Schultz gave

Arafat 24 hours to respond a message

from RFI is delivered via president

Sarkis in which he says the PLO wants to

leave Lebanon but refuses to leave until

they get guarantees of the protection

for the Palestinian refugees and the

camps that an Arab force or the Lebanese

Army be involved in their evacuation and

that countries should be already set up

for them to resettle in behind the

scenes the U.S was negotiating with all

of the Arab states Saudi Arabia told the

Americans that they got Syria to agree

to take the men but the PLO refused

wanting to maintain autonomy apart from

Assad on July 20th Schultz met with

Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia and foreign

minister Abdel kadam of Syria to address

the multinational force and Lebanon they

told Schultz that none of the members of

the Arab League were willing to take in

the PLO they both fear that if they took

in the few thousand PLO Fighters that

were thought to be in Beirut alone they

would either be forced to take in the

other 400 000 Palestinians living in

Lebanon or that the families of those

evacuated would be massacred or that

after the PLO was withdrawn that Israel

would not withdraw from Lebanon itself

making them look weak in their own

countries and while these negotiations

were going on the fighting continued

the Israelis wanted to drive the

terrorists hiding in Beirut out of the

city so on August 1st the IDF took

control of the Beirut International

Airport as well as some of the

Palestinian suburbs around East Beirut

Israeli tanks began moving to establish

a line north of the city while PLO fire

on them on August 2nd Water and Power

which had been shut off and turned back

on intermittently were shut off again

began says he ordered the utilities to

be turned back on begin was demanding

that the U.S not negotiate directly with

the PLO but that they could use

intermediaries but they have to be at

least 300 yards apart throughout the

negotiations both the PLO and the

Israelis were making Petty demands which

showed that they both cared more about

the Optics of their home audiences

rather than the reality on the ground

back in Washington Israel's foreign

minister Yitzhak Shamir meets with

President Reagan and Secretary of

State's George P Schultz and engages in

a tough discussion with the Americans

Soviets are profiting from the nature of

your retaliation

15 hours of shelling make people forget

who fired the first shot the Soviets may

even be stimulating it and you are

playing into their hands

after getting dressed down by the

president Shamir and Schultz talk in

private on August 2nd Shamir states that

Israel doesn't trust the PLO statement

that they are going to leave Beirut or

Lebanon we have doubts the PLO is ready

to leave leaving will change their

position entirely nowhere else can they

so effectively threaten Israel as in

Lebanon not in Syria or in Egypt we can

test their Readiness make a timetable

but we don't see the connection between

a ceasefire and negotiations for their

departure if the PLO knows that the U.S

links a ceasefire and negotiations then

the PLO will keep violating the

ceasefire in order to block the

negotiations a peace proposal is made by

The Americans on August 8th to which the

Israelis agree but the PLO doesn't

respond until August 19th throughout the

negotiations the Israelis continued

airstrikes against PLO positions in

response to the anti-araphat factions of

the PLO violating the ceasefires the

situation on the ground made

negotiations with the PLO difficult

every time I PLO faction fired on the

Israelis the IDF retaliated with

artillery this made travel between the

various spots where Arafat and the PLO

leaders were held up difficult thus

prolonging the negotiations that was the

Crux of the problem Habib required a

ceasefire for negotiations take place

without a ceasefire it would be

physically impossible for negotiations

to move back and forth to past the

necessary messages if the Israelis

regarded continued her pressure on the

PLO as essential to convince them to

leave when you read the sources you'll

find both sides accusing the other of

intentionally prolonging the negotiation

process and out of the two I find the

accusations against the PLO to be more

believable the IDF was pretty well

disciplined and only attacking the PLO

when they were fired upon in contrast

there was much less discipline amongst

the PLO considering there were factions

fighting alongside Arafat but not taking

orders from him the factions not

following Arafat were probably

intentionally dragging out the fight

hoping to turn the International

Community against Israel thinking that

they could Outlast them I find this to

be the most believable considering it is

consistent with two decades of PLO

strategy up to this point the eventual

agreement was for the PLO fighters to be

disarmed and removed from the country

for the multinational Force escorting

them out the difficulty however would be

finding countries that actually wanted

to take them in

the Israelis weren't the only ones who

distrusted Arafat in the PLO most of the

Arab world did as well they were happy

to set them loose on the Israelis but

nobody wanted them in their own backyard

clearly Arab governments did not trust

the PLO and for their Pro Palestinian

rhetoric we're more about a potential po

threat to them not the fate of the

besieged PLO this presented us with a

diplomatic problem this is your

beginning to make progress in the

negotiation to get the pl to eBay root

relations were perfectly backpedaling

away from accepting them at the

negotiations begin with showing signs of

annoyance with Sharon but he was still

fearful that the PLO would refuse to

leave at the last minute Tunisia said it

was willing to take in all of the PLO if

the U.S had wanted it to considering

tunisia's population was more

politically moderate than the Gulf

States or Syria this seemed like a less

dangerous option as for the PLL that

they were actually serious about

departing when I heard their request

that they'd be allowed to take their

Mercedes-Benz with them

they presumed they said the boats used

in evacuation would be car ferries as

the day for the plo's withdrawal from

Beirut neared there were still other

issues on the table the Israelis didn't

want to withdraw from Lebanon unless the

syrians did as well which was the

position of both the U.S and the

Lebanese government president Sarkis was

asking that the 1979 Cairo declaration

legitimizing Syria's intervention be

revoked Assad refused to accept these

terms but he did agree to withdraw the

Palestinian troops sent into the country

and to pull his troops back from their

current positions the first of the

multinational forces arrived on August

21st made up of American British French

and Italian troops and on August 22nd

the evacuation of the PLO began in

addition Syria began to withdraw pla

troops by truck back into Syria but the

families of the PLO stayed behind in

Lebanon about 8 500 PLO militants were

evacuated from Beirut which was greater

than even the Israeli estimates 2500 the

Palestinian Liberation Army were also

pulled back into Syria documents found

in the PLO headquarters in Beirut would

reveal that their strategy was betting

on popular discontent in Israel forcing

the IDF to pull out there were even back

Channel negotiations between the labor

party and the Egyptians the former of

which were promising a better deal for

the Palestinians and Egyptians should

labor return to power Egyptian

ambassadors to Lebanon would then

deliver this information to arafah and

the PLO leadership Bashir Jamaya would

be elected president of Lebanon on

August 23rd but the process was seen as

fraudulent by many members of parliament

were missing and many had been bribed or

threatened into supporting Bashir as

president he called for the withdrawal

of all foreign forces from Lebanon

including both the Israelis and the

syrians the Israelis wanted to begin

talks for a peace treaty between Lebanon

and Israel so they could normalize

relations

but Bashir refused to have these

discussions

on September 14th the Israeli ambassador

to the U.S mosharenz visited U.S

Secretary of State George Schultz urging

the Americans to push for a peace treaty

between Israel and Lebanon now saying

that it was now or never the United

States unequivocally favors an Israel

Lebanon peace treaty but a peace treaty

has to be signed between Sovereign

governments and while Shear Jamal's

presidency is not yet sufficiently

established to stand the test of

legitimacy such a treaty would require

Bashir Jamal called on All Foreign

forces the Palestinians the syrians and

the Israelis to be expelled from Lebanon

this greatly angered the Syrian

president hafez al-assad despite Syrian

forces having been pulled out of Beirut

Assad wasn't completely without assets

he still had the Syrian social National

Party a pro-syrian political group after

bashir's election the party reached out

to a young recruit Habib shartuni a

Maronite Christian whose family lived in

the same apartment building that housed

the phalangist headquarters on the night

of September 13 18th chartuni broke into

the room above the phalanges

headquarters and planted about 50

kilograms of high explosives and set up

a wireless Detonator on the afternoon of

the 14th he waited until Bashir had

arrived at the headquarters before

leaving the building 10 minutes later

the bomb detonated there was chaos in

the immediate aftermath with conflicting

reports about the status and whereabouts

of Bashir the Israelis feared the

situation in Beirut devolving into chaos

defense minister Ariel Sharon and the

chief of the general staff Rafael Eton

began planning an IDF incursion into

West Beirut as well as getting the

phalanges to sweep the Palestinian camps

south of the city when word of bashir's

death reached Israel Megan met with

Sharon and itan and signed on to the IDF

moving into West Beirut but at this

point nobody mentioned having the

phalanges enter the refugee camps to

begin the U.S feared a war of succession

erupting in Lebanon with secretary

Schultz calling all of the involved

parties to ensure a peaceful and

constitutional succession of the

presidency and calls to prime minister

begin Schultz urged him not to send the

IDF into Westbury route but the plans

for this were already in motion in the

early morning hours of September 15th

the IDF began moving into West Beirut to

secure strategic positions as they

entered the city they were being fired

upon from sources inside the Sabra and

shatila refugee camps it became clear to

the Israelis that not all the PLO had

been evacuated but that same morning

orders were given to the IDF for bidding

entrance into the camps the IDF wasn't

allowed to enter the camps for numerous

reasons firstly being that Ubuntu the

IDF was already busy occupying West

Beirut so there was less forces to spare

but more importantly than that though is

that the International Community

probably well just plain didn't trust

the Israelis to enter the camps

regardless of whatever their conduct was

but the most important reason for it was

to reduce casualties many in the IDF

thought that it was about time that the

phalanges pulled their own weight and so

Ariel Sharon and Rafael etan met with

the phalanges leaders and gave them

their plan for them to sweep the camps

and find any of the PLL left behind that

had avoided the evacuation order up to

this point the phalanges had done

minimal work with the IDF since the

evasions began back in June they were

mostly used as guides and to help

identify the known PLO members amongst

the Palestinian communities in southern

Lebanon they had not participated in the

house to house fighting the IDF had done

in the lead-up to the siege of Beirut

this left many within the IDF as well as

within Israel angry at the phalangists

they were seen as the primary

beneficiaries of the IDF sacrifices but

were not contributing to the effort the

phalanges had a history of committing

atrocities themselves as well as having

atrocities committed against them but

thus far during the Israeli invasion

they had been well behaved during these

actions there were generally no acts of

Vengeance or violence against the

Palestinian civilian population by the

phalanges who were operating with the

IDF Massad agents believe that the

phalange's organization had politically

and organizationally matured and that

atrocities and massacres were behind

them but there was other evidence that

suggested the attitudes of the phalanges

toward the Palestinians had not changed

Sharon asked the phalanges to enter the

camps but they said they would need at

least 24 hours to mobilize in that time

some IDF members fearful of what the

phalanges might do tried to preempt

disaster Major General Amir Drury

reached out to the Lebanese Army asking

them to enter the camps before the

phalanges could preventing them from

being left alone with the mostly

defenseless Palestinians but both the

Army and the Lebanese prime minister

refused the phalanges would enter the

shatila camp at 6 pm on September 16th

they left a handful of officers behind

at the Israeli command post who would be

