@WhiteHouse I was 17. Heard both explosions from my house in Bikfaya that morning—the second one a few minutes later.
I will never forget their sacrifice.
May they rest in peace. 💔
Misleading. The post leaves out that, under Lebanon's power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian.
Christian leftists did exist, such as the SSNP and some communist leaders, and they allied with Muslim factions behind the Palestinian cause. But the driving force of the left was overwhelmingly Muslim: first mostly Sunni, and today mostly Shiite. Many of those movements put the Palestinian cause, and later Iran's agenda, ahead of Lebanon's own interests.
Yes, Palestinians were in Lebanon from the late 1940s, and tensions existed. But things only spiraled into civil war after the PLO was expelled from Jordan and set up its base in Lebanon. Many Lebanese Christians objected, but they were outnumbered.
It's ironic now: several Arab states are ready to make peace with Israel and move on. They've grown tired of the Palestinian struggle and concluded the wars were lost. Hezbollah made the same bet, sacrificing Lebanon for Gaza and for Iran, and lost as well.