Lebanon

The Lebanese Civil War lasted from 1975 to 1991. The conflict arose from the dominant party’s excessive power. The Maronites acquired most of the control over the years. Most of the friction erupted from religious differences. New groups were formed like the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Lebanese Nationalist Movement. The PLO and the LNM added more fuel to the flames. Another Christian group, the Phalangists, was formed by Pierre Jumayyil.

Violence first began in Beirut in 1975. Four Phalangists were killed during an attempted assassination of Jumayyil. The Phalangists were conviinced that the attack was from the Palestinians and a few days later, a bus full of Palestinian passengers was attacked and 26 were killed. The city of Beirut was in chaos when all the fighting began. the first incident turned into all-out war.

Despite the desperate attention that was needed in Beirut, the government was unable to do anything. The government was inefficient and quarreled among themselves. The Maronites would not share power despite being the minority Christian group in a predominately Muslim country. The government debated whether using military power was necessary for the conflict. The Phalangists were pushed to the side by Jumblatt. Despite President Franjiyah’s unpopularity, he stayed in power.

Most of the conflicts were based on religious differences, but there was more to it than just religious ideas. The Maronites and all of those current in power, wanted to keep everything the same to how it had been running for decades and decades before. The side that desired change was the Lebanese Nationalist Movement, led by Kamal Jumblatt. They were far less organized than the old power, but still had a strong hold on the ...

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...rn nations. An embassy was destroyed in a suicide bombing, killed 63. In the terror attacks, more than 370 people were killed.

After more presidents and prime ministers were assassinated, Lebanon was left with a divided nation and no leaders, in the west, muslim, and in the east, Christian. Parliament met in order to sort out the conflict. The Ta’if Agreement started the end of the war. After the peace talks with Lebanon’s parliament and other Arab nations, a solution was found and a new president, Rene Moawad was elected only to be assassinated shortly after. Elias Hrawi was elected and stayed in power until 1998.

The new president and Parliament made some constitutional changes. The Chamber of Deputies grew to 128 seats and was split fairly between Christians and Muslims. The militias that had formed during the conflict slowly disintegrated and one army stood.