in radio contact with their men entering

the camp now calling these areas camps

might create an image of row upon row of

tents in reality the camps wore tightly

packed buildings with narrow streets and

Alleyways because of this the officers

stationed at the command post outside

the camps couldn't see what was going on

inside them they were completely reliant

on the messages coming in over the radio

back in Jerusalem began's cabinet had

met 6 pm and only at that point had

Cerrone told the Prime Minister about

the plan to send the phalangists into

the camp far too often the government

had no alternative other than to endorse

measures already taken without explicit

approval or adequate information the

time lag between military action and

cabinet decision being inexcusable as

the phalanges entered the PLO who were

left behind began firing at the

maronites standing on top of the command

post they requested the IDF provide a

source of light for the phalanges since

the sun had been going down the IDF

provided light in the form of flares

initially deployed from an aircraft but

then switched to artillery flares which

periodically fire to keep light over the

camps IDF officers began to overhear

messages being received and given out by

the phalanges leaders an IDF Lieutenant

overheard the liaison officer on the

radio with the phalanges and the camp

saying they had 50 women and children

held down and they asked what they

should do with them the liaison is

reported to have said this is the last

time you're going to ask me a question

like that you know exactly what to do

another report came in where one of his

men said he was holding down 45 people

liaison officer is reported to have said

do the will of God a philanges officer

entered the Israeli dining hall with

commanders at the post and said that

they had killed about 300 people

including civilians he left the hall and

returned later and amended his casualty

count down to 120. by the morning of

September 17th reports of what was going

on in the Sabra shatila camps began to

reach Jerusalem Major General Drury

tried to confirm information about the

alleged casualties from commanders on

the ground but they didn't report about

civilian deaths again Rory tried to

convince the Lebanese Army to enter the

camps but again they refused despite

receiving reports about what was

happening Rory later reported rumor

members claiming that the Americans were

telling the Lebanese not to negotiate

with the Israelis and to refuse their

requests more reports came in IDF

soldiers overheard acts of violence

coming from the camps one soldier

reported seeing phalanges Leading Men

Women and Children out of the camps and

relocating them to a nearby Stadium one

IDF Soldier asked a phalanges why they

were killing civilians to which he

received the response the pregnant women

will give birth to terrorists and

children will grow up to be terrorists

situation back in Israel was confused

without Israeli officers on the ground

it was hard to confirm any of the

reports coming out were the phalangists

literally killing women and children or

was this just dark Macabre humor from a

group of soldiers hardened by years of

war until this could be figured out

Major General Drury ordered the

phalanges operations to be halted what

this actually meant is that the

phalanges had to stay where they were

and not go any deeper into the camps but

it was too little too late the slaughter

wasn't finished until the morning of

September 18th the exact death toll is

still disputed the low estimate is

approximately 300 while the high

estimate is about 3 500. unfortunately

due to a lack of sufficient

documentation among Palestinians living

in Lebanon we don't and can likely never

have an accurate number after the

massacre phalange's commanders denied

their involvement on September 19 1982

atan and drory met with phalanges

commanders and demanded they tell them

about their involvement in the massacres

the Commanders claim to have no

knowledge of what their men were doing

and no control over their actions it

wasn't long before investigations into

the massacres were ordered prime

minister bacon called for one himself

led by Yitzhak Kahan the president of

the Israeli Supreme Court this report

would go on to lay direct responsibility

for the massacre on the phalangists our

conclusion is therefore that the direct

responsibility for the perpetration of

the acts of Slaughter rests on the

phalanges forces it is evident that the

forces who entered the area were steeped

in hatred for the Palestinians and these

feelings of hatred were compounded by a

longing for revenge in the wake of the

assassination however the Kahan

commission does not leave the Israelis

blameless there was a danger of a

massacre and no steps were taken which

might have prevented this danger or at

least greatly reduced the possibility

that Deeds of this type might be done

than those who made the decisions and

those who implemented them are

indirectly responsible for what

ultimately occurred even if they did not

intend this to happen a merely

disregarded the anticipated danger some

criticized the Kahan report because it

alleviates some of the responsibility

for the massacres away from Israel and

prefer to look at the report published

by the un's McBride commission led by

Irish politician Sean McBride in its

analysis to the event the McBride

commission doesn't differentiate between

degrees of responsibility between those

who actually did the murdering and those

whose inaction made it possible

personally I think the Kahan

commission's approach is better because

I think we all know inherently that not

everybody involved is equally

responsible in an atrocity the guy

cleaning the bathrooms at the rice dog

or Hitler's personal chef or Taylor

doesn't hold equal responsibility for

the Holocaust despite being on the Nazi

payroll just like the Palestinian

civilians in the camps don't hold equal

responsibility for what Arafat and the

PLO did in their name there's also the

many problematic aspects of Sean

McBride's personal history he was a long

time member of the Irish Republican Army

whom during his time in the organ and

after were known for a liberal usage of

anti-Semitic rhetoric his parents and

siblings were known supporters of Nazi

policy and allegations of Sean McBride

himself being a Nazi sympathizer or

collaborator have dogged him for decades

what makes this more problematic was

this period of time at the U.N the 1970s

and 80s was a very anti-semitic period

for the United Nations in 1975 U.N

resolution 3379 redefined Zionism as a

form of racial discrimination and

Associated it with fascism imperialism

and apartheid which no self-described

Zionist has ever advocated now I think

this story deserves its own video but I

think this gives just enough historical

context to understand why the McBride

report is at the very best not better

than the Kahan report whichever report

you put more weight into seems to be

dependent on whether or not you think

the massacre was intentional and based

on everything I've read I could clearly

see that it wasn't it was a Cavalcade of

incompetent short-sightedness and

screw-ups there's also the issue of why

didn't the Lebanese Army enter the camps

when the Israelis asked them to on

multiple occasions but not even the

Kahan commission report decides on that

after all the Bloodshed there were

demands from the Lebanese government as

well as the International Community for

the U.S to return to Lebanon Reagan and

Schultz wanted to send the multinational

Force back into Beirut but the Secretary

of Defense Casper Weinberger didn't

Weinberger said he didn't want to send

the multinational Force back in until

all foreign actors Israel Syria Iran and

the Palestinians had left secretary

Schultz saw these preconditions as a

means to ensure that the multinational

Force could never be redeployed the

military wants to do what the diplomats

don't think is necessary and the

diplomats want the military to do what

the military is too nervous to do our

military is nervous that Ronald Reagan

isn't the president felt that the United

States must contribute to a visible

definite constructive International

effort to help the central government of

Lebanon begin to regain control over its

own country the United States saw a

Lebanon free of foreign forces and with

control over its own territory such a

legitimate government we hoped could

negotiate a meaningful agreement with

Israel Weinberger felt that a limited

mission was too risky and feared getting

drawn into a long protracted conflict

what we today call Vietnam syndrome some

wanted to leave the mnf and longer and

assign it other missions but it had been

sized and equipped for the single

Mission it had accomplished moreover I

felt as President Eisenhower had felt 25

years earlier that we should not have a

permanent presence in Lebanon on

September 20th President Reagan

announced the return of U.S Marines to

Beirut in the Israeli cabinet approved

the withdrawal of the IDF from the

capital

we must pave the way for withdrawal of

foreign forces

a place to begin this task is in Beirut

the Lebanese government must be

permitted to restore internal security

in its capital

it cannot do this if foreign forces

remain in or near Beirut

with this goal in mind I have consulted

with our French and Italian allies

we have agreed to form a new

multinational force similar to the one

which served so well last month

with the mission of enabling the

Lebanese government to resume full

sovereignty over its capital the next

day Amin Jamal was elected president by

Parliament and was sworn in on September

23rd with a much larger majority than

Bashir had a month earlier in the

beginning Amin would be more popular in

West Beirut and among Muslims of Lebanon

and the Lebanese forces refused to pass

on their loyalty to him they would both

eventually realize they were each

other's best options foreign governments

began pressuring the Israelis to pull

out of Beirut who did so by September

29th the Western Powers began setting

their forces back into Beirut to protect

the Palestinians the Lebanese Army would

also enter West Beirut Amin Jamaya would

go on a world tour visiting the U.S

France Italy and Saudi Arabia the Reagan

Administration tried to pressure Amin to

open negotiations with Israel believing

it would fast-track the withdrawal of

the IDF from Lebanon the Lebanese forces

now under the leadership of fadia from

publicly called for a treaty with Israel

but ameen refused fearing hostile from

neighboring Arab states as well as from

Muslims within Lebanon he would engage

in indirect negotiations with Israel

using the U.S as a mediator Amin was

willing to cooperate on security matters

with the IDF especially in dealing with

Palestinian militants but they wanted

the IDF to fully pull out of Lebanon

along with a treaty the Israelis wanted

to retain bases in southern Lebanon and

have the command of Southern Lebanon

handed to Saad Haddad back in June when

The Invasion began a split occurred

amongst the Shia in Lebanon and within

Amal the Shia in the southern Mecca

Valley were also enemies of the PLO

resenting them for inciting Israeli

reprisals this year in the northern

Becca Valley having been protected from

Israeli reprisals by the syrians were

still sympathetic to the Palestinian

cause within a mall a split began to

occur between the secularists led by the

organization's leader Nabi Berry and the

islamists led by Hussein masawi during

the Israeli Invasion Barry joined the

committee of national salvation headed

by then president Elias Sarkis the this

committee had all the big names of

Lebanese politics such as Waleed jumblat

Camille chamoon and both Pierre and

Bashir jamiel musawi and the islamists

saw this as a collaboration with the

Israelis and so splintered off to form

their own group Islamic Gamal at that

same time a Mall's representative in

Tehran Saeed Ibrahim al-ameen along with

Hassan nasrallah with both publicly

condemn Barry and announced their

separation from a mall both would become

leaders in the soon to be formed

Hezbollah since the revolution in 1979

the Iranians had been asserting more

influence in Lebanon especially amongst

the Shia they were competing for

influence over the same groups as hafez

al-assad the Iranians made appeals to

religion while the syrians made appeals

to class Consciousness the relations

between Amal and Iran were already

strained before the Israeli Invasion

Ayatollah Khomeini was more sympathetic

to the Palestinian cause than namal was

generally especially more so than those

in the South and khomeini's friendly

relations with moammar Gaddafi in Libya

was also a problem for the Shia of

Lebanon many of whom blamed Gaddafi for

The Disappearance of their former

spiritual leader Musa al-sader the

Iranian revolutionary yard Corps would

deploy 1500 soldiers to Lebanon to

confront the IDF and the South but by

the time they arrived the syrians had

already pulled back Assad was fearful

that the irgc would reignite the

fighting between the IDF and syrians

instead Assad and Khomeini agreed to

have the irgc train Lebanese militias to

confront the Israelis in their stead one

