Customer Reviews

Armies in Lebanon, 1982-84 (Men at Arms Series, 165)

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For those with curiosity about all the factions involved this book will be helpful. This book details the complex factional civil war in Lebanon, the Palestinian occupation of the south, the Israeli invasion, and the foreign intervention attempt to make peace. The events covered here follow on from those covered in the two earlier volumes The Israeli Army in the Middle East Wars, 1948-1973, and Arab Armies in the Middle East Wars, 1948-1973.
The rivalry between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations goes back before WW II with the 1917 Balfour Declaration that a homeland for the Jews would be established in Palestine. This was done in the wake of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire without consulting the Arabic peoples of Palestine.
After much unrest in the 1930s matters came to a head in 1948 after the British left and Israel was proclaimed, the surrounding Arabic states invaded Palestine. The resulting war caused many of the Palestinian Arabs to flee the conflict. The resulting de facto partition resulting from the Israeli victory led to four more major ground wars and ongoing border raids and terrorism.
But their return was not to be allowed but even more tragically, they were kept in refugee camps and not allowed to disperse or assimilate in the rest of the Arab world in a manner similar to that done by the displaced persons who fled Eastern Europe in 1945. Now, several generations on, the desires of the Palestinians to return, destroy the state of Israel, and reclaim the land of their origin, have festered for so long that no rational solution seems in sight. At various times the Israeli's neighbors have backed or opposed or expelled the Palestinian forces in response to their own internal political imperatives. Thus, the Egyptians have signed a peace with Israel, while the rest have not. Syrians, Saudis, and others have continued to offer them refuge and aid while the Kingdom of Jordan expelled them all in "Black September" 1970, an event which led to the raid on the Olympic delegation in 1972.
No matter on what side your sympathy lies, hope of peace is still remote, and all concerned victims of this conflict deserve the prayers and good wishes of the world.
The color plates are of the usual high quality and, along with the Israeli, Lebanese, and other local forces, cover the French, Italian, and US Marines sent to seperate the warring factors along the Green Line in Beirut.

I am somewhat disappointed with this book even though it covers this particular conflict thoroughly. The problem is the pro-Israeli bias which is not even subtle. This is reflected in the text and some of the captions of the otherwise good photographs. Even the plates show drawings of heroic looking Israeli troops and frightened lebanese militiamen and Syrian troops. Authors should seek whenever possible to analyse complex problems such as the Lebanese Civil War in a balanced and scholarly way. My own perception is that this book does not follow these basic principles.