Ben-Gurion and Sharett on the Lebanon Problem

...Such a slogan may have on occasion pierced the air in Lebanon and there may have been persons and circles who advocated it...

...If money should be required, then dollars should not be spared, even though it may turn out to have been a poor investment...

...Why should it be supposed that the Western powers will simply watch such a revolutionary attempt, postponing their intervention until the time comes to express their congratulations for what has been accomplished, and then giving their "amen" to the "restoration" of Christian Lebanon...

...It seems they are at it with great seriousness, but in the meantime many days have passed and although I am over my head in work and there is no end to the troubles and complications I am immersed in—and not only in foreign affairs—I shall make the effort to explain my position to you in some detail...

...But why should it be supposed that these districts will readily relinquish their association with Lebanon and their political and economic attachment to Beirut...

...Without our initiative and vigorous assistance it will not come about, and it seems to me that this is now the major task—or at least one of the major tasks—of our foreign policy, j It is necessary to invest resources, j time and energy and to act in whatever j ways are likely to bring about a funda-j mental change in Lebanon...

...But in a time of confusion and turmoil and revolution or civil war things change and the weak say, "I am strong...

...The clashing views of Israel's first two prime ministers on this issue reflected two fundamentally different orientations towards Israeli "activism...

...It is possible to fortify a spirit of life that throbs on its own...

...Yours, D. Ben-Gurion Sharett and Ben-Gurion David, A thousand pardons for my delay in answering your letter about Lebanon...

...Here there is no provocation of the mighty of the world...

...Remember: it already lost its hold on the northern corner of the coast, when Turkey annexed Anti-och, and on the southern comer when the State of Israel was established...

...Why should it be supposed that the bloody war that will inevitably break out as a result of such an attempt will remain confined to Lebanon and will not immediately also draw Syria into the fray...

...The Christian inhabitants of Lebanon are not the majority...

...In any event, because of time pressures I was unable to check the data or to consult with anyone and I write, therefore, on the basis of memory alone...

...Were it not for the fact that you three—you, [Pinchas] Lavon and M.D...

...Without any relation to current events (in the meantime Naguib has again been appointed President, an exceedingly shrewd move on the part of Nasser or his group), it is obvious that Lebanon is the weakest link in the [Arab] League...

...It may well be (of course, there is no certainty when it comes to policy) that now is the right moment for bringing about the establishment of a Christian state in our vicinity...

...Unfortunately, the research people have taken too long with their work...

...This being the situation, I fear that any attempt on our part to raise the issue will be regarded as a sign of irresponsibility and superficiality—and perhaps worse than that—as adventur-istic profiteering with the peace and existence of others and a readiness to sacrifice their basic well-being for a temporary tactical advantage for Israel...

...Why should it be supposed that all these considerations will not be taken into advance account by the Maronite leadership and will not deter them from setting out on the dangerous adventure...

...The Christian minority does not seriously impair the country's political wholeness or that of the nation...

...The establishment of a Christian state here is natural, has historical roots and will find support among large forces in the Christian world, both Catholic and Protestant...

...Although I expressed my negative view of your idea during our conversation in your home in Tel Aviv, I thought the matter should be examined further, so I asked our research department to prepare a background paper on past attempts to accord to Lebanon the character of a Christian community and the chances that a movement to achieve such a goal would have— were such a movement to arise...

...Before World War I the mountainous parts of Lebanon were not a self-sustaining body...

...Should anyone come today from the outside to awaken the desire for a Christian Lebanon as an object of practical politics, it would be like stabbing at the wind...

...The Orthodox in Lebanon are drawn towards their brethren in Syria...

...There is no such ferment, as I already noted at the beginning of my remarks...

...We don't have to do anything "in the name of—but, as I see it, what has to be done must be done rapidly and at full steam...

...That has been my clear impression for some time...

...Therefore, I permit myself to return to one matter, with which you did not agree, and to take it up again...

...I recall that in his book, Syria as an Economic Unit, Ruppin notes that on the eve of the war, Lebanon was receiving a total of 20 million gold francs a year from charity funds and relatives in America...

...But Egypt is a compact country, the most solidly established of all the Arab countries, and the overwhelming majority is one solid bloc, of one racial (truly) skin, of religion and of language...

...On the contrary, they believe that within the framework of a united country the position of the Lebanese Orthodox minority and of the Orthodox community in the Levant as a whole will be improved...