important character we need to know of

is Imad mugnia he was one of many Shia

who joined the fatah branch of the PLO

and as a Young Man organized the student

Brigade who eventually became part of

arafat's 417 the group The PLO would

send out to commit acts of terrorism

abroad while in fatah he would meet

Khalil bazir The Mastermind of the

coastal Road Massacre that incited the

1978 Israeli invasion bugnia was in West

Beirut during the Israeli Siege and

after the plos evacuation he got more

involved in the Shia resistance to the

Israeli occupation such as the Hezbollah

in late 1982 mugnia planned his own

attack against the Israelis and al-azier

would provide him with the needed

explosives he would introduce a new

tactic into the Lebanese Civil War

mugnia would recruit a childhood friend

Ahmad kasir the Israelis were occupying

his hometown where his family still

lived fearing reprisals against them

cassir stipulated his participation on

the grounds that his identity would be

kept secret until the IDF was driven

away from his home on the morning of

November 11 1982 cassir drove a white

sedan packed with explosives into the

entrance of the seven-story building

entire that the IDF used as their

southern headquarters the building also

held an IDF ammunition storage the

explosion of the car bomb ignited the

ammunition creating an even bigger

explosion 75 Israelis were killed along

with 15 Lebanese and Palestinians who

were being detained the tactic of stars

had mixed results I mean sure they

captured International attention but

they usually weren't very successful in

terms of the number of Israeli

casualties about half the time the only

person who ever died in the was this

for themselves even more surprising is

that most of this

were conducted by secular militias and

terrorists rather than the religious

ones after a while all these groups

tried to one-up each other but this

rarely resulted in more Israeli deaths

Hezbollah was more sparing in its use of

I preferred to have fewer but more

successful attacks on November 21st

units from Islamic Amal stormed the

government at army buildings in balbec

expelling the Lebanese Army from them

the army barracks became the new

headquarters for the Revolutionary

guards in Lebanon fighting would break

out between Lebanese forces and the

druze and the shuf mountains east of

Beirut as the Lebanese front tried to

get maronites to resettle in the

mountains the Drews were angry with the

IDF presence in the region but the IDF

remained largely aloof due to the

sizable presence of Israeli druze within

the IDF late in 1982 the Soviets had

begun rearming the syrians after their

defeat to the Israelis providing them

with the latest model Soviet arms

including new surface-to-air missiles

the Israelis who had threatened to go to

war over Syria's arms build up the year

before were no longer in the mood or the

position politically to threaten War

Again by December of 1982 the American

French and Italian forces were still in

Beirut as the Israelis began withdrawing

further south they had two options Ally

with the Shia who shared much of their

animosity toward the PLO and the

Palestinians or continue siding with the

southern Lebanon Army the Israelis chose

Haddad and the SLA the southern Lebanon

Army although primarily Christian did

recruit shias into their ranks but they

also instituted their own taxes on

vehicle registration sand and gasoline

sales but because Ada didn't have the

legal authority to do this it functioned

more like Mafia extortion the Israelis

would also establish the National Guard

for The Villages of the South a militia

of locally recruited shias That was

supposed to operate independently of

Haddad and the SLA by February IDF

managed to force a ceasefire between the

Drew's militias and the Lebanese forces

in the shoof that same month the Kahan

commission issued its report which

recommended the dismissal or censure of

numerous top Israeli officials including

Ariel Sharon whom the report found too

willing to act on his own thus forcing

the cabinet to retroactively approve

what he had already done Sharon would

resigned as minister of fence in March

of 1983. he would be succeeded by Moshe

arenz who would return to Israel after

his stint as its ambassador to the U.S

the IDF was in a politically weakened

position and couldn't throw its weight

around like it had in the past as the

new defense minister arenz was charged

with implementing the reforms

recommended by the Kahan report which

meant replacing numerous officials it

became clear to me that he and many

others had assumed that the

recommendations of the Kahan commission

would not be taken literally I had

decided to follow them to the letter in

March of 1983 the Israelis began sending

signals that they would be willing to

withdraw from Lebanon entirely Reagan

believes this is because of Moshe aren's

replacing Sharon as Minister of Defense

but we've soon learned tragically that

there were many people in the Middle

East who did not want peace at least not

as long as it entailed the acceptance of

Israel's right to exist George Schultz

attempted to gain Syrian approval for a

peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon

but Assad refused Assad offered to fully

pull out of Lebanon but but only if the

Israelis pulled out unconditionally

unfortunately for the Americans the same

forces trying to get the Israelis to

leave would turn their sights toward

them on April 18 1983 the cia's top

middle east agent was visiting the U.S

embassy in West Beirut a car Laden with

explosives was driven into the embassy

demolishing the building and killing 63

people 17 of them Americans including

the CIA agent Bob Ames on top of the

human tragedy the death of Ames was an

intelligence tragedy for the CIA we

don't know yet who Bears responsibility

for this terrible deed

what we do know is that the terrorists

who planned and carried out this cynical

and cowardly attack have failed in their

purpose

they mistakenly believe that if they're

cruel enough and violent enough they

will weaken American resolve and deter

us from our effort to help build a

lasting and secure peace in the Middle

East despite the bombing of the U.S

embassy the Reagan Administration kept

up its efforts to negotiate a peace

Accord between Israel and Lebanon

Secretary of State George Schultz

engaged in shuttle diplomacy between

Beirut and Jerusalem with a few stops in

Damascus along the way if Syria was

excluded from The Diplomatic rounds

Assad did everything possible to

undercut progress but whenever Assad's

regime was included it regarded itself

as having gained the upper hand and

sidetracked the Diplomatic effort with

impossible conditions and endless new

demands no matter how we approach them

the syrians played the spoiler the U.S

also sought Saudi support but they

didn't believe the Israelis would

withdraw believing this was a war of

conquest and was going to turn Lebanon

into the North Bank Schultz hoped that

once they got Israel to agree to

withdraw the Arabs states with pressure

Syria to do so the U.S was only able to

get the Israelis and Lebanese to agree

to the Accords by spicing it up with

Secret side deals between the U.S and

each individual party Schultz promised

the Israelis that the U.S would not

force them to fully withdraw from

Lebanon until the syrians had done so

and they also promised president Jamail

to help regain control of Beirut and

eventually the country on May 4th

Schultz is able to get the Lebanese to

agree to the drafted Accords and by May

5th the final version of the agreement

is presented to begin's Cabinet who

approves it on May 6th Schultz took the

agreement to Assad who as expected

rejected it while the negotiations were

going on the fighting in Lebanon began

to escalate the ceasefire between the

Jews and Christians and the shoof broke

down as the Drews armed by the syrians

began attacking Christian settlements

and shelling East Beirut with Syrian

provided artillery the Drews also began

firing at the multinational forces

stationed around Beirut International

Airport to which the U.S Marines were

not allowed to fire back on May 16 1983

lebanon's Parliament voted in favor of

the Accord 64-2 they recalled the

agreement on withdrawal of troops from

Lebanon the final version called for

respect for territorial sovereignty an

end to a state of War withdrawal of the

IDF with a secret provision letting the

Israelis Patrol the Lebanese site of the

border that they would settle disputes

by peaceful means and that neither of

them would allow their territory to be

the staging ground for hostile parties

to launch attacks at the other or allow

the military of a third party that is

hostile to the other to Traverse through

its territory they also agreed to have

the Lebanese Army and U.N observers

patrolling Southern Lebanon but no

Middle East episode ends with

complacency there were soon indicators

which taken together were most serious

that the Soviets and syrians were

determined to see that the region

remained a tense and dangerous place a

conference in zagarta backed by Assad

and consisting of many of the political

players in Lebanon to announce the

Accords and called for resistance to

them full diplomatic relations would not

commence until the IDF had fully

withdrawn from the country however they

would be allowed to set up diplomatic

offices in Beirut until then but

president Amin Jamail delayed his

signing of the treaty withholding his

approval until the Israelis fully

complied another ceasefire between the

Drews and Lebanese front was reached and

the talks between Walid jumblr and Amin

Jamil saw the Drews demanding not only

the previously stated political reforms

but also the abrogation of the Accords

in August the ceasefire in the shoof

between the Jews and Christians breaks

down again and the Jews resumed shelling

East Beirut at the same time Amal

militia South of West Beirut began

clashing with the Lebanese Army as

things were falling apart the Lebanese

forces re-established their barracks in

East Beirut as shelling from the druze

and the shoof intensified it had been

three months since both the Israeli and

Lebanese parliaments had approved the

Accords but president Jamail withheld

approval which prevented the Accords

from going into full effect Amin had

withheld his signature from the law in

order to incentivize the Israelis to

leave but without a guarantee of Peace

diplomatic recognition or at least the

withdrawal of Syrian forces the IDF

didn't want to fully pull out of Lebanon

since the president was holding the

accord's hostage the Israelis decided to

withdraw its protection from the

government and redirect its resources to

the Lebanese forces and the southern

Lebanon Army two days later the fighting

in the shoof intensified further the

only thing keeping a lid on it had been

the continued presence of the IDF who

were caught in the crossfires between

the Jews and the Christians the IDF were

only a few days away from their

scheduled withdrawal from the region but

President Reagan planned to ask the

prime minister to delay it but before he

could send the request Menachem begin

announced his resignation between the

ongoing pressure of the war attacks on

his government from the opposition and

the heartache of losing his wife the

year prior he had had enough the two

main candidates to succeed him were his

foreign minister Yitzhak Shamir and his

Deputy Prime Minister David Levy Shamir

the more senior of the two would win the

leadership election succeeding begin as

prime minister meanwhile the government

in Lebanon under increasing pressure

from both the Drews and Amal was

insinuating that they would not uphold

the agreement with Israel under the

leadership of Shamir the Israelis were

also voicing their intention to

unilaterally withdraw from the shoof

ahead of schedule I saw as a

capitulation to Syria without receiving

anything in return formerly our problem

had been with an overly aggressive

Israel now it is with an all too passive

Israel on August 30th the syrian-backed

militias were shelling the Beirut

International Airport with some of the

shells landing near the French and

Italian embassies Amal militias were in

Beirut and began surrounding the hotels

where U.S officers and advisors were

staying at this point prime minister

Shamir agreed to delay the Israeli

departure from the shoof a few extra

days the few extra days in the shoof

would prove fruitless as the IDF

withdrew on September 4th pulling back

to the owale river this left nothing

standing between the Jerusalem militias

backed up by 2 000 men of the Palestine

Liberation Army with the syrians and the

Lebanese front backed up by the Lebanese

Army the fight happened on three fronts

at bom Dune along the Beirut Damascus

Highway between the Drews and Lebanese

front and at souk Algarve and kalde

between the Drews and Lebanese armies

the fighting resulted in tens of

thousands of refugees fleeing toward

Beirut the towns of dear al-qamar and

biet al-din were besieged and looted

president Amin ordered segments of the

Lebanese Army to enter the battle but

the portions of the army consisting of

Drew soldiers and officers either

defected or mutinied president Amin

