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David Hirst

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Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East Paperback – Illustrated, March 8, 2011

by David Hirst (Author)

4.2 75 ratings

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In this magisterial history of Lebanon, from the end of Ottoman rule to the Hezbollah and Hamas wars of today, acclaimed and fiercely independent Middle East journalist and historian David Hirst charts the interplay between a uniquely complex country and the broader struggles of the modern Middle East. Lebanon is the battleground on which the region's greater states pursue their strategic, political, and ideological conflicts--conflicts that sometimes escalate into full-scale proxy wars. Hirst warns that only serious diplomatic action from the Obama administration can prevent the next such action from engulfing the entire region.

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About the Author

David Hirst was for many years the Middle East correspondent of the Guardian. His seminal book on the Arab-Israeli conflict, The Gun and the Olive Branch, has been in print for thirty years.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bold Type Books; Illustrated edition (March 8, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1568586574
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568586571
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.24 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,219,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #82 in Lebanon History
- #789 in International Diplomacy (Books)
- #1,536 in Middle Eastern Politics

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4.2 75 ratings

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Desertwriter
the ULTIMATE history of the Middle East from Ottoman transition to present!
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2010
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At first I was unsure how Hirst could top his heroic Gun and Olive Branch:Roots of Violence in the Middle East...thinking that for 3 decades, with updates and a long desired comprehensive collection of all three editions in one, published in 2003, with a new 50,000 word forward, which brought the reader from the late 1980s (2nd edition) to the present decade-- the period leading up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, including insight into evangelistic Christian Zionism and their enmeshment --(concept of Zion and return for Jews)....the exclusion of the narrative of indigenous amended ...and events which led up to the British (who were in a "partitioning state of mind" across their Empire at that point in time)....Partitioning of Syria-Palestine-Transjordan-Levant along with the French as 'spoils" from their defeat (which would never have been possible in all likelihood, except for the unified power of the Arab clans from Hijaz and across the Arab world at the time )...conniving and treachery dealt via betrayal against the Arabs who longed for independence.
Here, in Hirst's latest opus...he picks up from that period...carefully documented presenting the reader with events and players within the Levant prior to 1919 Paris Peace conference --replete with Weizmann quotes and forward.
It must be read... an absolutely essential comprehensive "BIG PICTURE" epic history, in the same way that David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" did. .the era & series of events and schemes and epic historical narrative that will open minds & rip veils from the eyes of those who remain uninformed --whether as a result of inadequate public education in north america as well as the infinitely well oiled & funded propaganda machines that have driven North American ignorance for more than a century..
There is no question that this author is the "Laureate of M/E history"....not merely the Dean, as Hirst has long been considered. Put aside all current readings on the region...clear the decks...and desks, kindles, laptops but make time for this retrospective historical accounting, as no other will enrich, inform, educate and awaken. Brilliantly researched using regional archives and beyond. READ THIS BOOK...give it as a gift to family, associates and friends....Many Blessings to David Hirst for providing readers with blue print and text to finally arrive at this comprehensive beautifully written book, which hands Obama administration an unsparing review of what could lie ahead without the strictest adherence to the lessons of the past... & to Nation Press for publishing this stunner. Bravo!!

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Jon Micheal Swearingen
Seminal
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2012
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This book, in any future survey of lebanon, will be a seminal read for the historical context of the not only Lebanon, but the Levant of the MiddleEast. It is a beautifully researched subject by the author and complete in its historical scope. I have read a few reviews commenting on the books critique of Isreal, and I all I can say about that is much of the posturing and context isreal is put in this book is done by either the words and memoirs of isreali's themselves or from declassified documents from isrealis Gov't or military achives, so any criticisms could hardly be the fault of the authors, nor should it be a reflection upon the historical rigor of the book.

