Lebanon's Race against Time

...And the beneficent example Lebanon has given of moderation and reason in international affairs is obviously one needed in the Middle East itself...

...In April, Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigned in protest over army treatment of the fedayeen...

...Yet the stability of the nation can be assured only when the Middle East cools down...

...As a result the government pursued an essentially dualistic policy...

...It would be premature, however, to conclude that Lebanon must eventually lose its identity as a Switzerland...

...Lebanon's Race against Time by STEPHEN A. GARRETT Among the many ominous reports from the Middle East last fall, few exceeded in drama or potential tragedy the October events in the small country of Lebanon...

...It is Lebanon's economic position, then, which has significantly influenced her attitude toward a wide range of other matters...

...The answer lies in the "invisible" receipts Lebanon collects in the areas of banking, tourism, and trade, especially transit and re-export trade...

...Beirut, long noted for its fervent commitment to the good life, has altered in appearance...

...Accompanying these political crises has been the most serious manifestation of student unrest which Lebanon has yet seen...

...To a large degree the country's political stance has been a reflection of the dominant interest the prospering middle class has in both a democratic, laissez-faire domestic system, and in a policy of maintaining even-handed relations with both the West and the Arab world...

...Lebanon has also served a valuable function as perhaps the principal link in recent times between the Arab world and the West...

...He visited scores of reservations throughout the nation in preparing his series of articles for The Progressive...

...A state of emergency was temporarily declared, with both a curfew and press censorship imposed on the entire country...

...The intrinsic problems facing Lebanon are vastly compounded by the explosive nature of the region in which she lives...

...An even greater danger to Lebanese stability, however, has been the way in which the commando issue has tended to fracture the uneasy national consensus in the country and to set the principal groups against one another...

...It is this group which generally rejects the activities of the fedayeen and seeks to deny them sanctuary in Lebanon...

...The dangers inherent here are indicated by the fact that in the 1958 civil war in Lebanon the warring parties divided broadly along a Christian-Muslim pattern...

...The religious split in the country has been made an integral part of the country's institutional structure—an unwritten agreement among the leaders of the various religious sects formulated in 1943, called the National Pact...

...There have been practice blackouts and the low wail of air raid This is the second installment of Mr...

...Yet any subsequent Israeli reprisals obviously make it more difficult for Lebanon to continue in her adopted role as "Middle East neutral...

...tion on both the nature of this unique country and on its prospects for continuing its previous hopeful role as "the Switzerland of the Middle East...

...But there are a number of things which Lebanon can do to advance itself prior to such a settlement...

...Commando troops not only occupied parts of Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, but also surged into eastern Lebanon from Syria, accompanied by armored vehicles and artillery...

...Even if the government does attempt to prevent the commandos from using Lebanon as a base, it is probably impossible to close the border with Israel entirely, since it runs, in part, through difficult mountainous terrain...

...they have come to be associated not only with internal democracy but with moderation and reason in international affairs...

...Maintenance of this "Switzerland" in itself offers a slight hope for the Middle East, and to that extent works toward a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict...

...There has always been at least a substantial minority of Lebanese who have supported stronger action against Israel, and this group favored open support of the fedayeen...

...This is perhaps the nub of Lebanon's situation...

...In part this is a result of Lebanon's favorable geographical position at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, which allows it to serve as an entryway for goods to the surrounding countries...

...It was notable that the American University of Beirut, a symbol of Lebanon's link with the West, produced some of the most militant student leadership in the strike...

...It is clear that countries such as Lebanon, with mixed populations concentrated in small areas, face particularly difficult problems in maintaining their identity...

...Lebanon presents a peculiar paradox...

...Until recently it had enjoyed remarkable success...

...The relationship between these guerrillas and the Lebanese government was continuously tense...

...Lebanon alone of the Arab states bordering Israel had declined to break off diplomatic relations with the West after the war...

...Brandon has conducted experimental courses on the original inhabitants of North America at tjie University of Massachusetts...

...For example, the Lebanese army was primarily devoted to maintaining internal security in the country during the course of the June war...

...Moreover, it has been the Lebanese Christians who have tended to dominate the entrepreneurial middle class of the country...

...The success a heterogenous Lebanon has had over the years in maintaining both unity and democracy is a hopeful augury for political tolerance generally...

...In a different sphere, the country has undergone a series of governmental crises more severe than any since the 1958 civil war...

...The lack of formal press censorship in Lebanon also contributes to the open atmosphere, and even on the editorial pages of the Lebanese press it has been possible to find sometimes surprisingly candid interpretation of events: The Daily Star, for example, criticized President Nasser of Egypt for closing the Gulf of Aqaba in May, 1967...

