UNDERSTANDING LEBANON 3 DEC 2014

UNDERSTANDING LEBANON (if that is possible). This post is a brief look at the diverse forces at work in the small country Lebanon w/ emphasis on the Druses. (Several readers wanted more info after my recent post on the Druzes.) Lebanon has been the cross roads for mid-east trade for millennia. It was home to the Phoenicians. Lebanon is on the north border of Israel; & has Syria as its neighbor to its east & north, and the beautiful Mediterranean to the west. I visited Lebanon as a tourist in 1963, while it was the business-banking center for the Middle East & a beautiful nation full of olive groves. One of my Lebanese friend’s family have drank fresh-pressed olives which they pick every day; they live healthy lives past 100 years old. (It really sold me on fresh olive oil! By the way, the “Mediterranean diet” is famous for its health.) This beautiful land has several sites of Biblical significance & some Crusader castles (which I visited in ’63).

FROM BEAUTY TO BOMBS. After the Israeli invasion in 1982, the land was destroyed both physically as well as the nation’s fragile unity completely fragmented. All the diverse groups that had previously shared power, spent the next decades killing each other with their private armies along with Syrian, American & Israeli militaries, and radical Islamic groups from everywhere joining in the messy fray. All this fighting seriously interrupted all the normal criminal activities of the various clans. As a similar example…later we will discuss how the Druses in Syria fought with Syrian President Shishaki (who some see as a nazi type & who was helped into power by our CIA). When Shishaki fought the Druze, to destroy their power, Shishaki destroyed their hashish crop (which in 1947 had been valued at $1 million).

MAFIA-LIKE CLANS. The fact that it was the capitalist center for the Middle East is a clue as to how things were actually run behind the scenes. All the major factions have elite families which are like Mafia-don families and which have worked with the capitalists and other power factions for years. There are 6 major Christian groups, 3 Islamic groups (Sunni, Shi’ite & Alawite) and the Druzes. One can also add some secular Lebanese to the mix as well as some independent criminal elements. So let’s discuss a few important players to give the reader a feel for how the mafia-like clan dons work. Bachir Gemayel (1947-82) was a Lebanese politician/pres. elect/Sr. mmbr of the Phalange Party and commander of the Christian Lebanese Force militia during the Lebanese Civil War in the ‘80s. He is from an elite Lebanese family. His father founded the Phalange Party in 1936. Bachir was Jesuit educated, as well as studying at the Center for American & International Law at Plano, TX. At some point he was recruited by the CIA. He had a reputation for brutality…but then assassinations & violence have been quite common in Lebanon. The Mossad helped him get elected president and 3 weeks later (on 8/23/82) he was assassinated by the Syrian Nationalist Party founded by Freemason/revolutionist/Lebanese philosopher Antoun Saadeh (1904-1949). His oldest dau. had been assassinated two yrs. earlier. Before dying, Bachir Gemayel had chosen to ally with the elite Druze Arslan clan.

Two Druze clans (Jumblatt vs. Yazbaki) have competed for power in Lebanon…the Arslan branch has controlled the Yazbaki clan in modern times. Its rival is the Jumblatt clan…so the leader of the Jumblatt clan did not want to support what the Arslan clan was allied with (Israel/U.S.), so its leader Walid Jumblatt (bn. 1949-& still leader today) backed Syria. Walid’s father Kamal had created the Druse’s Progressive Socialist Party PSP. Because of his radical socialist ideology Kamal received the Lenin Peace Prize in ’72 prior to his death. Two weeks before his assassination in March 1977, exiled Lebanese leader Raymond Edde warned Kamal Jumblatt that the Syrians would kill him & asked him to depart for Paris and help establish a Lebanese government in exile. He declined, saying fatalistically that “the Jumblatts are usually killed – they don’t die in their beds.” Kamal’s father was Prince Shakib Arslan (1869-46) known as the Druze Prince of Eloquence who was killed in ’46. The Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who was worth $19.4 billion (in 2000) married into this Druze family. Another dau. of Kamal’s married into Moroccan royalty. In 2000, his son Walid Jumblatt (who as you remember sided w/ Syria to counter the Arslans) surprised Syria by criticizing Syria’s policy of keeping troops in Lebanon. In retaliation, Syria announced that Walid was not welcome in Syria anymore & they invited the leaders of the Arslan clan to Damascus.

