Yearbook 2016
Lebanon. Little Lebanon continued to be characterized by
conflicts in the region and by the interconnected power
measurement between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
According to
countryaah, the current population of Lebanon is 6,825,456. Saudi Arabia decided in February to withhold $ 4 billion
that was promised for arms purchases from France to avoid
the weapons falling into the Shiite Muslim Hizbullah
movement. Shortly thereafter, Hizbullah was stamped by the
GCC, a Sunni Muslim monarchy in the Arabian Peninsula. The
classification was reported to be the result of "hostile
acts" in the region; Hizbullah then fought for four years on
the regime's side in Syria, which also had Iran's support.
The Lebanese went to the polls for the first time in six
years in May, when municipal elections were held for four
rounds. The election was also the first since the war in
Syria broke out in 2011 and contributed to the political
stalemate in Lebanon; the parliamentary elections that would
have been held in 2013 had not yet ended. A group of
partyless candidates participated in Beirut in an attempt to
challenge traditional power structures. However, the
independent list received no mandate as the two dominant
party blocs lined up with a common list and took all seats.
The turnout was only 20%.
A crisis in the sophomore treatment that caused mass
protests the year before was reminded again during the
summer. Stinking garbage left in the streets was, for many
Lebanese, a tangible result of the political stalemate in
the country. The crisis occurred when a large dump was
closed without a good alternative available.
After 2.5 years and 45 unsuccessful attempts to elect a
new president, in October Parliament succeeded in appointing
Michel Aoun as new head of state. He was able to take office
after surprisingly being supported by, among others, his
former enemy Saad Hariri. Aoun was allied with Hizbullah
while Hariri was loyal to Saudi Arabia and accused the
Shiite movement of the 2005 murder of his father, the former
Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
As part of the settlement, Saad Hariri was believed to
have been promised the Prime Minister's post and in December
he was able to form a unity government with the majority of
political parties. Saad Hariri was also head of government
in 2009-11.
Hezbollah
At the start of the war, many Lebanese criticized
Hezbollahfor triggering the conflict in his arrest of 2
Israeli soldiers, but as the war unfolded with Israeli
terror against the Lebanese civilian population, Hezbollah
as the only force fighting the Israeli invasion force and
the global community's failure to protect the Lebanese
population turned the mood. Hezbollah was
avalanche-supported - across religion and ethnicity. A July
26 poll showed that 72% of Lebanese now support Hezbollah's
capture of 2 Israeli soldiers on July 12, and 85% supported
Hezbollah's defense of Lebanon against Israel's attempt to
invade the country in the south. The backing was greatest
among Shia Muslims, but Sunnis and Christians also
overwhelmingly backed Hezbollah. The country's other major
Shia militia - Amal - announced that it was also fully
involved in the fight against the Israeli invasion forces.
In early August, over 90% of Lebanese supported Hezbollah's
defense of Lebanon.
At the beginning of August, Israel recognized its
extensive support and extended its bombing of Beirut to
Christian neighborhoods, and southern Lebanon to Christian
villages as well.
Hezbollah's backing was not limited to Lebanon. The
organization's ability to defend Lebanon against the Israeli
invasion forces caused its popularity to explode throughout
the Arab world. Just a few months earlier, it was completely
inconceivable to see Hezbollah's flag in Sunni-dominated
countries such as the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia, but
quickly gained star popularity and its leader Hannan
Nazrallah achieved a status that reached the level of the
Nassers. This popularity was not limited to the Muslim
population. Christian and secular Arabs in not only Lebanon
and Palestine but the entire Arab world also expressed
admiration for Hezbollah's efforts, which in a few weeks
destroyed the image Israel had built over 50 years that its
army (IDF) was invincible. Israel launched after 1 week of
terrorist bombings of the Lebanon land war and declared it
would occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, but
Hezbollah's resistance to the invasion force was so fierce
and well prepared that both Israeli elite forces and
reservists were repeatedly beaten and forced to retreat out.
In that sense, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was
right in his view that the war would reshape the situation
in the Middle East. It showed that even though Israel had
unconditional air supremacy, its land forces could be run on
flight, and at the same time the war intensified opposition
to the United States and Israel. The well-educated middle
class in Lebanon now turned openly toward the United States,
having for decades held the United States as its ideal. The
reason was its open support for Israel's destruction of
Lebanon. In the Arab dictatorship states that were allies
with the United States - the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan and Egypt - the rulers feared this development
because it undermined their own positions of power.
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