called on the Americans for support on

September 17th the U.S began firing back

at Drew's and Pla Targets in the shoof

from warships stationed in the Eastern

Mediterranean the French would follow

the US's lead with airstrikes of its own

the Jews began firing rockets at Italian

and French positions in Beirut to which

the French responded with additional

airstrikes on September 23rd the U.S

secured a ceasefire with Assad this

didn't stop the druze and of all

militias from linking up around southern

Beirut with the ground situation

deteriorating George Schultz began

contacting congressmen in order to get

more resources reaching out to Senate

Majority Leader Howard Baker who agreed

to help by September 2 29th both houses

of Congress voted to allow the Marines

to stay in Lebanon for another 18 months

they would be gone in five as things

cooled down for the Americans around

Beirut fighting was heating up in the

South between the Israelis and the local

Shia population on October 16 1983 an

Israeli Jeep Patrol was passing through

the town of nabatia the commanding

officer had been warned but they decided

to drive through the village during the

Shiite holiday of ashara the streets

were crowded with morning processions

and the site of the Israelis intruding

was seen as an act of sacrilege the

crowd mobbed the vehicle throwing rocks

with additional gunfire in the

background someone in the crowd lobbed a

grenade at the passengers in the Jeep

the IDF soldiers opened fire killing one

man and injuring 10 others when the

patrol made it back to base the IDF

officers were horrified at what happened

and placed the patrol Commander under

arrest but this act of discipline would

be undermined the next day when SLA

militiamen stormed into nabatia and

conducted a house to house search for

the people who attacked the Israeli

Convoy the Shia clerics in the South had

been politically on the fence throughout

Israel's invasion of Lebanon considering

they had their own beef with the PLO but

after this incident most of them would

begin to take the anti-israeli side is

she a militia the Israeli setup would

collapse due to desertion things would

begin to heat up again around Beirut in

the fall of 1983 on October 23rd the U.S

Marine Barracks and Beirut were hit with

a Car Bomb even bigger than the one that

hit the embassy back in April this time

killing 241 U.S Marines

but I think we should all recognize

that these Deeds

make so evident the bestial nature of

those who would assume power

if they could have their way

and drive us out of that area

that we must be more determined than

ever

that they cannot

take over that

vital and strategic area

of the Earth or for that matter any

other part of the earth Hezbollah has

always publicly denied their involvement

in this or the embassy bombing but the

organization has praised these attacks

since the very beginning and former

members have been interviewed and they

have revealed that yes Hezbollah was in

fact involved in both of them on

November 4th the idf's new headquarters

entire was hit by a car bomb it crashed

the gates and 400 pounds of explosives

were detonated killing 29 Israelis and

demolishing the building in retaliation

the Israelis launched an air raid

against the irgc training camp at janta

killing about three dozen Hezbollah and

Iranians this was the first Israeli air

raid in Lebanon targeting the Shia

Israeli casualties began to increase in

tandem with the rising rate of attacks

IDF bulldozers destroyed stone or cinder

block walls along the coastal Road and

uprooted orange and lemon trees and

banana grows to deprive the resistance

men of cover to launch attacks back in

Beirut opposition forces were demanding

jamail's resignation and fighting broke

out between the Lebanese Army and the

alliance of the Drews and Shia militias

this would force the U.S to intervene

again to preserve the Lebanese military

the US responds to the syrians firing on

a Recon flight the day prior but two U.S

planes are shot down one of the pilots

Lieutenant Robert Goodman was captured

and held prisoner by the syrians

additionally eight Marines were killed

by artillery from Syrian positions the

U.S retaliated by shelling Drew's

Targets in the shuf mountains Lebanese

Army Lebanese front with sheldashia

suburbs of Beirut killing an additional

300. Goodman was released by early

January but the syrians hardened their

position as popular backlash against U.S

involvement in Lebanon grew

Congressional Democrats led by Tip

O'Neill were now pushing for a

withdrawal of the Marines I was

convinced that Syria and Lebanese

opposition now believed that Congress

would eventually force a U.S pull out

and that this had been a primary factor

in Syrian intransigence during December

the debate over Lebanon within the White

House was more intense than ever George

Schultz and Donald Rumsfeld were still

arguing in favor of your us presence

believing that retreating now would be

showing weakness to tyrants and

terrorists but Casper Weinberger and

Vice President Bush both argued in favor

of pulling out believing that without

sufficient popular support from the

public and political support from

Congress and the International Community

Lebanon was a lost cause in February

1984 fighting broke out between the

Lebanese Army allied with the Lebanese

forces against the Muslim druze Amal and

Hezbollah around West Beirut the U.S

intervened on behalf of President Jamail

Shilling Drews and Syrian positions in

the chief Muslims and Jews in the

Lebanese Army began to defect on mass I

believed in and still believe in the

policy and decisions that originally

sent the Marines to Lebanon the purpose

of having our troops and those of the

other three nations in Beirut was to

help keep the peace and to free the

Lebanese Army to go after the various

militias and Warlords who were

terrorizing the country we never had the

intention of getting involved in

lebanon's Civil War if we walked away

we'd also be giving up up on the moral

commitment to Israel that originally

sent our Marines to Lebanon

on February 7 1984. President Reagan

announced the withdrawal of American

troops from Lebanon and shortly after

America's Partners France Italy and the

United Kingdom also withdrew their

forces from Beirut leaving Amin Jamail

and his government to the mercy of hafez

al-assad and his proxies Drews and Shia

militias took control of all Southern

routes out of Beirut cutting the capital

off from the presidential Palace in

bobda the palace would be besieged by

Sunni militias on February 17th

President Jamail agreed to abrogate the

Accords with Israel with the Lebanese

Parliament officially doing so on March

4th I'm with Amin Jamal thoroughly

subjugated Assad did what he had done

many times before throughout the Civil

War and call for another reconciliation

conference well the delegates met and

they couldn't come to any agreements on

political reforms that could end the

Civil War and the Americans were also

not done fighting in Lebanon despite the

fact that they had pulled out in

February States sponsored terrorism had

by 9 1980 become a weapon of

unconventional war against the

democracies of the West taking advantage

of their openness and building on

political hostility toward them the

hurried withdrawal of Marines from

Beirut in February 1984 left a clear

message terrorism works and when

terrorism works one consequence is

assured far more lies ahead after the

death of Bob Ames in the embassy bombing

of 1983 the CIA sent in Bill Buckley to

rebuild U.S intelligence operations in

Lebanon but on March 16 1984 a month

after the withdrawal of U.S forces he is

abducted by members of Hezbollah back in

Langley they feared not only for his

physical well-being but also for the

classified information he had getting

into the hands of terrorists and their

backers they had turned the systematic

kidnapping and torture of innocent

Americans into an instrument of war that

was meant to persuade us to abandon our

policies in the Middle East I learned as

had President Carter how helpless the

head of the most powerful Nation on

Earth can feel when it comes to the

seemingly simple task of trying to find

and bring home an American citizen held

against his will in a distant land on

top of the growing trend of foreigners

getting kidnapped in Lebanon the CIA had

all of its other Cold War operations to

keep on track including the arming and

funding of the Contra Rebel group in

Nicaragua which ran out of funds in

early 1984 and Congress had forbidden

the CIA from diverting additional funds

or from asking third parties to fund

their ventures in Latin America CIA

director Bill Casey felt personally

responsible for Buckley's kidnapping I

was considering all options available to

free him over the next two years these

two tasks would morph into one Reagan

was preoccupied with the fate of the

hostages and could not understand why

CIA could not locate and rescue them he

put more and more pressure on Casey to

find them Reagan's brand of pressure was

hard to resist no loud words or harsh

indictments none of the style of Johnson

or Nixon just a quizzical look a

suggestion of pain and then the request

we just have to get those people out

repeated nearly daily week after week

month after month and implicit was the

accusation what the hell kind of

intelligence agency are you running if

you can't find and rescue these

Americans if Hezbollah believes someone

they kidnapped was working for a foreign

intelligence agency they would be

interrogated and tortured and for their

safe return they would make outlandish

demands such as getting Israel to

release a thousand or more prisoners in

exchange for a single non-israeli

intelligence official knowing the

Western Powers would never acquiesce to

it but Hezbollah never intended to

release these captives especially after

they had tortured them doing so would

have given proof to the west of their

inhumane practices which could isolate

the group internationally making it

harder for them to operate abroad the

U.S suffered another car bombing on

September 20th hitting its new Embassy

in East Jerusalem killing eight people

one of hezbollah's front groups the

Islamic Jihad organization took credit

for the attack the terrorists had

trained at the Sheikh Abdullah Barracks

which housed the Iranian revolutionary

guard Corps in the Becca Valley the

attack was done in response to the U.S

vetoing a U.N resolution condemning

Israeli policy in South Lebanon the

kidnappings would continue throughout

the rest of the 1980s but for the people

of Lebanon they were merely background

noise and the ongoing Civil War on April

9 1984 a ceasefire between all of the

Lebanese factions was declared I mean

Jamal would visit Damascus and upon

return he inexplicably began supporting

the Lebanese National movement's

proposals from the reconciliation

conference back in March but the

Lebanese forces rejected these reforms

until it succumbed to pressure from the

jamiel family the ceasefire allowed the

Army to begin clearing up roadblocks in

West Beirut and repairing the

International Airport the Army attempted

to enter the chief but the Drew's

militia refused to let the men president

Jamail wanted to consolidate his

position and disarm the Muslim in jerus

militias prior to making political

reforms while The militias Wanted the

reforms made before they disarmed down

in southern Lebanon the Israelis and

Southern Lebanon Army were fighting an

Insurgency of the local Shia population

on February 16th a prominent Shia cleric

Sheikh ragheb harb was gunned down by

SLA militiamen the cleric had earlier

predicted that he would die at the hand

of the Israelis and his assassination by

the SLA was interpreted as a fulfillment

of this prophecy and revenge for harb's

death Hezbollah orchestrated another

suicide bombing of Israeli forces near

deer Canaan A Car Bomb was driven

between two Israeli personnel carriers

killing six soldiers this was the first

suicide bombing that Hezbollah took

credit for the war continued to grow

unpopular in Israel because mandatory

conscription ensured that every citizen

of fighting age served a tour in Lebanon

they were shot at or hit by roadside

bombs never knowing when or where they

might be attacked from they would often

indiscriminately fire into Groves and

Orchards hoping to scare off or take out

an enemy before they could get killed

you see the change first of all in the

eyes of the soldiers it's a look that

reminded me of the look in the eyes of

American soldiers I saw in the final

stages of Vietnam it is the look of

soldiers and officers who know that

their chances of winning in Lebanon are

less than zero in Lebanon you can see an

army that has experienced firsthand how

military might is rendered impotent on

top of the war going poorly the economy

was also dragging down the government of

prime minister Yitzhak Shamir three

members of his governing Coalition

defected from the majority in order to

vote with labor in a vote of no

confidence which forced new elections to

be called for in July of 1984. prior to

the election lacood held 48 seats and

labor held 47. neither possessing a

majority after the election labor

retained 44 seats till I could's 41.