...I qualify this by saying a "staged effort" because I do not exclude the possibility of its coming about in the wake of a series of shocks passing through the Middle East, radically reshuffling the existing patterns, hurling them into a smelting oven from which new formations are withdrawn...

...They are the majority in historic Lebanon, and this majority has a tradition and culture altogether different from that of the other populations of the League...

...Why should it be supposed that the Arab League for its part will relinquish the position it has today, due to Lebanon's affiliation, on the midsection of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean...

...Having said all this, not only would I not oppose, I would most decidedly agree to extend active assistance to any ferment among the Maronite community of a separatist bent seeking to enlarge Maronite strength, even if this ferment be conducted without any chance of achieving its objective...

...It is highly doubtful that such a development will take place now or in the future...

...In any event, I do not at all regard the most recent takeover as a sufficient basis for us to adopt a policy of intervention and direct activity in Lebanon, to throw away large sums of money that we do not have and, in doing so, risk all the grave mishaps I have noted...

...They are not even a solidary group in and of themselves, neither ethnically or politically...

...In the following exchange of letters, which appears in the Hebrew edition of Moshe Sharett's Private Diary (Tel-Aviv: Sifriyat Ma'ariv, 1978), the two men spell out some of the reasons for their respective positions.—A.S...

...The slogan disappeared altogether from the public arena and the situation that came to prevail was one of silence—a total paralysis of thought and absolute stillness in terms of action...

...As for the Maronites, most of them have for years supported those practical men among the political leadership of their community who have long since abandoned the dream of restoring the glory of Christian Lebanon and have pinned all their hopes on a Christian-Moslem coalition within Lebanon...

...And again, it is one thing if the change comes about as a consequence of some sudden eruption—and another thing altogether if it is suggested that it be brought about with prior intent, the result of a plan worked out in advance...

...In the meantime mountainous Lebanon has fused with the coastal plain of Tyre and Sidon and with Biqat Baalbek and with the city of Tripoli into one organic unit, all of whose parts are interrelated and intertwined economically and commercially...

...BEN-GURION AND SHARETT ON THE LEBANON PROBLEM Translated by Arnold Schwartz AN EXCHANGE OF LETTERS At a meeting on February 27, 1954 between the then-Prime Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett and former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, at the tatter's home in Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion proposed Israeli action to bring about an independent Maronite Christian state in Lebanon...

...A restoration of the prior situation would mean not simple surgery but a shattering of limbs and organs which Lebanon would not be able to endure...

...Accordingly, the great majority of the Maronite community, guided in this direction by its leadership, will view any attempt to raise the banner of Maronite separatism as a dangerous undermining of the entire community's position and as an assault on its security and on its very existence...

...Such an initiative would appear to it as potentially disastrous, for, in a single stroke, it is liable to rend the fabric of Christian-Moslem cooperation within present-day Lebanon, which has been woven by persistent labor and with difficult sacrifices for over a generation...

...Were there any chance whatsoever for a Maronite separatist movement, the crises that have erupted so frequently in Syria until now should have brought forth and encouraged it...

...Not only are they unwilling to be martyred in a war for Christian Lebanon— which would be a Lebanon smaller than that of today and cut off from the Arab League—but there is reason to suppose that the idea of Lebanon's unification with Syria does not rouse them to spirited opposition...

...Under ordinary circumstances it would be virtually impossible—above all, because of a lack of initiative and courage on the part of the Christians...

...I would view such ferment as a welcome event in and of itself, for the challenge to the stability it would entail, for the troubles it would cause the League, for the diversion of attention from the Israeli-Arab morass that would ensue from it and for the very fanning of the ember of the desire for Christian independence, keeping it from being extinguished, that would follow in its wake...

...I cannot imagine, if only for this reason alone, that any serious body would give its support to this plan, which in my view would threaten Lebanon with economic suicide...

...In the course of time even those voices fell silent...

...But even then it never reached the proportions of a serious movement and it did not become an object of systematic and organized activity...

...The other minorities in the Arab countries are Moslems, save for the Copts...

...They would accept this in the hope and supposition that such an arrangement would wean the Moslems of Lebanon away from their longings for unification with Syria and would promote among them a desire for Lebanese independence...

...I am sorry if this lengthy analysis has burdened you, but I wanted to present to you my view of the problem as fully as possible...

...Nor is that surprising...

...This is an historic opportunity which it would be unpardonable to miss...

...But what shall I do...

...Sharett strenuously objected to the idea, which was raised on more than one occasion thereafter...

