Lebanon Essay Example For Students

Lebanon Essay LebanonLebanon, a nation that once proudly called itself the Switzerland of the MiddleEast, is today a country in name only. Its government controls little more thanhalf of the nations capital, Beirut. Its once-vibrant economy is a shambles. And its society is fragmented so fragmented, some believe, that it may beimpossible to re-create a unified state responsive to the needs of all itsvaried peoples. Lebanon lies on the eastern shore of the Mediterranea n Sea, in that part ofsouthwestern Asia known as the Middle East. Because of its location at thecrossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa Lebanon has been the center of commerceand trade for thousands of years. It has also been on the route of numerousconquering armies. With an area of 4,015 square miles, Lebanon is one of the smallest countries inthe Middle East. It is smaller than every state in the United States exceptDelaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Lebanon is sandwiched between Syria inthe north and east and Israel in the south. The maximum distance from thenations northern border to the southern one is only 130 miles. And the maximumdistance from the Mediterranean Sea to the Lebanon-Syria border is 50 miles. Inthe south, along the border with Israel, Lebanons eastern border is only 20miles from the sea. Although a tiny land, Lebanon boasts a great diversity in its landscape whichmakes it one of the most picturesque countries in the world. The coast line isbr oken by many bays and inlets of varying size. At some points, the mountainswade silently right into the sea then climb suddenly tier on tier away fromthe Mediterranean to the sky. Because of the limitation of flat agriculturalland, all but the steepest hillsides have been patiently and neatly terraced andplanted with garlands of twisted grapevines. The mountains lend a great varietyof hues pale pink, rosy red, forest green or deep purple to the landscape. Depending on the time of day, they never appear the same twice, and from time totime whipped white clouds hide all except their snow-capped peaks. Even on thedarkest night, the lights of the villages perched on the mountains shine insmall clusters as a reminder of their presence. On c loser view, the mountainsbecome a jumble of giant gorges, many of them over a thousand feet deep, withrocky cliffs, steep ravines and awesome valleys. These unassailable bastionshave offered a secure hideaway, throughout history, for hermits and persecutedgroups seeking refuge. Lebanon has four distinct geographical regions: a narrow but fertile coastalplain; two roughly parallel mountain ranges that run the full length of thecountry the Lebanon, which rises in the west to an alpine hei ght of 11,000feet while the eastern range, the anti-Lebanon, is crowned magestically by thesnow-capped Mount Hermon at 9,232 feet. The two chains of mountains shelterbetween them a well-cultivated plateau extending seventy miles in length andfifteen miles in width. This tableland is called the Bekaa. This is a fertilestrip of land 110 miles long and six to ten miles wide. Zahle, the third largestcity in the country, is in the valley. The countrys two most important rivers,the Litani and the Orontes, rise in the northern Bekaa near Baalbek, a city thatdates to Roman times. The Litani flows southwest through the Bekaa Valley andthen empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Its waters are used forirrigation, so it becomes a mere tr ickle by the time it gets to the s ea. TheOrontes rises not far from the Litani, but it flows northward between the twomountain ranges, wending its way into Syria. Beyond the Bekaa and the anti-Lebanon mountains, the Syrian desert only stretches east f or about 800 miles tothe valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This geography has been adetermining factor for millenia in keeping Lebanon turned toward the West. The landscape cannot be described without mentioning the most celebrated tree of Lebanon, the cedar. Called by the Lebanese Cedar of the Lord, this famedtree retains somewhat of a sacred aura this day. It has become the symbol ofLebanon and appears in the center of the flag, on the coins, and often onpostage stamps. Since an cient times the cedar constituted a valuable exportwhich provided King Solomon with timber for the construction of his Temple, thePhoenicians with wood for their seafaring galleys , the Egyptians with lumberfor their palaces. Unhappily only a few grov es of these stately trees havesurvived the ax of the builder, the seeker of fuel, or the hunger of goats. Cedars generally grow on the highest mountain tops so it is not surprising tofind an ancient grove of 450 trees nestled under the highest peak. Th is grove,the only remaining large one, may be seen as small dark specks on the bare faceof the mountain