this gave the labor party's leader

Shimon Perez the right to form a

governing Coalition but there weren't

enough left-wing seats in the knesset to

form a government so he and Shamir

agreed to form a coalition between labor

and likud they agreed to split cabinet

offices between the two parties for four

years and halfway through swap Prime

Ministers with Perez serving from 1984

to 86 and Shamir taking over from 86 to

88. Perez had campaigned on ending

Israel's occupation of Lebanon and

insisted that labor hold the prime

minister censorship first so they could

work on withdrawing from Lebanon along

with other foreign and Palestinian

policy priorities back in Beirut the

ceasefire begins to break down in July

fighting between the Drews and Lebanese

forces happens again in the shoof and a

rumor about the Saudi government not

granting visas to shias for the Hajj

sparked violence in West Beirut between

Shia and Sunni militias in August of

1984 Pierre Jamil founder and leader of

the phalange party died at the age of 79

leaving Amin Jamail to take over he

initiated a purge of its ranks which

created discontent among members of the

Lebanese forces who would begin to

assert more Independence a standoff was

brewing between the Lebanese Army and

the Drew's militia commanded by Wali

blot he continued to refuse passage to

the Lebanese Army through any of its

territory without joomblot's political

reforms being implemented Amin jemaya

had to get aid from the syrians to clear

up the blockade set up by the Drews and

Lebanese forces along the Beirut Tripoli

Highway So currently in the narrative we

have a civil war between Muslims and

Christians around Beirut we have the

Shia fighting against the Israelis in

the South but there is another conflict

overlapping these two going on that a

lot of history books on this subject

kind of ignore and that is a civil war

amongst the Palestinian Exiles between

late August and early September 1982

Yasser Arafat and the PLO were evacuated

from Lebanon or at least they were

supposed to be but obviously they

weren't Rafa and 8500 PLO were evacuated

and they were distributed across a

number of willing Arab countries with

Arafat relocating to the plo's new

headquarters in Tunisia some of them

however made their way to Syria and

subsequently back into Lebanon Arafat

was afraid of the PLO getting split up

between all these countries because it

risked him losing control over the

organization which was the only reason

anyone on the international stage took

him or the Palestinian cause seriously

well in Northern Lebanon a rival began

to challenge him for control of the

Palestinian Exile Community Saeed

al-muraga was a captain in the Jordanian

Army who defected in 1970 to join the

PLO he builds up his own power base

among the anti-araphat factions many of

whom are now being supported by Assad

fearing this rival might strip him of

his power and recognition abroad Arafat

violates the agreement he made with the

United States and returns to Lebanon in

May of 1983 arriving in the port city of

Tripoli when he arrives he announces the

expulsion of almaraga from the PLO and

rallies his supporters to his cause

Moraga is unfazed as he brings his

supporters along with him consisting of

the more secular leftist Palestinian

factions and organizes his own group

fatah alintafada on November 3rd 1983

the fight between Arafat and Moraga and

Tripoli entered its climactic

confrontation the remnants of the PLO

aided by a local Sunni militia and quite

ironically receiving arms from the

phalangists fight against fatah Allen

tifada and other anti-arief fought

Palestinian groups including both the

popular and Democratic fronts for the

liberation of Palestine Assad decided to

tilt the odds of moraga's favor by

placing Syrian units on the anti-araphod

side by November 26th the Battle of

Tripoli was over and a ceasefire between

the PLO and the syrians was achieved a

second evacuation for arafah and his

followers would be conducted in December

delivering 4 700 of arafat's loyalists

to Algeria North Yemen Tunisia Sudan and

Iraq but by October of 1984 there were

reports of the PLO beginning to rebuild

their strength in West Beirut and within

the Palestinian refugee camps south of

the city they were supported by a motor

of a tune a local Sunni militia Amal and

other Shia militias feared the return of

the PLO not only because of their own

history with the group but because they

feared losing the power they had gained

due to the plo's absence meanwhile

Israel was trying to draw down its

involvement in Lebanon on January 14th

defense minister Yitzhak Rabin submitted

a plan for withdrawal of forces from

Lebanon the likud members of the cabinet

initially resisted but the likud

Minister of Housing voted in support of

the plan allowing Rabin and Perez to

move forward it was a two-faced plan the

first of which called for building up

the SLA strength by recruiting

additional members increasing its arms

budget and building up its fortification

infrastructure the second phase was to

pull back the IDF while dismantling the

fortifications it had built up for its

own use the ultimate plan was to

withdraw from all of Lebanon except for

a strip of land along the border with

Israel it was basically reconstituting

the good fence policy dating back to

rabin's government in the 1970s the

strip would be mainly patrolled by the s

SLA with up to 1000 IDF reinforcing them

the Israelis hoped that their withdrawal

announcement would reduce the number of

attacks but they actually increased the

IDF had faced about 50 attacks a month

throughout 1984 but in January February

of 1985 they nearly doubled a pattern

emerged the IDF would be hit by some

terror attack and in retaliation they

would block K to Shia Village troops

round up all the males of fighting age

in the village and interrogate them

while their homes were searched indeed

the gratuitous destruction vandalism and

brutality meted out by the Israeli

troops reflected Their Fear resentment

and frustration it was a cathartic

lashing out against their unseen

tormentors the ghost that flitted from

Wadi to Wadi Orchard to Orchard silently

plucking the lives of Israeli soldiers

before disappearing once again the first

major withdrawal was from Sedona on

February 16th that same day Hezbollah

officially announced its existence in a

press conference in West Beirut where

they published their Manifesto in the

form of an open letter read by their

spokesperson Saeed Ibrahim al-amin

amal's former representative to Iran two

days later thousands of art Hezbollah

drove down to sedon from West Beirut to

hold a rally claiming Victory against

the Israelis calling Amin Jamail the

Shah of Lebanon and burning down bars

and other establishments that went

against their brand of radical Shia

Islam on March 2nd 1985 the Israeli

searched Ashia Meeting Hall in Maraka

based on tips from a local informant but

found nothing two days later a pair of

Amal leaders Muhammad Saad and Khalil

Girardi meet in the back room of the

hall when a bomb planted underneath a

desk goes off killing both of them local

Amal forces round up and execute the

informant blaming the Israelis for the

attack however the Israelis deny any

involvement claiming it was probably

Hezbollah who was increasingly

aggressive not just toward the Israelis

but also towards its Shia Rivals knowing

what happens later both of these stories

are believable in April 1985 the

Israelis were Drew from tire and most of

Southeastern Lebanon they also closed

their prison camp in ansar it released

752 of its detainees but transferred the

remaining

1167 to a new prison built in Northern

Israel at athlete the Israelis hope to

use the Shia detainees as a bargaining

chip to acquire information on the safe

return of missing Israeli servicemen

instead Hezbollah and other Shia

terrorist groups would take more

hostages of their own and demand the

return of the detained Shia in Israel in

exchange for the return of the new

hostages but as stated earlier Hezbollah

never intended to return any Soldier or

state official they kidnapped while the

Israelis are dealing with Shia

insurgents in the South the Christians

around Beirut are beginning to fracture

back in February Amin Jamail had taken

over control of the Lebanese friends

finances due to it and the falange being

closely linked to assert more

Independence Samir gaja declared the

front's independence from the falange

the ranks of the phalange party were

filled with with wealthier maronites

while the ranks of the Lebanese front

had been filled with lower middle class

maronites tensions between the poor and

Wealthy maronites had been held at Bay

by charismatic figures like Pierre and

Bashir jamile but amine was not up to

the task another part of this Schism had

been fostered by The syrians Who had

agents Infiltrate The Lebanese forces

and encourage it to assert independence

from the falange gagia and his faction

of the Lebanese forces attempted to

bring the IDF or Lebanese Army onto his

side by provoking a fight with the

Muslim militias of sedon but it

backfired instead Shia and Drew's

militia arrived to Aid the Sunni

militias gejo was forced to sign a truce

and migrate with a large number of

Christian villagers in Sedona to the

north losing him Authority amongst the

maronites but this setback doesn't deter

gaja he tried to gain control of the

group through an internal vote but was

beaten by Ellie hobekah the officer who

led the Lebanese front unit into Sabra

and shatila after bashir's assassination

hobekah would try to gain full control

of the Lebanese run himself by

relocating those loyal to Amin Jamail to

isolated command posts but in order to

keep the syrians off his back he

declared his commitment to Christian

Unity National reconciliation and that

he would sever ties with the Israelis

shutting down its liaison office in

Jerusalem this managed to win Assad over

the bombing America may have drastically

weakened the leadership of a mall in the

South but Assad's orders had done plenty

of damage on its own under orders from

Damascus a mall had begun to attack the

PLO and other Palestinians loyal to

Arafat and West Beirut this was known as

the war on the camps which managed to

defeat the PLO around Beirut but it

mortally wounded a mall and made the

attack the camps of Sabra shatila and

Burj al-bar Regina Amal was joined by

fatah allentifada and attacking the

Palestinian camps around Beirut who were

loyal to Arafat by June 2nd Amal was

able to completely overrun Sabra but at

a heavy price the Palestinians made an

alliance with the Drews who allowed them

into their ranks to fight back against a

ball by early June the IDF had pulled

out of Lebanon except for the security

Zone along the border patrolled by the

SLA which was now led by Antoine lahad

since the death of sod Haddad a year

prior Hezbollah and the Palestinians

also fortified their own positions in

southern Lebanon Hezbollah would pick up

the plo's old habit of firing Rockets

indiscriminately into Northern Israel

though not at the same rate prior to the

Israeli invasion in 1982. Hezbollah

began to construct bases and secret

tunnels across Southern Lebanon to hide

weapons caches and Escape Routes they

also began to reorganize themselves

having both Guerrilla Fighters and a

more conventional military arm the

organized local militias made up of

part-time Fighters and while not

fighting or training these local

militias would plaster their villages

with Hezbollah and Iranian propaganda

the organized prayer sessions at local

mosques and gave religious instruction

but they would indoctrinate and recruit

they would also attack or intimidate

rival militant groups Hezbollah created

its own welfare programs in the areas

that controlled funded by Iran they

would also enforce their strict moral

code of conduct in these areas between

late 1984 and early 1985 more and more

Americans would be kidnapped by

Hezbollah and its various front groups

on March 8 1985 A Car Bomb nearly killed

Syed Muhammad Hussein fadlala a

Hezbollah leader but one of his

bodyguards Jihad magniya Imad mugnia's

brother was killed Hezbollah blamed the

U.S for the attack but the CIA denied

all knowledge of it Lebanese

intelligence blamed the cia's use of

mukafaha a counter-terrorism unit of the

Lebanese military the CIA did cooperate

with Lebanese intelligence in order to

free American hostages funding the

construction of an electronic signal

station in exchange for funneling

information back to the CIA they were

particularly interested in the irgc

barracks in balvec where they believed

William Buckley was being held in May

1985 Shimon Perez met with Michael Leon

a former U.S official with ties to the

CIA he came on behalf of Robert

McFarland President Reagan's National

Security adviser he wanted everything

they talked about to be off the Record

and to not be an official operation of

either the CIA or Mossad he wanted to

get Israel's help in getting U.S

hostages back Perez briefed both Shamir

and Rabin who agreed to help the U.S

behind the scenes the Israelis weren't

the only ones offering to help the

Americans get hostages returned both

Yasser Arafat and Hafiz al-assad were

offering information or negotiations in

order to win U.S favor

on June 14th the Transworld Airlines

flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah

terrorists shortly after takeoff from

Athens Greece this operation was planned

by Ahmad mugnia The Mastermind of the

tire base attack in 1982 as well as the

bombing of the U.S embassy and Marine

Barracks in 1983. they demanded the

release of all Shia Prisoners the

Israelis held in atlit during the

negotiations the plane was flown back

and forth between Beirut and Algiers

with a handful of passengers being

released at a time thanks to Assad

brokering the release of over 700

prisoners from athlete around this time

Ronald Reagan's National Security

adviser Rob McFarland uses contacts with

the Israelis to begin back Channel

negotiations with the Iranians hoping

they could get Hezbollah and their other

proxies in Lebanon to release American

hostages so the accounts I've read

dispute whether or not it was the

Israelis that reached out to the

Americans offering to connect them to

the Iranians or if the Americans reached

out to Israelis asking them to connect

it but regardless of which it was they

both had an interest in getting hostages

released from Iranian proxies

frustration and fear that blinded the

West in its attempts to deal with

khamenei's Iran and with the new and

ghastly phenomena of Hostage taking that

took root in the Middle East in the wake

of the Iranian Revolution the Ron's

fingerprints could be found on almost

every case of kidnapping in the region

in the years that followed the Iranians

themselves without batting an eyelid

would weave an elaborate tissue of Lies

denying any connection with or even

knowledge of the various hostage-taking

episodes neither we nor The Americans

were deceived now I don't want this to

turn to oops all around Contra because

this subject is still hotly debated to

this day and I doubt we're gonna have a

decisive resolution to it anytime soon

in his autobiography Reagan claims one