...It is pointless to try to awaken from the outside a movement that simply does not exist on the inside...

...We are not deaiing with the problem in 1920 or 1921, right after the proclamation by [the first French high commissioner in the Levant, General Henri] Gouraud about greater Lebanon, but some 30 and more years later...

...The thing is of course inconceivable Sdeh Boker 27.2.1954 without a trimming back of Lebanon's borders, but if people and exiles in Lebanon can be found who will mobilize for the establishment of a Maronite state—they have no need for enlarged borders and a large Moslem population—that will not be the obstacle...

...Moshe Dayan]—invited me, I would not have gone anywhere to express an opinion on what is being done and what should be done...

...But in current day Lebanon, with the shape of its territory, with its population makeup and its international relations, no serious initiative in this direction is conceivable...

...That is the matter of Lebanon...

...Moreover, it could throw the Moslems of Lebanon into the arms of Syria and, in the end of the process, bring down upon Lebanon the historical catastrophe of annexation to Syria and its obliteration within that large Moslem country...

...The conversion of Lebanon into a Christian country is out of the question today, if by that is meant a staged effort directed towards that end...

...Even within the expanded borders (that was France's worst mistake, that it expanded Lebanon's borders), the Moslems are not free in their actions, and even if they are a majority (and I don't know if they are the majority) they are distinct from the Christians...

...Apart from the material political considerations which together lead to rejection of the idea, there are also decisive economic factors operating in the same direction...

...M.S...

...In doing so I rely on information I have retained from years back, which I am not sure conforms precisely with the situation as it exists today (about which I will certainly learn from the background paper...

...That is not so with the Christians in Lebanon...

...There is no doubt that the annexation of the three areas and of Beirut to the Lebanese state is what gave its economy equilibrium...

...Eliahu] i Sasson must be enlisted as well as our j other Arabists...

...Since I was invited by you, I felt it my duty to do as you wished, especially as you as Prime Minister wished...

...They believe this for two simple demographic reasons: There are more Orthodox in Syria than in Lebanon and the Orthodox in Syria and Lebanon together outnumber the Maronites...

...At that same time, the Jewish yishuv in Eretz Yisrael received a total of ten million gold francs annually, the combined contributions of all the Jews in the world, the Zionist funds, various philanthropic institutions, chalukah money and assistance from relatives...

...These different orientations, which in the case of Ben-Gurion and Sharett led to a tragic personal collision, are still current in Israeli society and are obviously germane today...

...Will you say that these objections to the plan are not to the point, for the plan is based on tearing from Lebanon those regions whose populations turn the scales in favor of Islam and against Christianity—the Tyre region, Al Biqa and Tripoli...

...Finally, it should be noted that the recent coup d'etat in Syria is not the first of its kind, and, it may be assumed, will not be the last...

...1 don't know if we have any people in Lebanon—but there are all sorts of ways if the proposed attempt is to be made...

...Moshe, When I left the government I resolved not to interfere or express an opinion on current matters of state, because it seemed to me that I shouldn't do anything that might in any way, to whatever extent, make things difficult for the government...

...Now, as far as I know, there is no movement in Lebanon today that seeks to turn the country into a Christian state, in which the dominant governing power would be in the hands of the Maronite community...

...It is impossible to breathe a spirit of life into a body that shows no signs of life...

...These leaders have come to the realization that a Maronite Lebanon would have no chance of surviving on its own and that the historical well-being of the community requires that it opt for the lesser of the two evils, which would mean sharing the government with the Moslems as well as Lebanese membership in the League...

...It is another link in the long chain of shocks and changes that are evidence of the sickly frailty of the state structure, which applies to all the regimes...

...Moreover, if the secrecy of the matter is not observed and any such plan revealed—a danger which under no circumstance may be overlooked, given the Middle East as it is—that would cause us inconceivable damage vis-a-vis both the Arab countries and the Western powers, damage for which we will receive no compensation whatsoever from the success of the operation itself...

...Perhaps it would be worthwhile to bring [Reuven] Shiloah here immediately for this purpose...

...All energies should be concentrated on this...

...To begin with, I must lay down a fundamental presupposition I have maintained for some time: namely, that when an outside force sees cause and reason to interfere in the internal affairs of some country by supporting a political movement within that country which is striving to achieve some goal, it should do so only when that movement displays some activity on its own, and this activity which stands a chance of being intensified and perhaps also of succeeding through encouragement and assistance from outside...