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Harshjudge
Harshjudge likes
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2012
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Still able to learn, I am enjoying this book, "Beware of Small States:Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East" because it makes some sense of the tribal, political,religious, familial spaghetti bowl that has bothered the middle east for lo, these many centuries. It clearly points out why politicians can never negotiate PEACE amongst these humans. You should read it if the popular press leaves you confused about recent history of this ongoing conflict. The inability to find that peace leaves us all losers. Damn!

Thanks, Amazon for making it available. Hope that I can move it to my new Big Fire ;-)

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PSH
Exciting surprise
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2010
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Although I had a small part in researching this book by translating one of the source books, I had no idea how amazing the final book would become. This is a must-read for anyone who really is interested in understanding the background to the mess which continues to haunt us. There is plenty of blame to go around, but we here in the US seldom get enough of the real picture to make sound judgements--this goes for our various governments of all shadings. Thanks, David Hirst, for this valuable contribution.

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Olivia O.
Beware of Small States
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2010
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Just like the The Olive Branch and the Gun, this book is biased toward the non-Israeli rendition of history. That is not to say the book is not worth reading--you can find many details concerning personalities/statements of State actors in this book that you rarely find in other accounts of the Middle East dilemma and these contribute to a clearer picture of the centuries-old war. But I suggest also reading a book on the opposite end of the spectrum like The Israeli Test and then read one or two of the many books in the middle of the argument as well. This book should in no way be your only review of Levant/Middle East history...one-sided arguments like this are what prolong such wars.

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buckyball59
So far, this is a great resource of information.
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2014
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I have not finished this book, but the first chapter I read was concise and in-depth. This is a relatively new subject of scrutiny for me, so I am unable to say whether the information is accurate, but it ties in very well with what I know and understand already. Lebanon is an intricate, complex country ad the book does a good job of explaining its history, origins and current gestalt. I highly recommend it.

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Jonathan Randal
beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East
Reviewed in France on March 29, 2013
Verified Purchase
De tous les livres sur le Liban, y compris le mine, ce livre est de loin le meilleur. Hirst
reussit a rendre comprehensible les maintes soubresauts de ce petit pays

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F Henwood
Lebanon as Battleground for the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2011
Verified Purchase
David Hirst, a former Middle East correspondent of the Guardian, has written a superb history of Lebanon's involuntary role in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The first half of the book is mostly a detailed examination of Israeli-Lebanese relations from the early days of Zionist settlement in the 1920s until the 1982 Israeli invasion. For Hirst, force has been a cardinal principle in establishing the Zionist state, combined with ambitions to establish a friendly Christian-Lebanese dominated client state in Lebanon.

Israel's overt motive to invade in 1982 was to secure its northern settlements from Palestinian rocket attack. But, infuriatingly, the PLO's strict observance of a ceasefire, despite Israeli attempts to provoke a breach, and strenuous international efforts to mediate a resolution on the border, gave lie to this.

The war was an imperial venture, with stupendous ambitions: under the auspices of its then defence minister Ariel Sharon (`described `as a war looking for a place to happen') Israel sought to refashion Lebanon as a Christian-dominated client-state, destroy the PLO (and by extension break the will of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to resist) and deport Palestinians en masse to Jordan, whereby it would become `the Republic of Palestine.' Thus the Palestinians would have their `state' and Israel's supremacy over the Occupied Territories be assured.

The plan ended in failure, but not before the grisly massacres at Sabra and Shatila, perpetuated by Israel's Christian allies, with Israeli connivance. The PLO was evicted from the country but replaced by an even more implacable foe: Hizbollah, a movement which went on to inflict on the Israel what no Arab army had ever been able to do: defeat.

The rest of the book mostly discusses the relationship of Shiite-dominated and Islamist Hizbollah to Lebanon's other principal groups (Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims), its Iranian and Syrian sponsors, and, of course, its arch-adversary, Israel, right up to the present.