of the reasons for establishing contacts

with Iran were rumors about the

ayatollah's health he appeared to be

circling the drain and Reagan hoped that

establishing ties with the moderates

might place the U.S in a good position

to reshape the regime after khomeini's

death everyone seemed to be under the

opinion that the Islamic Republic was so

dependent on Khomeini that it wouldn't

survive his passing we had also spent a

great deal of time thinking about

possible scenarios for Iran's future

once coming was gone it didn't surprise

me when I was told there were moderates

in the government who wanted to out the

tyrannical theocracy imposed on them by

Khomeini and his cohorts therefore

Israel's offer to act as an intermediary

and help us open a channel to Iran's

potential Future Leaders seemed very

interesting I'll probably make my own

video about a wrong Contra at some point

in the future but if you need more

context about it right now I suggest

checking out Mr beats video about it

anyways the grossly oversimplified

version of the story is that the

Americans would sell equipment to the

Israelis who would sell their American

weapons to a private third party who

would then sell them to the Iranians the

money made from the Iranians would be

funneled through some shell companies

and eventually make their way to the

contras in Nicaragua while the US was

dealing with the hostage takers the

Civil War continued on around Beirut in

June of 1985 the Damascus plan was

unveiled Syrian troops would re-enter

the parts of Lebanon where it had been

expelled from years earlier in order to

re-establish Central Authority now that

I mean Jamail was more compliant to

Syria's aims he also halted the war on

the camps that he had compelled Amal to

wage months earlier and of course

another reconciliation conference would

be held by September of 1985 the record

conciliation meeting had failed after a

decade of trying to negotiate an end to

the fighting with the politicians Assad

changed tactics if the politicians

couldn't stop the fighting maybe the

militias could he invited the heads of

Amal the Drews and the Lebanese front to

Damascus to hammer out a deal and

reality Assad probably threatened them

and since he had them in Damascus it

wouldn't be difficult for them to never

be seen again regardless of the nature

of this meeting they left with a draft

of the Damascus agreement this new

agreement called for the Lebanese Army

to withdraw from civilian areas of

Lebanon and to be replaced by Syrian

troops the militias were ordered to be

disarmed and disbanded the Constitution

would be amended to abolish religious

sectarianism in the government and the

size of parliament would increase from

99 to 142 seats divided equally between

Christians and Muslims this agreement

was unpopular with the maronites with

both Amin Jamal and Samir gaja allying

together against it this resulted in the

Lebanese front splintering between those

loyal to hubika and those loyal to gaija

and they would hash out these

disagreements in the streets and suburbs

of East Beirut former presidents Camille

chamoon and Suleiman franjia also

rejected the agreement the two of them

agreeing being even rarer than Jamal and

geja as fighting reignited around Beirut

Assad restarted the war on the camps to

root out any PLO they had missed back in

the spring but they didn't enter the

camps alone Amal would enter the camps

alongside the sixth Brigade of the

Lebanese Army which was predominantly

Shia the fighting however had

inconclusive results the PLO were allied

with the Drews who responded to the

incursion by attacking Amal Physicians

outside the camp with artillery fire

from the shoof just to make this more

confusing basically every side here

except the PLO was being funded or armed

by the syrians in December the Jews

began their shelling of East Beirut

again in order to pressure the Maronite

leadership to accept the Damascus

agreement which was Rewritten as the

national agreement to solve the Lebanese

crisis but was better known as the

tripod apartite pact this reform

proposal called for the establishment of

an upper house to Parliament the

appointment of a new cabinet and that

all constitutional reforms were to be

implemented within a year which included

the abolishment of sectarianism reducing

the votes needed to win the presidency

from two-thirds to 55 percent and that

the president must approve a bill within

30 days when passed by parliament the

Army was to be withdrawn from all the

cities and reorganized to coordinate

with the Syrian military that Lebanon

was to have a special relationship with

Syria and defer to its lead in foreign

security economic and educational policy

and that Syria was to maintain its role

and influence within Lebanon without

being required to diplomatically

recognize it most saw The tripartite

Pact for what it really was Syrian

domination of Lebanon and aside from

hobekah's loyalists most of the

Christians ardently opposed it in

January of 1986 fighting broke out again

between gaja and hubika's support

Corners habakis forces attacked

president jamail's personal militia 475

in the jamiel Estates of East Beirut

Jamail and geija would join forces to

overpower hobekah and force him to flee

Beirut causing the tripartite agreement

to lose its only major christian backing

in the capital but by February the

syrians finally returned to Beirut after

three years of absence in September of

1986 Shimon Perez met with President

Reagan in Washington D.C who had

graciously thanked the outgoing prime

minister for all the help he had given

the U.S in getting American hostages

released from the Shia terrorists but

according to Perez's autobiography

Reagan warned him that too much

information about the operation was

getting out it never crossed my mind

that North could have been working on

his own or that Schultz was not in the

picture or that Casper Weinberger the

Secretary of Defense had his own very

strongly conflicting position I could

not know that the authorizations that

McFarland said he had where by no means

as authoritative and representative as

he claimed on November 2nd 1986 just two

days before midterm elections David

Jacobson an American hostage held in

Lebanon by Hezbollah was released that

same day a magazine in Beirut al-shira

published an article detailing the trip

of Rob McFarland to Tehran and the sale

of weapons to the Iranian regime at this

point the secret funding of the contras

in Nicaragua had not yet been connected

to the sale of arms to Iran so initially

this Scandal was called Iran gate as I

mentioned earlier this video is not

about Iran Contra that'll be a future

video in January of 1987 Amal would

begin tackling the PLO problem away from

Beirut targeting their last stronghold

near sedon in the camp of magdusha by

the end of January Amal had made the

shatila and Burj al-bar Regina camps

uninhabitable the Drews who were still

sympathetic to the Palestinian cause

began to attack Amal positions in West

Beirut they were joined by other Syrian

armed leftist factions such as the

progressive Socialist Party the

Communist party and the Syrian social

National Party they fought against them

all in the sixth Brigade of the Lebanese

Army for control of West Beirut and

nipping Adam all's heels from behind was

Hezbollah to save them all from

destruction the Syrian Army intervened

attacking the druze Palestinians

Communists and the ssnp in a somewhat

anti-climactic moment on May 21 1987 the

Cairo pact originally signed between

Charles Hulu Gamal Abdel Nasser and

Yasser Arafat in 1969 and arguably the

ultimate cause of both the Civil War and

the Israeli invasion was abrogated by

the Lebanese Parliament the PLO no

longer had free Reign Over Lebanon of

course this was ultimately meaningless

since the PLO was hardly a player in the

politics of the Palestinians much less

that of Lebanon as a whole despite this

or perhaps because of it Amal continued

its sieges of the Palestinian camps near

tire and Southern Lebanon but Assad

decided to end the campaign at this

point Not only was the PLO no longer a

threat to his hegemony over Lebanon but

the constant massacres of Palestinians

by Amal and other Syrian proxies was

damaging Assad's reputation within the

Arab world Assad's feelings about the

Palestinians weren't too far off from

most other Arab leaders being at best

annoyed by Arafat in the PLO but they in

the Palestinian cause were still popular

amongst Arab citizens so a ceasefire was

brokered allowing the PLO to be

evacuated from their camps and Villages

near sedon no longer needing to fight

the Palestinians Amal decided to strike

back against Hezbollah who had been

chipping away at amal's Power for

several years and their first major

victory was capturing nabatia on April

7th Hezbollah would counter-attack in

May hitting a mall in southern Beirut

supported by Palestinian Fighters and

the nearby camps amal's leaders also

discovered that their ranks had been

infiltrated by Hezbollah Syrian troops

intervened to establish a ceasefire

Hezbollah threatened to kill kill its

Western hostages if Assad acted against

them violence intensified after

negotiating with hezbollah's

representatives in Damascus a ceasefire

was achieved the militias in West Beirut

except for Hezbollah were to be disarmed

and that Lebanese security would replace

the syrians and Southwest Beirut Assad

would restart his war against the PLO by

encouraging the Palestine National

salvation front to attack the shatila

and Burge all by Regina camps after a

month of fighting most of the civilian

residents of shatila had fled the camps

and the homes were destroyed on July 8

1988 a ceasefire allowed the remaining

175 PLO and their families to relocate

to sedon when this was finished the

syrians handed over control of

Southwestern Beirut two internal

leveling Security in accordance with

their agreement with Hezbollah who

redirected its forces towards sedon to

challenge them all in that region 1988

was an election year in Lebanon and

Parliament was scheduled to elect a new

president by September 21 third who at

this point was still required to be a

Maronite there were several candidates

whose names were being thrown around

former president Suleiman Francia was

being promoted by Assad despite

constitutional term limits along with

franjia both Ellie hobeka and Samir

gaija had presidential aspirations of

their own the most consequential

aspirant however was General Michelle

own who saw himself in the same mold as

FAL jihab the Lebanese General who

became president after the Lebanese

Civil War back in 1958. own was first

and foremost eight Lebanese nationalist

rather than a pan-arabist or Maronite

supremacist and he believed the military

was the only institution that could

create a unified Lebanon and Lebanon

couldn't be truly unified until the

foreign occupiers were gone and that

meant Syria nobody believed that a fair

election could be held so long as Syrian

troops were occupying West Beirut the

first vote was scheduled for August 18th

and president Jamaya asked aung to

orchestrate a boycott of the election by

Christian MPS if an enough of them

didn't show up Parliament wouldn't have

a quorum and therefore a vote couldn't

happen and own was successful the

syrians Consolidated their position in

West Beirut and planned on taking

control of East Beirut before the

presidential elections in September

however the maronites of East Beirut

controlled too many economically vital

areas to risk a full-long military

assault due to the strength of the

Lebanese front they also held 25 of the

27 surviving Christian members of

parliament the alliance of gages

Lebanese front president jamaio and the

Lebanese military were outnumbered by

the syrians and their proxies but they

had sufficient Firepower the flow of

Arms from Israel to the maronites had

not stopped after their withdrawal in

1985. on top of Israeli Aid to the

Lebanese front the Lebanese military

began receiving arms from Baghdad Iran

Iraq war ended on August 16 1988 and

Saddam Hussein had been holding a grudge

against Syria for siding with Iran so

they began to ship their excess arms to

the Lebanese Christians as Revenge the

Christian alliance with foreign backing

was too powerful for Assad and its

proxies unless Assad was willing to

engage in total war against the

Christians foreign governments feared

violence intensifying especially if

Parliament failed to elect a new

president by September 23rd the Vatican

the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia all

feared a constitutional crisis in

Lebanon and pressured the United States

to resolve it on September 13 1988 U.S

Diplomat Richard Murphy visited Damascus

to hammer out a compromise the U.S

rejected frangia but accepted Mikhail

dahir a Maronite Member of Parliament

Murphy would bring this recommendation

back to East Beirut Jamail geija and

patriarch Zafir condemned this nominee

they believed that the here would be

nothing but a Syrian puppet Jamail met

with Assad in Damascus on September 21

1988. Jamail proposed that dahir be

elected as president for a transitional

government until parliamentary elections

could be held and the reforms passed but

I don't engage Asia made an alliance on

that same day reacting negatively to

jamail's proposal Syria was also

suspicious the vote scheduled for

September 22nd didn't happen because

Assad insisted it beheld in West Beirut

his stronghold in the capital at 10 pm

September 22nd 1988 president jamayo

asked General Allen to set up a

temporary military government prime

minister Haas argued that Jamil's decree

was unconstitutional and refused to

recognize its legitimacy Antoine lahad

of the SLA pledged his loyalty to this

government which led the syrians to call

it a Zionist project Michelle Owen was

holding the position of prime minister

in the military government which was

unconstitutional due to him being a

Christian Allen was a professional

Soldier and had no experience in

politics and didn't trust any Member of

Parliament seeing everyone as a

potential agent of a foreign power his

only Ally was Samir gaja head of the

Lebanese front which allowed him to

consolidate his power base over Beirut

and of course his regime was receiving

support from both Israel and Iraq but

the alliance was inherently unstable

although own had the official apparatus

of the government gaija had more

practical experience in governance

controlling East Beirut through the

Lebanese front also own favored a

unitary government that preserved

Christian Supremacy while gaija was a

federalist wanting to devolve power to

local Communities going so far as to

support a partition of Lebanon into

separate Christian and Muslim states

Gage's first Target rather than own was

former president Amin Jamil the Lebanese

front were fighting Jamil's 475 and had

placed him under house arrest gaija

forcibly integrated 475 into the

Lebanese front and took over the Jamail

family estates in vikfia on October 22nd

Amin Jamaya was allowed to leave Lebanon

going into Exile in France with the

jamiles gone the only Power base of the

maronites were the Army and the Lebanese

front patriarch Zafir tried to resolve

