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The Foundations of the Failed Lebanese State

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah - Caught in an endless political deadlock, Lebanon has become a failed state, unable to provide governance because of its sectarian-based political system, a state that has declared bankruptcy. The Lebanon of today is an artificial creation of the French Mandate, which, at the request of the then-Maronite Patriarch, added in 1920 geographical areas populated with Sunni and Shiite Muslims to a homogenous Maronite Christian territory. The act laid the foundations of the failed state of today; the short-sighted Maronites became the victims of their creation. Adding insult to injury, the heads of the Christian and Sunni communities decided in 1943 on a division of national leadership positions that ignored the rights of the Shiite community and left the richest ministries and national institutions in the hands of the Maronites and the Sunnites. The resultant imbalance could not last long. Lebanon, the only Arab state governed by non-Muslims, could not resist the assault of Arab nationalism and later the growing Shiite and Sunni resentment. Lebanon's President Michel Aoun followed the examples of Lebanese leaders who preceded him and struck deals with foreign powers to assure their tenure. He decided that aligning with Iran's Shiite Hizbullah movement would assure the continuation of the Christian presence in the country. The writer, a Middle East analyst at the Jerusalem Center, was former Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
2021-09-15 00:00:00
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