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Colonial foundation
In the 19th century, Lebanon gained its tragic position as a “buffer zone” for systemic sovereignty among the major powers. In 1833, the forces of Ibrahim Pasha – son of Muhammad Ali, the governor of Egypt, who declared his opposition to the Ottoman Sultan after becoming his vassal – occupied Lebanon. The British approached the matter differently and forced France to pressure its ally, the Egyptian ruler, to withdraw his son’s forces from the Lebanese mountains in 1840. Thus, the five colonial powers (France, Italy, Prussia, Austria and England) believed that Muhammad Ali’s ambitions to overthrow and replace the Ottoman monarchy were unacceptable.
In this context of the struggle for influence among Europeans over the future of the Ottoman Empire, which Russian diplomacy described as the “sick man”, many bloody problems arose among the Maronite and Druze peasants for the first time in the history of the mountain. Lebanese. These confrontations arose as a direct result of the Franco-British imperial rivalry that is concentrating on this land and destroying, through its maneuvers and manipulations, the great coexistence that existed for centuries in the Chouf region between the Druze and Maronite sects. From the core of this coexistence emerged the personality of Fakhr al-Din II, who ruled the Emirate of the Mountain from 1590 to 1635. To free himself from the Ottoman rule, especially by establishing relations with Tuscany, Italy, the Emir had to face several military campaigns led by the forces of the Sublime Gate. The Ottomans captured him and executed him by beheading in Constantinople (now Istanbul).
In 1860, fighting intensified between the Druze supported by the Ottoman army and the Christians, and spread to the Bekaa Valley. At that time, France, during the reign of Napoleon III, decided to intervene and landed its forces on the Lebanese coast. Then the five European powers and the Ottoman Empire agreed to reduce the area of Lebanon. In exchange for “Little Lebanon”, the French authorities will declare by proxy, “Greater Lebanon” on September 1, 1920. This country, which occupies an area of 10,452 square kilometers, will not fail to see its destiny linked to European imperialist rivalries Even “Westerners” if we include the United States, which has become the After World War II, the dominant force in the “free world” was working to mobilize the three monotheistic religions to confront the force of the Soviet Union.
Angel Poligan – Mexico
Social and economic disintegration
During the period of the French mandate (1920-1943), the High Commissioner issued a decision in 1936 that institutionalized the religious community in Lebanon, provided that a civil system was established for those who did not belong to these institutions. This marital status has not yet been established.
As a “buffer zone” subject to often hostile influences, Lebanon has always faced difficulties in defining itself and overcoming its own contradictions. In 1949, Georges Naccache (1904-1972), a prominent Lebanese journalist and founder of “Orient Le Jour,” published a resounding editorial that landed him in jail. “Neither the West nor Arabization”: Christians and Islam allied themselves in a double negative (to adopt the National Pact in November 1943, which was an unwritten commitment). He asked what kind of unit could be drawn from that formula. “What half of the Lebanese do not want, you can see well. What the other half does not want, we see very well. But what the halves want is what we don’t see. (…) The state is not a group of incapable people, two (two loyalties) do not make a nation ”.
Later, George Naccache would become a fan of Major General Fouad Chehab (1902-1973), Commander-in-Chief of the Lebanese Army and then President of the Lebanese Republic between 1958 and 1964. He was the true founder of the Lebanese state. He carried out a large number of reforms with the informed advice of a Dominican priest, economist and founder of the International Institute for Research, Training, Education and Development (IRFED) Louis Josep Lepret (1897-1966). Shihab asked him to carry out a socio-economic study on living standards in different Lebanese regions between 1960 and 1964. He carried out a comprehensive survey that revealed very large social inequalities and a huge concentration of wealth among a small minority of Lebanese, in contrast to the pockets of extreme poverty in the peripheral rural areas of the country.
In a lecture entitled “Lebanon in Turns” delivered in 1962, the Lebanese economist warned against the persistence of these disparities that could lead to the collapse of his country. This disintegration has in fact occurred since 1975 in the context of a general outbreak of violence between the “Christian” political parties, in particular the Falange Party established by Pierre Gemayel, and the “Lebanese National Movement”.
Fouad Chehab often referred to what he called “the cheesemakers,” in other words; Unscrupulous politicians who tried to reorganize the state. At the international level, the president built his foreign policy through good relations with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. This could not fail to exacerbate the anger of the bourgeoisie of Christian works that saw in the head the Arab and socialist Satan, the Devil himself. Faced with the drive for reform and the presidential desire to build a strong state, the slogan of conservative Christian circles was summed up in a very imprecise slogan, on the basis of which “Lebanon’s strength lies in its weakness.” For its part, the Muslim bourgeoisie demanded more rights in the new independent republic and, in general, supported the Palestinian armed movements to put pressure on the intransigent Christian bourgeoisie.