the crisis by preparing lists of

candidates for Assad and Haas to

consider but Assad insisted that

political reforms were a precondition to

any presidential nominees made by the

Christians Syria encouraged prime

minister Haas to create his own Army

Saddam continued sending arms to the

Lebanese front and owns Lebanese Army

hoping to bait Assad into attacking the

arably feared the growing instability of

Lebanon would tear the Arab world apart

and strengthen Israel in January of 1989

they created a committee of the foreign

Ministers of Algeria Jordan Kuwait Sudan

and Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates

to bring peace to Lebanon but Syria

opposed this not wanting the Lebanon

crisis to be arabized they also refused

to have the Palestinian question or the

presence of foreign powers with the

exception of Israel and Lebanon to be

addressed on February 10 1989 prime

minister Haas General own and speaker

Hussein husseini met with the committee

of six in Tunis in the meeting own urged

the withdrawal of Syria in order to free

up the decision-making process own

didn't tell geija about what was

discussed at Tunis in Anger Gage has set

up his own parallel cabinet made up of

Lebanese front called the national

Development Council this cabinet worried

Owen he at the time was in secret

discussions with the syrians who

promised to pull out of West Beirut and

give him a national role in the new

Lebanese government if he expelled the

Lebanese front from East Beirut on

February 14 1989 Allen and the Lebanese

Army attacked the Lebanese front in East

Beirut and North matin the Muslim

divisions of the Army in West Beirut led

by General Sami khatib ate it out in the

attack after about 80 deaths and 165

injured gaja accepted a ceasefire and

agreed to own's demands handing over

Beirut Port ending Lebanese front

taxation vacating some of the Lebanese

front barracks in East Beirut disbanding

the national Development Council and

acknowledging Allen's political

Supremacy on February 24 1989 Allen

announced that he was now going to shut

down all illegal ports 4 forcing all to

use the Beirut Port which he now

controlled this would give him a

monopoly over the revenue from import

taxes but he halted implementation until

after a meeting of the committee of six

with lebanon's religious leaders had

ended at this meeting patriarch saphir

opposed curtailing presidential

Authority and urged holding a

presidential election the Muslim clerics

however refused to accept own or Grant

legitimacy to his regime without an

agreement on political reform

on March 6 Allen went ahead with a

blockade of all ports controlled by West

Beirut militias on March 9th owns Coast

Guard seized two ships headed for the

Drew's controlled portugia which

triggered fighting between own Loyalists

and the druze and Suk algarb with Drew's

artillery hitting Beirut port on March

11 General khatib declared all West

Beirut ports open to all and joined with

the druze and attacking the Beirut Port

Allen retaliated by closing down the

international airport in West Beirut in

response to this insurance companies

refused to cover flights from

state-owned airlines in the Middle East

which counted for 90 of all air traffic

in the region fighting intensified on

March 14th with both sides using

indiscriminate artillery fire against

each half of Beirut own claimed he was

fighting a war of Liberation against

Syria West Beirut responded to Allen's

Coastal blockade with a land blockade

around East Beirut Allen vowed to drive

out the syrians even if Beirut were

raised in the process and called Syria a

terrorist estate holding 4 million

Lebanese as its hostages artillery

barrage is intensified hitting gas and

oil shortages in East Beirut greatly

reducing the energy supply of the

Christians on April 4th the Lebanese

front returned to Beirut to rescue own

the Christians had 30 000 troops between

the remnants of the Lebanese military

and the Lebanese front while the Muslims

had 20 000 troops in militia backed by

an additional 35 000 Syrian troops who

occupied two-thirds of Lebanon and the

syrians would Aid West beiru by

beginning a blockade of the Christian

Enclave supports against the wishes of

General own the falange party leader

George Saad and other Maronite leaders

met with the committee of six in Kuwait

to end the fighting heavy shelling of

East Beirut occurred between April 15th

and 18th claiming the life of a Maronite

Member of Parliament a famous Lebanese

novelist and the Spanish ambassador to

Lebanon Allen became more vociferously

angry at Syria but this won nobody to

its cause the remaining Maronite MPS met

at the home of patriarchy year on April

18th and called for an immediate truce

when Allen heard about the MPS he

declared them illegitimate in an

interview the same day he said we have

reached a point where shells do not hurt

us anymore only one head will be broken

the head of hafez al-assad compromise

was no longer an option a truce was

called on April 20th and on April 27th

the committee called for the opening of

all ports and Roads and that an Arab

Observer force be sent in not consisting

of Syrian troops I don't approve of this

believing that this would eventually

Force Syria out of Lebanon when

committee reps arrived on May 3rd they

got both East and West Beirut to agree

to open all ports and roads for three

months on May 10th the truce broke down

because Owen used the lifting of the

blockade to bring in more Iraqi weapons

the committee of six would be replaced

by the tripartite committee of King faud

of Saudi Arabia King Hassan II of

Morocco and presidential benjahid of

Algeria they were assigned the task at

of resolving the Lebanese crisis within

six months working with the remaining

elevenes MPS the committee focused on

getting a new truce into effect lifting

the blockades and facilitating

discussion that could lead to the

election of a new president and

political reforms they demanded the

withdrawal of Israel from Southern

Lebanon but not any withdrawal or

drawdown of Syrian forces down for his

part had wanted the Arab League to force

the syrians to withdraw while letting

the UN deal with Israel a new truce came

into effect in late may but the ports

and Roads reopening allowing Commerce

once again in early June the tripartite

committee shuttled a diplomat lakdar

ibrahimi of Algeria between Damascus and

Beirut to hammer out a peace agreement

but the truce broke down once again when

the druze and Syrian troops stepped up

attacks on Christian ports which would

spread to sukh Algarve between June 10th

and 11th

in mid-june it was discovered that Iraq

was shipping Soviet Sams to own through

Jordan which placed Damascus within

range of Island's Army

Assad asked King Hussein of Jordan to

stop their transport but King Hussein

refused when Greek ships were discovered

to be carrying missiles headed for

Lebanon Assad asked the Soviets to

intervene as well as asking Jose Mubarak

who had been turning back Iraqi ships to

block them at the Suez Canal hence why

the Iraqi weapons had to go through

Jordan

Mubarak refused to act due to its

alignment with Jordan Iraq and North

Yemen as the Arab cooperation Council

Assad reached out to the Soviets

informing them that they would attack

the Greek craters headed toward Lebanon

Syrian ships had been attacking foreign

vessels headed there for weeks prior so

the Soviets took the threat seriously

they sent an Envoy to Iraq on June 29th

at that same time the U.S embassy asked

Iraq to avoid confrontation with the

syrians at Sea fearing a fight near

Israeli Waters might get out of hand by

July 2nd Saddam was sufficiently

pressured to reverse course on sending

the Sams to own the syrians continued to

attack ships heading for Christian ports

heavy shelling continued from both sides

throughout Late July Allen refused to

comply with any ceasefire made via a

Reconciliation committee believing them

to be Syrian fronts on the other hand

prime minister Haas believed that aoun

was secretly trying to strike a deal

with Assad circumventing the approval of

his government in West Beirut the

conditions of both West and East Beirut

were so bad that about 40 percent of the

populations of both fled the capital

world leaders condemned the brutality of

the fighting in Beirut with most

condemnation focused on Assad

Dam took advantage of Assad's declining

position to restart his support for own

claiming that Assad was implementing a

conspiracy to divide the Arab world in

mid-august Assad forced another

Coalition of leftists and Islamic

political parties and militias in

Lebanon to go to war against own the U.N

security Council convened an

extraordinary meeting on Lebanon on

August 15th on August 25th the Soviets

sent Gennady taserov to Beirut to meet

with Haas own and patriarch severe and

then met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad

during this time Syria refrained from

attacking the Christian territory the

war in Lebanon was unpopular within the

Syrian military and he feared his troops

falling prey to terrorist attacks by

Christians Syria also feared absolute

World condemnation the U.S had remained

aloof since aoun's Ascension back in

1988 the new U.S ambassador to Lebanon

had not presented his credentials to

aoun orhas because of this aoun denied

the U.S embassy in East Beirut

protection and warned slash threatened

that there diplomats might be kidnapped

on September 5th 1989 pro-ound

Christians protested outside the U.S

embassy surrounding the compound the

Ambassador called on for help but was

refused the U.S state Department ordered

the staff to be evacuated and shut down

the embassy Al now believed that there

was no more International Aid coming and

therefore he needed to step up the

violence fighting escalated around

Beirut the tripartite committee

presented a peace plan but Owen rejected

it Assad accepted the plan as did most

other Arab leaders on September 18th

Christian leaders met with Allen and

begged him to accept the plan as did the

U.S Soviet Union in France on Friday

September 22nd 1989 own finally accepted

the plan

the airport and the roads were reopened

and displaced residents began to return

to Beirut but Island's political

positions hadn't changed

elections reforms could not take place

until the syrians were gone 62 of

Lebanon surviving MPS would meet in Taif

Saudi Arabia on September 30th 1989 with

Saudi foreign minister Saud Al Faisal

overseeing the conference and serving as

the intermediary between the MPS and

hafez al-assad in Syria they discussed

the numerous reconciliation proposals

made across the various conferences and

ceasefires the Christian MPS were under

instructions from Michelle on to not

discuss political reform until an

agreement for Syrian withdrawal was made

Muslim MPS however refused to link the

status of political reform to the

presence of Syrian troops and both sides

were confident that the U.S was on their

side however it soon became clear that

the Christians were living on borrowed

time they had lost their status as the

majority sect before the Civil War and

by this point they represented no more

than a third of the total population the

MPS would come to several agreements

such as the government bureaucracy and

the cabinet offices would be manned by

an even split between Christians and

Muslims however this was to be a

temporary measure until all sectarian

quotas could be abolished at some future

date the formulations committee would

draft the national reconciliation

Charter which was approved on October 22

1989. it required Parliament to amend

the Constitution of 1926 and the

national pact of 1943 and included

Provisions related to Lebanese

sovereignty the expulsion of the

Israelis and relations with Syria the

presidency would remain a Christian

office but with reduced Powers while the

prime ministership remained a Sunni

office and the cabinet was made stronger

cabinet meetings would no longer be held

at the presidential Palace in bobda but

instead in the prime minister's office

in Beirut the Prime Minister would now

appoint cabinet members with approval

from Parliament and the president could

no longer negotiate treaties with

foreign powers without prior consent

from the Prime Minister and can't sign

treaties without the approval from

Parliament they also agreed to allow

Syria to occupy Lebanon for at least two

more years after a Unity government was

formed and constitutional amendments

were passed thereby legally legitimizing

the continued presence of Syria for the

first time since the ADF mandate lapsed

nearly a decade earlier after a new

president was elected the syrians worked

to provide the Lebanese government with

military assistance if requested and had

to begin a phased withdrawal to the

Becca Valley these proposals became

known as the tife agreement the Arab

League pledged its support to the

National reconciliation Charter as did

the U.S Soviet Union France the Vatican

and the United Nations Saddam Hussein

even supported the agreement and began

cutting off its shipment of arms to own

of course we know what Saddam was really

doing prepping for an invasion of Kuwait

but that's a story for another time when

news of Taif reached General Allen he

immediately denounced the charter on the

grounds that it failed to meet his

preconditions regarding a timetable for

Syrian withdrawal own was isolated in

his opposition with the Lebanese forces

phalange party and the reconstituted

national Liberal Party led by Danny

jamun endorsing the Taif agreement

patriarch saphir also endorsed the

agreement calling on the MPS to hold a

vote on it within Lebanon so it could be

legally binding on October 24th 1989 a

strike in the Christian Enclave shut

down businesses Banks and schools with

large pro-ound demonstrations outside

the presidential Palace Allen demanded

severe punishment for the MPS that voted

for the type agreement declaring them

traitors Muslims in Lebanon were also

upset at the Taif Accords because the

maronites were allowed to hold on to

more power than their 30 to 40 percent

of the population Justified the

Christian MPS feared violent retaliation

so they went to Paris for safety instead

of returning to Beirut various foreign

officials began calling for a

parliamentary session to approve the

Accords but Alan threatened to dissolve

parliament because Council of Maronite

Bishops and the phalange party warned

that the dissolution of parliament would

undermine the foundations of the

Republic on November 3rd Allen demanded

that the Christian MPS returned to

Beirut to explain themselves that same

day bombs went off at three of the MP's

homes in East Beirut they refused to

return to which pound declared the

dissolution of parliament Saleem haas's

government in West Beirut declared

aoun's actions as illegal the MPS would

meet at the kulea airstrip in Syrian

occupied Lebanon on November 4th they

voted in favor of the national

reconciliation Charter and elected Renee

mulad as president bawad was an MP from

zagarta the power base of former

president Suleiman franjia who had been

a reliable Ally of Assad and the syrians

but one had even opposed the U.S

intervention in the Civil War of 1958.

