Lebanon's central government gave verbal but no military support to the Arab armies during the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel amid rumors that secret Lebanese-Israeli agreements had been concluded, causing Arab states to question Lebanon's loyalty to the pan-Arab cause.
As more displaced Palestinians settled in southern Lebanon, the area soon became the major base for PLO guerrilla operations against Israel. When Israel retaliated by raiding PLO bases across its northern border, the Christian-dominated Lebanese government attempted to restrict PLO activities within its jurisdiction.
1969 PLO begins attacking Israel from Lebanese bases.
1970 (Sept.) Many refugees from Jordan settle in Lebanon following Jordanian civil war.
1973 (Oct.) Yom Kippur War—in which Lebanon does not participate—displaces more
Refugees to Lebanon.
1975 (Apr.) Lebanese Muslims and Christians begin civil war.
1976 (Oct.) After cease-fire in civil war is declared, Syria sends troops to Lebanon.
1977 Government imposes press censorship on all publications.
1981 Israel bombs PLO headquarters in Beirut.
1982 (Sept.) Israel invades Lebanon, occupying region south of Beirut and forcing PLO headquarters to move to Tunisia.
1982 (Sept.) President-elect Bashir Gemayel is assassinated, and his brother Amin is elected president.
1983 (Apr. 18) Truck bomb nearly destroys U. S. embassy in Beirut.
1983 (Oct. 23) Truck bomb kills 241 people at U. S. Marine compound in Beirut.
1985 (June) Israel withdraws from Lebanon leaving only security zone along its southern border; afterward, terrorist attacks and hijackings by Shiite Muslims become frequent.
1986 Palestinian forces in southern Lebanon launch rockets against settlements in northern Israel.
1987 Lebanese prime minister Rashid Karami is assassinated, and Syrian troops move into Beirut.
Palestinian military forces, which had previously refrained from taking sides in conflicts between Lebanese Christians and Muslims, began giving support to the Muslims, and civil war broke out in April, 1975. Although the official policies of both the PLO and the Lebanese army forbade intervention, dissident groups from both sides joined the fighting and sought international support.
In an attempt to end the war, the Lebanese government offered to amend the National Pact by abolishing the Christian majority in the Chamber of Deputies. However, the Muslims rejected the proposal because the Christians insisted on retaining the office of the presidency. Early Muslim victories in the war created the appearance that Lebanon was about to become divided or become a left-wing Arab state.
Lebanon Time Line (continued)
1989 (Mar.) Syrians and Christians begin fighting each other in Beirut, and Taif
Agreement comes into force.
1992 Lebanon participates in Middle East peace conference.
1994 Palestinian guerrillas in southern Lebanon shell northern Israel positions.
1996 (Apr.) Hostilities expand as far north as Beirut for first time since 1982.
1998 (June 14) First local elections in thirty-five years are concluded throughout
Country.
1998 (June 16) Israeli warplanes launch missile attacks on suspected Hezbollah
Military bases near Sojod.
1998 (Oct. 15) National Assembly elects General Emile Lahoud president.
2000 (May) Israel announces that it will withdraw its troops unconditionally from
Lebanon.
2000 (Oct.) Election returns Rafiq al-Hariri to office as prime minister, replacing Salim al-Hoss.
2001 (June) Hezbollah attacks sites in Israel and Israel responds by attacking Syrian military sites in the Bekaa Valley.
2001 (July) United Nations cuts its military force in southern Lebanon by about one
Thousand soldiers and reclassifies its force in the area as an observer mission.
2001 (Aug.) Lebanese security forces arrest a number of people opposed to Syria. This
Causes a serious break between President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
Apparently believing that either result would eventually cause an Israeli attack, Syria shifted its support to the Christians. When Israel blockaded ports in Tyre and Sidon and invaded southern Lebanon, some Lebanese with backing from Iraq and Libya began courting the PLO, a movement they had previously regarded as ineffective. After Egypt sought closer relations with the PLO to support its other political maneuvers, the Syrian-aided Christians began winning the war.
A division along the "green line" which passed through Beirut and along the main road to Damascus separated the Christian jurisdiction to the north and the leftist Druze-Muslim-Palestinian government to the south. The civil war officially ended in October, 1976, with an estimated 50,000 Lebanese killed and twice that number wounded. In the aftermath, the major issues that had sparked the fighting remained unresolved.
As sporadic altercations continued, a cease-fire agreement was arranged between the new Lebanese president Elias Sarkis, PLO chairman Yasir Arafat, and leaders of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt. This agreement provided for the enforcement of the peace through the 30,000-member Arab Deterrent Force, composed mostly of Syrian soldiers, and a commitment by the PLO to refrain from further interference in Lebanese domestic affairs.
During the seventeen-month civil war scarcely a day passed without bloodshed somewhere in Lebanon, leaving the country badly damaged and embittered. The Muslims retained a governmental majority, but the Christians were determined to keep control of key government positions to protect them from becoming second-class minorities as in neighboring Muslim countries. A private Christian militia was established to patrol the buffer zone in southern Lebanon. This militia received supplies and assistance from Israel to prevent Palestinian guerrillas from infiltrating into Israel.
The complexity of Lebanon's internal struggle accelerated when private Christian militia groups began firing upon one another over disagreements regarding the push to fortify the central government. Shelling of the Christian section of Beirut by the Arab Deterrent Force proved only minimally effective in thwart-
Ing resistance by the Christian majority to the strengthening of Lebanon's central government. During this period of political instability, Arabs throughout the entire Middle East began to question the dream of pan-Arabism, the unity for all Arabs, because the Arabs had not yet presented a unified front in world politics.
World History