Hizbollah was founded on two pillars: first, as a Lebanese nationalist-resistance movement against Israeli occupation, second, as Jihadist movement, pledged to Israel's ultimate destruction (not just ending its occupation of the Palestinian Territories). Its first pillar has commanded widespread assent from Lebanese of all communal stripes but its second does not. Outside its core Shiite support, and its patron, Iran, broader Jihadist ambitions are not shared by Lebanon's Sunnis, still less its Christians. Both groups inclined to view Hizbollah's links with Iran and Syria with suspicion, and a fear of being caught in between the crossfire in a proxy war.

The movement was Iranian-inspired and sponsored but essentially home grown. Its rise mirrored the eclipse of secular, leftist nationalist ideologies and the emergence of radical, fundamental Islamist ideologies throughout the Middle East as challenges to the received order - compare Hamas' rise against an increasingly enfeebled PLO. Syria and Iran are in cahoots with it but with different aims: Syria's confined to realpolitik (getting the Golan back) while Iran's have been ideological and much more ambitious, of the Jihadist sort.

The narrative brings us to the 2006 Israel-Hizbollah war and the 2009 Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The 2006 war is seen by Hirst as a failed proxy war against Iran: the next war, the seventh Arab-Israeli (or Arab/Persian-Israeli) war, is not a question of if, but when.

These complexities are laid bare with commensurate skill. Hirst sets out the perspectives of the Lebanese participants with forensic precision and clarity (the chapter on the expulsion of the Syrian army from Lebanon in 2005 and the country's Cedar Revolution is a brilliant exposition which sets out precisely the issues at stake for all parties).

The book does, however, have some limitations.

First, the book is less a history of Lebanon but more of an historical analysis of outside powers' (especially Israel's)interference. There is little space is allocated to the origins and course of the long civil war from 1976 to 1990. It doesn't tell you anything about the origins of the communal divisions that have so blighted the country and allowed outsiders to interfere.

Second, his access to Israeli documents allows him to build up a comprehensive picture of Israel's motivations and actions. But this is not the case for its opponents. So their motivations are not well-treated or exposed to the same level of forensic analysis as Israel's. While Israeli influence has been baleful, it does not follow that Iranian/Syrian/Hizbollah designs on the country are any more benign in intent than Israel's.

Third, he anticipates that the future history of the Middle East will be defined as a struggle between the US, Israel and its `moderate' Arab allies on the one hand and Islamic-nationalist movements like Hamas, Hizbollah and `radical' states like Syria and Iran on the other. This master-narrative is too schematic. The Arab Spring, affecting `radical' anti-Israeli and `moderate' pro-American regimes alike, shows that Israel-Palestine is not the only major fault line in the region.

On a minor point, Hirst also refrains from offering any anecdotes relating to his own fifty-year residence in the country (including surviving a kidnap attempt) which is a shame, for surely this would add extra human interest to the book. But neither the book's narrative pace nor readability suffer on account of this omission.

These qualifications aside, I can still wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the modern Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. If you are remotely interested in these subjects, then get hold of this book.

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S Wood
Beware of Neighbouring States
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2012
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The Guardians former Middle East correspondent and long term resident of Beirut (kidnapped twice) has penned a fine book telling the story of Lebanons role (putting the occupied territories to one side) as the main battleground of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The book begins with an overview of the period from 1860 to 1923, from the Ottoman period to the point where an enlarged Lebanon was carved out of Greater Syria by the French, this after the Arab provinces of the now deceased Ottoman Empire had been divided between the French and the British, with Palestine being simultaneously pledged to the Arabs and the Zionists. This was a crucial point in the regions history that set the context within which conflict was to flourish for the rest of the century and beyond.

Hirst paints a picture of Lebanon, its social-economic and ethnic-religious divisions and its sectarian democracy, before inevitably having to cross borders and examine events in neighbouring states: the rise of Arab Nationalism, the Zionist projects endevours in Mandatory Palestine and the Arab resistance to this (culminating in the Arab Revolt of 1936-39), the breakdown of British rule in Palestine and the subsequent conflict between the Zionists and the Arabs that brought Israel into existance, and a large number of Palestinian refugees into Lebanon upsetting the finely balanced ethnic and religious demography. This is followed by war after war after war including the decade and a half of civil war within Lebanon itself which its two neighbours, Syria and Israel extensively participated in, the former "invited" the latter invading first in the 1970's, then catastrophically in 1982 after which they occupied areas of the country until finally driven out by Hizbullah in 2000.