aoun dismissed this as an illegal

meeting pro-ound demonstrators attacked

the home of patriarch saphir on the

evening of November 5th after his Sunday

sermons had denounced actions they beat

the 70 year old man to near death and

forced him to kiss a portrait of General

own the next day he fled Beirut and saw

shelter in the Syrian occupied territory

Allen's supporters continued to attack

the property of Christians in Beirut who

were known to oppose own Samir jiagia

would break ranks with own and called on

the Lebanese forces to protect the

properties and homes of the phalange

party who were being targeted by the

General's mobs on the Muslim side the

progressive Socialist Party Amal and

Hezbollah initially opposed the Accords

due to the reforms not going far enough

and the requirement for militias to

withdraw from the capital but they

eventually dropped their public

opposition under pressure from Assad on

November 22nd president moan was

assassinated by a car bomb exploding

near his motorcade since Milan had been

approved by the Syrian Saudis and the

U.S they were ruled out as orchestrators

of the assassination Allen's regime and

his followers were the primary suspect

considering the presence of an elected

president in West Bay root challenged

his authority on the international stage

the second suspect were the Israelis

mostly because it would have been

suitable Revenge to kill Syria's

hand-picked president as the syrians had

killed Bashir Jamail back in 1982. the

third in line of Suspicion were

Hezbollah and Iran were both upset that

Taif didn't allow the creation of an

Islamic theocracy and reduced Iran's

power in Beirut to this day nobody knows

who was responsible and no proper

investigation has discovered the

culprits after the assassination Syrian

forces relocated 52 MPS into Syrian

custody in balback under the watchful

eye of Assad they elected another

maranai MP Elias harali as president on

November 24th harami dismissed Allen's

cabinet on November 26th and ordered him

to vacate the presidential Palace button

didn't recognize his authority harawi

tried to get the remnants of the

Lebanese Army in East Beirut to switch

sides but to no avail Instead This

intensified their loyalty toon there is

also a small contingent of Sunni

supporters of own as well many of them

accuse the syrians of orchestrating the

assassination or kidnapping of numerous

Sunni clerics and one SUNY cleric Sheikh

Najar one set in front of a crowd of

Allen supporters God is great and Alan

is beloved by God which caught on

amongst Allen's Christian supporters

Syria responded to the growing Sunni

support for aoun by sending in more

forces and placing additional pressure

on the Christian Enclave to which Alan

responded by declaring on radio that he

was willing to compromise when it came

to Syrian interests but that the rights

of the Lebanese must be maintained this

increased ound's popularity within his

Enclave pro-ound demonstrations began

performing sit-in protests around the

presidential Palace in order to form a

human shield around the general so the

syrians couldn't attack without

International condemnation

the International Community tried to get

on to step down voluntarily to avoid

Bloodshed all the while trying to calm

the syrians down Allen reached out to

the Israelis through Antoine lahad of

the SLA and tried to mend fences with

the Lebanese forces who would promise to

help defend the Christians if the

syrians attacked on December 3rd 1989

president hirawi gave out an ultimatum

leave the palace in two days or the

syrians will attack this ultimatum would

be undermined when some foreign

supporters are found that being 30

members of France's Parliament arrived

at the presidential Palace in bobda thus

forcing the French and U.S to try and

restrain Assad from a summit in Malta

both President Bush and Mikhail

Gorbachev insisted violence must not be

used to resolve the crisis in Lebanon

the Israelis then promised to intervene

against the syrians if they used air

power against own based on one of the

various red lines they had unofficially

agreed to in the past the government of

West Bay through implemented a strategy

to economically throttle Allen's

government by having the Central Bank

block salary payments to own soldiers

Allen's propaganda had boosted him up as

Incorruptible but on January 3rd 1990 a

Paris newspaper revealed that he had

large sums of money in a secret French

bank account West Beirut accused him of

diverting funds from the defense

Ministry and asked the French and

American governments to freeze his

assets tensions had grown between the

Lebanese forces and own and on January

29th fighting broke out between the two

the U.S condemned down for the

resumption of fighting but Allen accused

the U.S of working with Syria to Foster

the fighting neither West Beirut nor

Damascus intervened it weakened both own

and giajia and cause many Christians to

immigrate out of Lebanon entirely

decreasing the Christian share of the

population thus empowering the Muslims

further they also feared that

intervening would cause aoun and giajia

to put aside their differences like they

had numerous times before the syrians

also didn't want on to be be decisively

defeated because this would Empower

giajia as the sole Christian warlord

Assad would allow shipments of food Fuel

and weapons to go through the lines to

Allen's forces in order to prolong the

Christian infighting they also allowed

Lebanese front militiamen to retreat or

launch attacks from within West Beirut

as the fighting continued support for

both Allen and the Lebanese front

declined among the Christians a truce

was eventually arranged on February 17

1990 but resumed on February 25th the

fighting got so devastating that

Patriarchs of fear threatened to

excommunicate any officer who gave

orders to shoot and to any soldiers who

followed said orders Allen's forces

would withdraw from the Lebanese front

territory on March 2nd and on March 4th

another ceasefire was secured the

mediators favored giajia who had

endorsed the tife agreement giagia

publicly stated that he would be willing

to join the government of West Beirut if

he was invited aoun would then resume

the fighting on March 19th Gia Gia

formally declared allegiance to

president harawi on April 3rd harami was

hesitant to incorporate the Lebanese

forces into his strategy because they

still had more experience in governing

than harali and feared the Army either

playing second fiddle to the Lebanese

forces or the Lebanese forces dissolving

thus leaving his army being forced to

face off against irons-hearted troops he

also had to keep Assad in mind who held

a grudge against giajia for thwarting

the 1985 tripartite agreement as well as

the bitterness that still sat between

the Lebanese front and Suleiman Francia

still nursing a vendetta against them

for the murder of his son jiagia for his

part wanted to see hirawi get installed

as president in babda and then distance

himself from Syria they continued

fighting destroyed the economic

infrastructure of East Beirut and during

the brief ceasefires that occurred

thousands of Christians would flee East

Beirut fighting continued through the

spring in late April Allen made ground

politically with the maronites with

Danny chimoun of the national Liberal

Party switching sides to support own in

late May negotiations between the

various Maronite factions began they

drafted a proposal for hirawi's

government that would call for

amendments to the Accords and Allen

offered to join hirawi's government but

they were refused instead harali called

for a complete blockade of Island's

territory not allowing currency or fuel

in France and the Vatican urged own to

hand everything over to harawi for his

part aoun had stopped mentioning Syrian

withdrawal as a precondition to peace

and instead focused on domestic reforms

which Assad found suitable Assad wanted

to keep the maronites fighting each

other karawi was also supportive since

he wanted Allen's Army intact so he

could use it against giajia and the

Lebanese front but on August 2nd 1990

Iraq invaded Kuwait which drastically

impacted the situation in Lebanon while

also pulling the world's attention away

from it

Syria joined the anti-iraq Coalition

formed by the U.S and the sanctions

placed on Iraq hurt Lebanon due to Iraq

and Kuwait being major export markets

for Lebanon trade with Jordan and the

Gulf States also drastically declined

additionally a hundred thousand Lebanese

and lebanese-based Palestinians working

in Kuwait returned to Lebanon which

resulted in the Stream of remittances

drying up on top of that the

humanitarian Aid that the Gulf States

had been sending to Lebanon were

redirected towards Kuwait inflation

would Skyrocket with the exchange rate

going from 710 Lebanese pounds to one US

dollar to 1100 Lebanese pounds to one

dollar despite the ongoing economic

collapse heraldi's government continued

on with passing the Constitutional

reforms laid out in the Taif agreement

by September 19th the Constitutional

legislation was signed into law with the

reforms passed president harabi warned

General Allen that he may use Force to

depose him the U.S had expressed some

support for the use of force against

Allen after a meeting between between

James Baker and Assad on September 14th

the U.S allegedly gave Assad the green

light to take out own karawi imposed a

full blockade of hounds territory

receiving backing from the Lebanese

front to avert an attack by West Beirut

Island's followers mounted candlelit

vigils at the Crossing points between

East and West Beirut but an unknown

assailant fired on the crowd killing 25

people own and most foreign diplomats

blame the Lebanese front but giajia

accused own of orchestrating a false

flag attack to win international

sympathy the blockade created a

humanitarian crisis in East Beirut which

resulted in France refusing to issue

visas to Lebanese citizens if the

blockade wasn't lifted but this had no

effect on harali's government aoun and

the syrians began reinforcing their

troops around the Christian territory

and Syria allowed Hezbollah to bulk up

their forces in West Beirut as well

Allen tried to Rally his supporters to

take up arms but after a month of

deprivation there were fewer people

willing to to heed his call on October

12th the Lebanese front clashed with

Allen's troop along the green line that

evening a Lebanese Shia Habib Halal

attempted to assassinate own while he

was addressing a crowd outside the babda

palace but missed he finished his speech

and was defiant in public but in private

he mentioned his willingness to resign

the syrians began shelling Allen's

positions in the early hours of October

13th at 7am Syrian and Lebanese soldiers

launched a ground assault the syrians

launched bombing raids of the palace

causing Alan to seek refuge in the

French Embassy by 8 30 a.m the fighting

continued for another six hours with

Alan and his officers hoping the

Israelis would intervene but the U.S had

convinced the Israelis to not retaliate

against Syrian airstrikes the Lebanese

Army captured the palace by 3 15 PM

there were about 800 deaths that day but

it marked the end of the fighting the

Civil War was over when the Syrian

troops entered the palace They

confiscated the computers and records of

Allen's Military Intelligence which held

thousands of files about any and all

prominent Lebanese citizens and

residents an invaluable asset for

Syria's continued occupation

the syrians then allowed the followers

of Eli hubecka now operating as the

Lebanese forces executive command or the

promise party along with the social

Syrian National Party to enter the

densely populated areas of islands

enclave and seek revenge they murdered

raped and looted the Christians of East

Beirut and the surrounding areas they

also began harassing former falange

members and occupying their properties

within the Lebanese front territory and

the new Lebanese Army consisting mostly

of Muslims would move into the areas

formally controlled by the Lebanese

front on October 21st masked men in army

uniforms entered the apartment of Danny

chamoon and killed him his wife and

their two children Syria was accused

since the area was under Syrian

occupation Lebanese troops began

dismantling the green line separating

East and West Beirut and residents began

depositing what money they had back into

the banks as a sign of confidence which

improved the exchange rate of the

Lebanese pound by 40 in a single week

prisoners held by the island government

were released among those released were

Habib chartuni the man who had

assassinated Bashir jamile and Habib

pilal who tried to assassinate own ion's

assets were frozen by the central bank

and when Allen's family was allowed to

leave Lebanon for France Libra caught

trying to smuggle out over 200 thousand

dollars in cash which was confiscated

the militias were required to leave

Beirut which put Hezbollah in a mall at

the risk of fighting again so Iran and

Syria Heron out a peace agreement

between them by November 9th a mall

withdrew from Beirut sending most of

their troops to the Becca Valley

Hezbollah later followed suit

redeploying most of its troops to the

South the Lebanese government allowed

the Palestinians to retain their

militias since they were dominated by

the syrian-controlled Palestine National

salvation front and were allowed to

maintain security inside the camps but

not outside

the government had to negotiate the

withdrawal of the Lebanese front who

refused to fully withdraw from Beirut

unless the ssnp and lfec did so as well

giagia wanted to say in what divisions

of the army were allowed where pointing

out that the Drew's regions and

neighborhoods were occupied by Drew's

divisions the government promised to

have the property occupied by the lfec

and ssnp returned to the falange and to

not allow them to enter ashrafia or to

be allowed to commit more abuses the

militia leaders were all offered seats

in the cabinet with Hezbollah refusing

to take theirs due to the government's

failure to come up with a plan for

expelling the Israelis out of fear that

his supporters might restart the

fighting Michelle on was allowed to seek

asylum in France Beirut was in a dire

State all the strikes by Municipal

workers resulted in trash piling up

around the city water and electricity

had become scarce the infrastructure was

ravaged and the world had forgotten

about them but at long last there was

finally peace the Israelis would

continue occupying their security Zone

in southern Lebanon until the year 2000

when prime minister Ehud Barak would

fulfill his primary campaign promise to

pull Israeli troops out of Lebanon five

years later Syria would finally pull its

troops out of Lebanon after the cedar

Revolution compounded with International

pressure from presidents George W bush

and Jacques sharock Israel would invade

Lebanon again in 2006 after Hezbollah

Fighters attacked IDF soldiers

patrolling the Israeli side of the

border and abducted their bodies back

into Lebanon Israel would withdraw from

Lebanon again after one month of

fighting but now let's take a look back

and see where many of the characters we

covered in the past ended up president

Kamil chamoon leader of the national

Liberal Party and president of Lebanon

during the first Civil War in 1958 died

of a heart attack in 1987. he was

serving as Deputy Prime Minister under

President Amin Jamail president found

shahab the general who became president

after the first Civil War in 1958 8 and

tried to steer Lebanon between Western

and Arab influences died in 1973.

president Charles hallou who signed the

Cairo pact that started the second Civil

War unlike most Lebanese presidents

retired from politics after his term in

office and would die in 2001. president

Suleiman Francia under whom the second

Civil War started remained active in

politics throughout the war and was a

reliable Ally of Syria he would die of

acute pneumonia in 1992. president Elias

Sarkis went into Exile in Paris after

his presidency ended in 1982 and would

die from cancer in 1985. I mean Jamail

went into Exile in France after his

presidency but returned to Lebanon in

2005 after the syrians withdrew since

then he has remained active in Lebanese

politics Elias horawi's presidency would

last until 1998. after his presidential

term was extended during his tenure he

tried to Foster Lebanese nationalism in

order to subvert religious sectarianism

he has been criticized for disarming all

of the Muslim and Christian militias

except for Hezbollah which was allowed

to continue fighting the Israelis in the

South he died of cancer on July 7 2006.

and what about Michelle on well like I

mean Jamail he was allowed to return to

Lebanon in 2005 after the Syrian

occupation ended and he would finally

get his wish to become president of

Lebanon in 2016 and is as of writing

this the current president of Lebanon

Bill Buckley the CIA Mission Chief

kidnapped by Hezbollah in 1984 was moved

between Lebanon Syria and Iran for over

a year being tortured by each interested

party for information in June of 1985

his handlers found him dead in his cell

and buried him in an unmarked grave

outside Beirut the CIA wouldn't retrieve

his body until 1991. finding

indisputable evidence of torture Samir

jiagia was one of the most powerful

Christians in Lebanon after the defeat

of own despite his position in the

Lebanese government giajia continued to

oppose Syria's occupation of Lebanon in

1991 the Lebanese parliament passed a

law granting blanket amnesty for any

political crimes and atrocities

committed by anybody prior to 1990. the

only exceptions to amnesty were those

who committed crimes against foreign

officials and if they committed any

crimes after 1990 then the amnesty would

be null and void in January 1994 hafez

al-assad's son and present of Heir Basel

died in a car accident Gia Gia attended

the funeral in Syria to give his

condolences to president Assad while in

Syria giagio was asked to speak with

some Syrian officers but he refused the

syrians considered this a violation of

the amnesty law which acquired the

Lebanese to cooperate with the Syrian

occupiers giagia would be arrested after

he was accused of orchestrating a car

bombing in zuk Macau which killed nine

people as well as the assassination of

prime minister Rasheed karani and Danny

chamoon despite there being no proof of

his involvement in any of them he would

be held in solitary confinement for 11

years after the cedar Revolution

expelled the syrians from Lebanon the

parliament passed an amnesty law in 2005

to free giajia and other political

prisoners since then he has resumed his

leadership of the Lebanese forces

political party Ellie hubika the man who

led the phalanges militia into the

Sovereign massacres would also hold the

cabinet positions in the Lebanese

Government after Tafe and served as an

MP from 1992 to 2000. he was

assassinated by a car bomb in the Beirut

suburb of hosmia on January 24 2002 a

group calling itself the Lebanese for a

free and independent Lebanon claimed

credit for the death justifying

themselves by saying habeka was a Syrian

agent in 2008 imadbuknia The Mastermind

of the Embassy bombings the barracks

attack and many other acts of terrorism

was assassinated by a car bomb in

Damascus it is suspected that the CIA

and Mossad were responsible for the

attack but neither have claimed

responsibility and that was my rendition

of the Lebanese Civil War there are many

like it but this one is mine thank you

so much for watching if you're still

watching it this long as that gets got I

don't even know exactly what the length

total length of it is because I'm

filming I haven't finished editing yet

so thank you so much for watching and I

will see you

next time