The political class is constantly involved in social maneuvers. He lives trapped in a bubble as if the economy continues to function normally, forgetting the existence of an increasingly poor people. Nor is it certain that the demands for reform through the International Monetary Fund can clean up and revitalize economic activity.
Another contemporary of Fouad Chehab deserves mention because of the correctness of his vision. Michel Shiha (1891-1954), banker and defender of economic liberalism. He was a staunch advocate of social diversity and warned early on of the dangers Lebanon faced as a result of Israeli policies towards Lebanon and the Palestinians. His articles on Palestine remain a masterpiece of clarity and insight. You have already realized the existential struggle between Israel, which is based on social exclusivity, and Lebanon, which is based, on the contrary, on managing pluralism.
But in some fringe Maronite circles, the idea arose that if the Jews in Palestine had their own state, why shouldn’t the Christians have their own state? Christians and Jews are a minority Why don’t they unite against the Muslim majority? This point of view echoed, without her knowing it, the echo of all the Israeli literature that called for the destabilization of Lebanon and the need to divide the country between Christians and Muslims. We know what happened after the Israeli invasions of 1978 and 1982 and the massacres of Palestinian civilians …
The rentier system after 1990
The end of the cycle of intercommunal warfare in 1990 did not address Lebanon’s original weaknesses or its inability to build a state. Worse still, the coming to power in 1992 of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a protégé businessman of the King of Saudi Arabia who remained in office until his death in the 2005 bombing, led the country towards a rentier economic system as if it had great resources. . Lebanon also signed free trade agreements with a large number of countries, which had a negative impact on the country’s productive, industrial and agricultural capacity. The fixed exchange rate regime that pegs the Lebanese pound to the dollar and the abnormally high levels of interest rates on local currency treasury bonds led to an unhealthy accumulation of debt in that currency. Above all, this facilitated the rapid enrichment of the country’s wealthy class, who borrowed dollars at low interest rates and then invested in Lebanese pounds with very high returns.
During this period, the most beautiful parts of the capital were confiscated from its residents in favor of the Solidere Company, which turned the famous city center into a vulgar version of the Gulf cities made of glass and steel. In fifteen years, Beirut, devastated by many years of war, has suffered a true architectural genocide, as evidenced by the construction of a huge Turkish-style mosque that broke the ancient architectural beauty of the Palace of the Martyrs.
An economy vulnerable to disruption
The “Hariri” administration of the Lebanese economy was directly responsible for its weakening. Although the growth rate was 7%, it never reached levels consistent with the postwar reconstruction period. The government did not pay much attention to tax justice, but drastically lowered income tax rates, while the situation called for imposing a special tax on the great wealth that was made during the war. Although the real estate sector flourished, it began to run into financial difficulties very quickly as the savings of the Lebanese people were depleted due to interest rates on bank deposits or public debt bonds.
During the Hariri era, Lebanon witnessed the migration of young people alone or through a program that included thousands of scholarships for students, which explains why Rafik Hariri’s popularity continues among a part of the youth.
But today’s Lebanese economy is in danger of disruption. The de facto freezing of bank deposits, totally unconstitutional, attests to the existence of a “bankruptcy” system unique in the world and totally contrary to human rights. It is the result of a shady management of the banking sector and the Lebanese Central Bank, administered by the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, for almost 30 years after his appointment on August 1, 1993, by decision of Rafik Hariri, because he managed to manage wealth at Merrill Lynch Commercial Bank.
The depreciation of the Lebanese pound and the doubling of exchange rates have devastated a large part of the middle class and raised the poverty rate above 50% of the population.
The political class that governs the country is constantly involved in social maneuvers. He lives trapped in a bubble as if the economy continues to function normally, forgetting the existence of an increasingly poor people. On the other hand, it is not certain that the demands for reform through the International Monetary Fund can clean up and revitalize economic activity. A series of privatizations of public companies and the sale of state lands have already been planned. To all these misfortunes is added the massive double explosion that occurred on August 4, which devastated the eastern neighborhoods of the capital. The land of rice has never been hit by a disaster of this magnitude.
* Excerpts from a larger article published in Le Monde Diplomatique
** Lebanese researcher and writer, who was appointed Minister of Finance between 1998 and 2000
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