...Yet, despite these hopeful signs, it has always been clear that Lebanese tranquillity rested on a dangerously fragile base...

...Subsequent attempts to form a new government foundered on the inability of potential Cabinet members to agree on a common policy toward the commandos...

...As a member of the Arab League, Lebanon provided forces in the 1948 war on Israel, but not in 1967...

...Brandon's three-part presentation on the American Indian...

...As a result, Lebanon's approach to political questions, especially in the realm of foreign policy, has more often than not followed Talleyrand's celebrated advice to a young diplomat: "Above all, not too much zeal...

...The question is whether it can be a factor in some sort of Middle East truce before it becomes engulfed itself in the fires of the region...

...Thus, it is the Christian Lebanese who have traditionally tended to reject closer ties with the Arab world in favor of maintaining an independent Lebanon with reasonably good relations with the West...

...Truckloads of helmeted troops are seen frequently at key points in the city...

...His travels and reseaches were financed in great measure by the Fund for Investigative Journalism of Washington, D. C. —The Editors sirens is now a common occurrence...

...The Lebanese experiment in democracy and moderation is thus experiencing an extended period of troubles...

...Hence, Lebanon is involved in an inexorable race against time...

...They have been far more receptive to the siren call of Pan-Arabism, and have clearly favored a more belligerent policy against Israel in conjunction with other Arab countries...

...The Arabic journal an-Nahar and the French publication L'Orient, for example, have a reputation for offering substantially straight news on their front pages, with editorial opinion reserved for the editorial pages...

...Efforts by government forces to restrict Palestinian commando movements in the south of the country led to a fullblown internal and international crisis...

...The raid, a reprisal for prior Arab commando attacks on Israel's El Al Airline in Athens and Zurich, resulted in the destruction of thirteen aircraft belonging to three Arab commercial airlines...

...This comparatively moderate approach has been reflected in the way in which elements of the Lebanese press have handled news reports on the conflict...

...In December he was back again as premier with the parliament's approval...

...It is this success which underpinned Lebanon's deserved reputation as a haven for political exiles, and for the maintenance of a freely operating foreign press establishment...

...The legislature itself is always a multiple of eleven, with a ratio of six Christians to five Muslims...

...Essentially the dangers to the country are twofold...

...The total picture has been a heartening one in many ways, both in its internal and external aspects...

...The fighting between the Lebanese army and the commandos, which left scores dead and hundreds injured, eventually subsided, but essentially the October events represented simply a continuation of the extended period of turmoil which the country has faced since the Israeli raid on Beirut International Airport in December, 1968...

...Following the airport raid, all four of Beirut's universities were shut down by student strikes...

...But perhaps most fundamental to the peculiar role of the country in the Middle East has been its position as the chief financial and trading center in the area...

...As long as Arab-Israeli relations proceeded mainly on the basis of a government-to-government confrontation, Lebanese authorities were able to maintain their relative aloofness with some success...

...The commando attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil invite Israeli reprisals, of which there have been several during the past year...

...The common description of Lebanon as another Switzerland has had a surprising amount of substance in it...

...As far as regional pressures are concerned, it has undoubtedly been the rise of the Arab commando movement which has presented the greatest chair lenge to the country...

...Moreover, government authorities frequently disclaimed any direct responsibility for "protecting" Israel from guerrilla incursions...

...The historical, cultural, and economic factors so significant in her development to date have not disappeared, and they will continue to wield influence...

...The Syrians themselves threatened to intervene with regular troops if opposition to the guerrillas were not ended, and the Soviet Union and the United States traded acrimonious notes over their respective roles in the conflict...

...There is little in the way of organized and responsible parties, which might, in other democratic systems, be expected to moderate political discussion...

...Many guerrillas who were trained in Syria, which all but surrounds Lebanon on the landside, found no difficulty in infiltrating across the Syrian-Lebanese border and establishing themselves in southern Lebanon...

...Not surprisingly, those supporting the commandos in Lebanon have most often been found among the Muslim population...

...On the overriding issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict, for example, Lebanese opinion generally exhibited a degree of restraint, at least to the extent of preferring a political to a military solution...

...But it also felt compelled to grant one of the principal guerrilla organizations, the Palestine Liberation Organization, permission to establish an open information service in Beirut...

...The Karami government subsequently governed in a caretaker capacity for six months, only to resign once again during the October disturbances, thus adding a faintly comic opera note to an otherwise grim situation...

...In this sense the practical problem represented by the guerrillas—that is, Israeli reprisals—is secondary to the way in which the commandos have become a symbol of the basic Christian-Muslim split in the country and their disagreement over the proper destiny of Lebanon...

