CHAPTER 4
Overview
O
f the countries in the Middle East, Lebanon is one of the smallest, weakest,
and arguably the most fraught with trouble, as sectarian divisions have been
at the core of its existence since France created it after World War I.
Lebanon’s difficulties beginning in the 1970s were especially painful because the coun-
try once was seen, and liked to portray itself, as the most progressive and westward-
looking country in the Arab Middle East. Indeed, many Lebanese thought of them-
selves not as Middle Eastern Arabs but as Lebanese—a superior group of people in an
otherwise backward region. Their capital, Beirut, was the “Paris of the Middle East”
and the region’s banking and business center. From the Lebanese perspective, it surely
must have been the work of outside powers, not themselves, that led Lebanon into
fifteen years of civil war, decades of domination by Syria, and repeated invasions
by Israel.
Nearly every country in the Middle East has a multiethnic society, but in most of
them, historical forces and strong central governments have kept in check the inher-
ent conflicts among people of different backgrounds. Until the recent conflict in Iraq,
Lebanon had been the most striking exception. France took control of Greater Syria—
which included the territory of Lebanon—after World War I and the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire. It then created Lebanon in 1920 as a distinct entity primarily for
the benefit of one ethnic group: the Maronite Christians living in the hilly region
known as Mount Lebanon. France essentially put the Maronites in charge while dis-
counting the presence of Shiite and Sunni Muslims, along with Armenians, Greek
Orthodox Christians, and others of non-Maronite heritage.
For years after France split Lebanon from Syria, Lebanon was considered one of
the world’s foremost bastions of ethnic harmony. The Lebanese peacefully resolved
most conflicts among groups, usually through agreements among the leaders of the
clans that held much of the country’s economic and political power. One such agree-
ment, the National Covenant (or National Pact) of 1943, appeared at the time to
resolve competing claims for power, but in the long run planted the seeds for civil
strife decades later. The covenant guaranteed Christians the largest share of political327