GREATER SYRIA. Just as Zionism has a dream of ruling most of the Middle East, Freemason Antoun Saadah created a secret society in 1924 to achieve the goal of “Natural Syria” (Greater Syria consisting of modern Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Transjordan, Israel, Palestine, Levant, and parts of So. Turkey). You might think then that his followers were pro-Syria. NO. Because they believed the King of Jordan (Abdallah) should rule Natural Syria. The Druze Sultan Pasha al-Atrash (1891-1982) supported Saadah’s Greater Syria concept. (Because Syria views Lebanon as traditionally part of Syria, they feel perfectly legit in sending in armies without asking anyone’s permission.) The Syrian Social Nationalist party also connects to a brutal Kurdish Syrian Adib Shishakli, who became the leader of Syria (‘53-54). He set out to destroy the autonomy of the Druzes in Syria. The Syrian Druzes were under the Atrash family. Shishakli arrested two of the Druze sultan’s sons in May ’53. His troops tried to crush Druze autonomy. It appeared like he had won, when Druze officers masterminded a large revolt and assassinated him. During this time period, Egypt, fearful that the British & Jordanian Hashimites might be behind the unrest in Syria, lent the prestige of their Sawt al-Arab broadcasts to Shishakli’s propaganda campaign. A typical Egyptian radio announcement would read: “The Druzes are a sect. They are not Arab; they are not Arab in any way. The Druzes hate the Arabs. The Druzes have their own beliefs. They are servants of the British & Jews in Israel. The Druzes are traitors, enemies of Islam, friends of Israel.”

The reaction of the Amir Hasan al-Atrash (Druze leader) was to tell the British Ambassador in Damascus: “The Druzes, as a religious minority, are doomed to constant persecution in Muslim lands where no foreign power exists to protect them…. Under the spur of Muslim hostility, the clans of the Jabal [western district of Syria which was Druze] [are] now united and the young men [are] demanding revenge by force of arms…. The Druze elders would like to emigrate to some land where they would not be subject to religious persecution.” And many Druses have emigrated.

SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL. Certain Christian leaders in Lebanon have been very supportive of Israel. Gemayel, was a Christian, but he was against Federalism for Lebanon which was an idea said to have been created by Henry Kissinger. However, another Lebanese Christian leader, who has advocated this Federalism is Samir Geagea (bn. 1952 in Beirut). He also has ties to the elite and is pro-Israeli. He was the senior figure in the Mar. 14 Alliance (which was pro-Israel/pro-U.S./pro-Saudi) in contrast w/ the Mar 8 Alliance which is a political alliance that is “pro-Syrian”. Syrian pressure got Geagea sent to prison. And being Marionite Catholic, a branch of the Catholic church, he spent his time in prison studying Hinduism & Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin’s writings. Amer. pressure and an Amnesty bill on 18 July, 2005 got him released, & he left for foreign medical attention due to his harsh incarceration.

FINAL THOUGHTS. Understanding Lebanese affairs means gaining a background in the concepts you see in this post—different religious views, understanding what clans are leading and the rivalries for leadership, understanding what criminal endeavor they are engaged in, understanding what outside group: be it France, the U.K., the Illuminati, the Vatican, Egypt, Israel, Syria, the Corsican mob or other organized crime group is influencing an individual Lebanese or group. For me, because I saw Beirut when it was a beautiful peaceful city, all the destruction, killing and maiming makes me sick. One lesson is how easily it can happen.