...While her Arab neighbors succumbed to varying degrees of authoritarianism, Lebanon continued to be a reasonably open and tolerant society...

...On the one hand it made some efforts to prevent guerrilla operations against Israel from Lebanese territory...

...Even though the country has a severe imbalance of trade, it continues to maintain a favorable balance of payments, has substantial foreign exchange reserves, and almost no foreign debt...

...There are substantial cultural ties reinforcing this relationship...

...Like the Swiss, the Lebanese are characterized by a fundamental cultural and religious split, with the country divided into roughly equal proportions of Muslims and Christians...

...The Chris-tains, as a rule, have been relatively more moderate on the Israeli question, supporting a substantial degree of Lebanese non-involvement...

...The president of Lebanon must always be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the unicameral Lebanese parliament a Shi'a Muslim...

...Moreover, the strength of the guerrilla movement had risen to the point where Lebanese authorities were obviously wary of engaging the tiny Lebanese army against them, quite apart from the effect such a course would' have on alienating an important segment of Lebanese public opinion...

...The Lebanese civil service is also organized around the same principle, even when this may conflict with the dictates of efficiency and with recruitment based on merit...

...The Lebanese have emulated the Swiss in another way, too...

...But the development of the commando movement following the June war confronted the government with a far more difficult problem...

...The strains being imposed on the country have been reflected in numerous ways during the past year...

...Thus, the Lebanese political system is a delicately balanced mechanism, and any serious challenge is bound to have severe repercussions in the country's institutional structure...

...The Lebanese have survived, and indeed prospered basically, by rendering services to foreigners...

...The American University in Beirut recently celebrated its one-hundreth year of uninterrupted operation, and the fact that roughly half of Lebanon's population of some 2.5 million is Christian has led to a general receptivity to Western influence...

...With greater social progress these extreme demands might lessen...

...The concluding installment will appear in our February issue...

...Under this arrangement both the executive and the legislature are organized along lines that allot a proportionate number of positions to members of the different religious groups, based roughly on their percentage of the total population...

...There are some thirtyseven Arabic newspapers in Beirut, three French language newspapers, and one published in English...

...The attack also initiated a feverish and often bitter reexamination by other nations and the Lebanese of Lebanon's foreign and domestic policies...

...The author of The American Heritage Book of Indians, Mr...

...Student demands appeared to summarize the new currents in Lebanese political thinking...

...Long-term success for the Lebanese experiment almost certainly will require a lessening of the Arab-Israeli tension, if not an actual general settlement, the prospects for which appear remote at the present time...

...The English Daily Star uses a considerable volume of unaltered copy from the Associated Press...

...It is this type of religious-political dichotomy which is and has been the chief obstacle to the maintenance of democratic stability in Lebanon...

...The capital has acquired some of the aspects of a city under siege...

...These developments have thus focused considerable attenSTEPHEN A. GARRETT is assistant professor of political studies at the American University of Beirut...

...There are considerable disparities of wealth and opportunity in this country, and in part demands for a more radical policy against Israel and closer association with other Arab states, voiced by the Moslems and even some of the poorer Christians, are symptoms of the general feeling of malaise felt by part of the population...

...Since the Beirut airport raid and the October fighting in Lebanon, the question of the commandos has assumed much larger dimensions...

...The Muslims, on the other hand, are generally lower on the socio-economic scale...

...What Lebanon has attempted to do, again like its Swiss counterpart, is to maintain national unity and stability despite this heterogeneity and yet do so without sacrificing its internal democratic system...

...Last April large scale rioting broke out in various parts of Lebanon...

...At the least they would appear to demand some relief from external pressures so that they can gradually resolve inter-communal tensions and concentrate on domestic integration...

...These demonstrations developed primarily out of resentment at the army's harassment of Arab commando elements within Lebanon—the same factor which led to the October fighting in the country —and they produced some eighteen dead and several hundred injured...

...The attempt to mold basically diverse groups, living within a small area, into a unified state is fraught with inherent difficulties, as the recent communal rioting in Malaysia and Northern Ireland reveal all too well...

...They include a program for fortification of the Southern villages of Lebanon, a comprehensive military draft, closer relations with other Arab states, and open support of the commando movement...

...This small country, the size of Connecticut, has constituted the chief diplomatic window on the Middle East for the United States and Great Britain since the June, 1967 war...

...By a careful selection among this melange it is possible to gain a surprisingly straightforward account of the course of events in the Arab-Israeli dispute...

...Perhaps even more important is the fabled Lebanese talent for the subtleties of entrepre-neurship...

...There is an air of tension and uncertainty which is in marked contrast to the earlier insouciance of the city's population...