Lebanon

The Lebanese political system remained paralyzed in 2015, with the presidency vacant since the last incumbent's term expired in May 2014 and the National Assembly's term extended twice since 2013. The two main political coalitions were unable to agree on a new president during the year, and under the legislature's 2014 term extension, National Assembly elections were not expected until 2017. A unity cabinet headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam managed the country's affairs.

When it was launched ... the attack killed about 800 people, mostly civilians, and left much of Lebanon in rubble. Israel's goal was to destroy Hezbollah, an organization formed to resist Israel's illegal and brutal 18-year occupation of Lebanon that began in 1982 and formally ended in 2000 ... Lebanon's effort to rebuild itself was set back many years, as Israel intended. Hezbollah was always more than a guerilla organization aimed at the Israeli occupation. It has provided social services to the poor southern Lebanese and is a political party that elected members of Parliament in last year's elections.

Lebanon is a ticking time bomb, and it will go off shortly after the Israelis, and their Washington handlers, light the fuse. Increased Israeli overflights are bound to provoke a Lebanese response ... all this takes place against the backdrop of considerable political turmoil. The Lebanese people are in rebellion against a government that ordered its "army" to stand down as Israeli jets pounded Beirut – and bombed Lebanese "army" barracks. The only use the government has for its soldiers is for killing anti-government demonstrators. When push came to shove it was Hezbollah that fought – and beat – the IDF.

However, Sharon sent his tanks to Beirut, determined to destroy the PLO ... The Palestinian Red Crescent estimated that 14,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed or wounded in the first month ... Shortly after the U.S. troops withdrew, Lebanese president-elect Bashir Gemayel was assassinated. The IDF promptly invaded Muslim West Beirut, violating the fragile peace agreement ... Sharon invited Lebanese Phalangist militia units trained and equipped by Israel to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps ... over the next 48 hours more than 700 Palestinian women, children, and men were executed ...

Lebanon had been wracked by a brutal civil war for seven years when, in June 1982, Israel invaded in order to crush the Palestinian Liberation Organization. ... in mid-September 1982, the massacre of more than 700 Palestinian refugees threatened to plunge Lebanon into total chaos. Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia butchered residents of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps ... The Lebanese government appealed to President Reagan to send American troops back ... As fighting escalated between Christians, Muslims, Syrians, and Israelis in Lebanon, the original U.S. peacekeeping mission became a farce.

[I]f a state is based on any other principle, its majority will be determined not by the freely changing flow of public opinion, but by a permanent characteristic, such as nationality or religion. This relationship of permanent majority and permanent minority is an unstable foundation for a democracy ... [A]s the history of Lebanon has demonstrated, these relationships may not be as permanent as people believe. Lebanon suffered through a bloody civil war because a framework of government that assumed a permanent Christian majority could not peacefully adjust to the shift in the population.