Palestine in the Arab Dilemma (RLE Israel and Palestine) by Walid W. Kazziha

Author:Walid W. Kazziha [Kazziha, Walid W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317446040
Google: _z-sCQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-05-22T05:58:57+00:00

Conclusion

The outcome of the civil war in Lebanon benefited at every level one side in the conflict to the exclusion of the other. On the international level the Russians seemed to suffer a serious set-back in the region as a whole and in Syria in particular. On the Arab level, the Arab regimes managed, perhaps for a long time to come, to impose their will on the Palestinian Resistance and its leftist allies. On the Lebanese level, the position of the Maronite Front and more notably the Phalange Party had been consolidated, while that of the Progressive Bloc was greatly undermined. Israel stood to gain from the erosion of the position of the left in Lebanon, the containment of the Resistance Movement, the growing influence of moderate Arab regimes seeking a peaceful settlement at the hands of the USA, and the relative revival of American hegemony in the Middle East.

The tragic events which engulfed Lebanon for one year and a half do not make much sense unless an attempt is made to examine their repercussions on the evolution of a new, more stable system of government, and the achievement of an over-all solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. There is no desire here to suggest that there was a conspiracy behind the crisis, although such a conclusion had not been excluded by the participants in the conflict. However, it is reasonable to assert that the recent events in the region prepared the grounds for two probable major developments.

Firstly, a new political order is being established in Lebanon to replace the old system which, on at least two occasions in the modern history of the country, proved to be most fragile and inadequate. It is well-known that the new President of Lebanon, Elias Sarkis was one of Shehab's most faithful disciples. In 1970, he contested the presidency against Franjieh, but the latter won by a majority of one vote, and as a result political feudalism or the Zeims system of government made a come-back to power. From 1958 to 1970, Shehabism represented a new trend in Lebanese politics. It was a serious attempt to displace the old power structure based on sectarianism by building up a strong central government and a tight internal security system.

Shehabism had tried to institute checks upon the operations of civil relations in order to make the state the sole political unit in the country. Its Deuxieme Bureau was supposed to displace the traditional Chieftains by taking over their role as the sole Za'im from whom state benefits would be obtained. In pursuit of this policy the Deuxième Bureau promoted the rise in the Sunni areas of more or less popular leaderships who capitalised on their role in the 1958 civil war and who were outside the control of traditional leaders.35

Today Sarkis has a better chance than his predecessors Helou and Shehab to realise the Shehabist model. He comes to power as the saviour of the country after it had been torn apart by a devastating internal strife.

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