This is all competently done, written clearly and marshalling the facts in a comprehensible manner. Despite this I couldn't help thinking that this had been done before and done better in Robert Fisks monumental Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. It wasnt until its last third, the period taking the reader from the end of the Civil War 1990 to the point of publication in 2010, that "Beware of Small States" really impressed me.

The focus is then turned on Hizbullah (The Party of God). Hirst covers its development from an offshoot of the broadly secular but Shiite Amal movement to being the largest militia (and political party) in Lebanon. Its links with the Iranians and Syrians are also examined, though Hirst (along with many other commentators) regards them as being essentially indigenous to Lebanon, particularly the amongst poor Shiite of the rural South and Beruit. Both areas and their inhabitants have been on the recieving end of the violence Israel continually dispenses in order to attain its political goals (aka Terrorism).

Hirst's acccount of Hizbullahs growing ability to resist the Israeli occupation of 1982-2000 is excellent, and one is hard pressed not to feel a degree of admiration for the fighters of Hizbullah who eventually drove the Israelis out. After the freeing South Lebanon the story branches out to deal with Hizbullahs post-liberation dilemas and developments, Syrias increasingly contested role in Lebanon including the assassination of Rafiq Hariri and the so-called "Cedar" Revolution, the presence of outside powers (never really absent throughout the story) including Iran, France and the United States further complicate matters. All this culminates in the brutal Israeli attack on Lebanon (after a Hizbullah raid over the border into Israel resulted in the deaths of Israeli soldiers and the capture of two others) in 2006 which Hirst ably deals with, accounting for the actions of the various participants, directly and indirectly, in order to render a full and comprehensible account.

"Beware of Small States" is a welcome addition to an already crowded field. Within its 400 pages it provides a well written and straightforward account of the Arab-Israeli conflict as it effected Lebanon. Developments in the Middle East as a whole (particularly occupied Palestine, Syria and Israel) and beyond are never absent, and keep the reader informed, far more than ought to be practical in a book focussed on Lebanon, of the conflict in its entirety. Other books that might be of interest are Hirsts own The Gun and the Olive Branch which is a general history of the conflict up until its last revision in 2003; and Robert Fisks exemplary work Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War that details Lebanons ordeal up to the end of the Civil War in 1990, with additional chapters in the 2001 edition bringing the story up to the Israeli withdrawl of 2000.

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Gareth Smyth
Wide-ranging, dispassionate, balanced
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2011
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A wide-ranging, balanced and thoughtful account of modern Lebanon with its focus squarely on the wider regional conflicts that have interacted in such complex and often violent ways with the country's own competing sectarian identities.

David Hirst's style is dispassionate and understated. He is an old school journalist light years away from pumped-up personal anecdotes and overegged "scoops", a humble and even quiet man whose reports in the Guardian have contained genuine insight and sure-grounded analysis.

It is unsettling, therefore, that such a distinguished journalist, who has covered the region for half a century should end his book with pessimism that the regional conflict, centred on Israel and the Palestinians, can be resolved peacefully.

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Etheldreda
Indispensable.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2012
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I'm a huge fan of David Hirst. I believe he is, quite simply, the best journalist writing in English on the Middle East. His earlier book on the Palestinian struggle, 'The Gun and the Olive Branch', is my personal favourite among the many books I have read on Middle East history.

This book is also highly recommended. It is beautifully written, and despite the often depressing nature of the subject under discussion, it's a real page turner. Anyone who wants to understand Lebanon - how it got to where it is today, and where it is likely to go in the future - needs to read this book. It is indispensable.

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