side from a distance of many miles. A few of the existing treesmay be 1,000 years old, and it is estimated that twenty of them have grown formore than 400 years. The largest measure about twelve feet in circumference,eighty feet in height and their branches spread an unbelievable 100 feet. Ethics and elsewhere EssayAnother major Moslem force in the country and a constant threat to it arethe 500,000 Palestinian refugees and the remnants of the PLO. Their le ader,Yassir Arafat, and thousands of his troops were forced out of Beirut by theIsraelis in 1982 and out of Tripoli by Syrian-backed PLO dissidents in 1983. Thedissident PLO forces no longer recognize Arafat as their leader because of hislack of mili tancy in the fight with Israel. The Syrians, in addition tocontrolling these dissident members of the PLO, also control the 3,500-manPalistine Liberation Army. The Christians, who in 1932 made up a majority of the Lebanese population, arenow only about 44 percent of the population. The largest Christian sect andthus far the dominant one in the nations political and economic life are theMaronites. They number about 580,000 and make up 38 percent of the Christianpopulation and 17 percent of the national population. The Phalange party, headed by Pierre Gemayel, is the most important Maronitepolitical group. The Phalangist militia is the largest of the Christian militias. It controls East Beirut, the area along the coast just north of the capital, andsome areas in southern and central Lebanon. This militia has been heavily armedby the Israelis. Each of these peoples has played an important role in Lebanese history. Moslemsand Christians have lived in harmony for long period s of time, but they havefrequently engaged in bitter warfare, much as we are seeing today. For nearly a decade this hapless nation has suffered continuous civil war amongits various religious and ethnic groups. It has been invaded twice by Israel,which now controls all of southern Lebanon, and it has been occupied by Syria,which controls most of eastern and northern Lebanon. Nearly 500,000 Palestinians refugees from the Arab-Israeli wars live in Lebanon, where they have formeda state with in a state. And a succession of peacekeeping forces Arab,United Nations, and Western have not only failed to establish peace, but haveexacerbated the already horrific situation. Why havent the Lebanese people been able to put aside their sec tariandifferences to work toward a stable government that represents all of thepeople? The complete answer to this question lies deep within the unique historyof Lebanon. In 1943, the year that France, which ruled Lebanon as a League ofNations manda te, reluctantly gave the nation its independance. As independenceapproached, the nations two most populous and powerful sects, the Maronites andthe Sunnis, formulated what is known as the National Pact an unwrittenagreement that spelled out the cou ntrys political makeup as well as itsgeneral orientation in foreign affairs. The National Pact allocated political power to Lebanons religious sects on thebasis of population. The census in 1932 showed that the Christians had themajority with j ust over 50 percent of the population. As a result, it wasagreed that the President of Lebanon would always be a Maronite Christian andthe prime minister would always be a Sunni Moslem. Other important positionswere given to other sects. The Preside nt of the Chamber of Deputies, forexample, would always be a Shiite Moslem and the defense minister would be aDruse. In addition, the Christians were to have six seats in Parliment for everyfive seats held by Moslems. This system guaranteed the Maron ite Christianscontrol of Lebanon. This system worked well enough for fifteen years. From 1943 until 1958 thenations economy boomed and Beirut was transformed into the showcase city of theMediterranean. The government seemed stable enough, but th ere were problemsboiling beneath the surface and in the mid-1950s the system began to come apart. For one thing, the Moslems, especially the poorer Shiites, had a substantiallyhigher birthrate than the Christians; many people believed that the Shiites hadsurpassed the Maronites in population. But the Christians would not allow a newcensus to be taken, for this would have meant a reallocation of the nationspolitical power, with the Moslem sects gaining at the expense of the Christians. With their hopes for political gains dampened, the Shiites became disenchanted. Why is this once prosperous nation on the verge of total collapse? There are anumber of reasons, but the primary one is that the Lebanese people belong to atleast fifteen differe nt religious sects and their loyalty to these sects isgreater than their loyalty to a united Lebanon. Had the peoples sense ofnationhood been stronger, they would not have suffered the destruction of thepast decade. History