Nadene Goldfoot
In 1516, the Ottoman Empire conquered Syria and remained in power until 1918. This was considered a relatively peaceful and stable period in Syria’s history. Syria and Lebanon became a French protectorate (thinly disguised as a League of Nations Mandate). French control was met immediately with armed resistance, and, in order to combat Arab nationalism, France divided the Mandate area into Lebanon and four sub-states.
In 1936, France and Syria negotiated a treaty of independence which allowed Syria to remain independent but gave France military and economic power.
During World War II, British and Free French troops occupied Syria—but shortly after the war ended, Syria officially became an independent country in 1946.
If you asked most Palestinian Arabs where they came from, they would reply, "Syria." They had come down from there looking for work in Palestine with the Jews.
At the same time, a contingent of Jews were trying to create a Jewish Homeland. Truman was about to agree with this. British-inspired propaganda against it was making Truman hesitate. On December 5, 1947, a few days after the UN approved the partition plan for Palestine, the US placed an "embargo" on arms shipments to the Middle East. All the Western allies followed suit in arming the Arabs. The British had armed Iraq and Jordan to the teeth, while Hoover kept the Jews disarmed. Americans and British were swayed to support the Arabs more than the Jews. The French considered the Jews to be secret subversives and pumped huge stockpiles of arms into Syria and Lebanon to help the Arabs. The 3 countries shared false rumors about Jews with each other. It was blatant anti-Semitism showing up in politics.
Under the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, the French obtained Hatay, Lebanon and Syria and expressed a desire for part of South-Eastern Anatolia. The 1917 Agreement of St. Jean-de-Maurienne between France, Italy and the United Kingdom allotted France the Adana region.
The French army, along with the British, occupied parts of Anatolia from 1919 to 1921 in the Franco-Turkish War, including coal mines, railways, the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak, Karadeniz Ereğli and Constantinople, Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace and the region of Cilicia. France eventually withdrew from all these areas, after the Armistice of Mudanya, the Treaty of Ankara and the Treaty of Lausanne.
Syria is considered to have emerged as an independent country for the first time on 24 October 1945, upon the signing of the United Nations Charter by the Syrian government, effectively ending France's mandate by the League of Nations to "render administrative advice and assistance to the population" of Syria, which came in effect in April 1946. On 21 February 1958, however, Syria merged with Egypt to create the United Arab Republic after plebiscitary ratification of the merger by both countries' nations, but seceded from it in 1961, thereby recovering its full independence. Since 1963, the Syrian Arab Republic has been ruled by the Ba’ath Party, run by the Assad family exclusively since 1970. Currently Syria is fractured between rival forces due to the Syrian Civil War.
Military experience gained from fighting in Syria’s civil war and decades of clashes with Israel have made the Iran-backed group stronger than ever, but the biggest threat it faces may be upheaval in its own backyard.
Lebanon was mentioned in the Torah with their cedars of Lebanon that King Solomon used in building his Temple. "At the time, the king of Tyre controlled the area of Sidon, where the cedar of Lebanon’s most southern range extended to." Solomon reigned from 961-920 BCE.
"Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, on November 11, 1918, the League of Nations mandated the five provinces that make up present-day Lebanon to the direct control of France. Initially the division of the Arabic-speaking areas of the Ottoman Empire were to be divided by the Sykes–Picot Agreement; however, the final disposition was at the San Remo conference of 1920, whose determinations on the mandates, their boundaries, purposes and organization was ratified by the League in 1921 and put into effect in 1922". France held the mandate for Lebanon.
Greater Lebanon was the name of a territory created by France. It was the precursor of modern Lebanon. It existed between 1 September 1920 and 23 May 1926. France carved its territory from the Levantine land mass (mandated by the League of Nations) in order to create a "safe haven" for the Maronite Christian population. Maronites gained self-rule and secured their position in the independent Lebanon in 1943.
French intervention on behalf of the Maronites had begun with the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire, agreements made during the 16th to the 19th centuries. In 1866, when Youssef Bey Karam led a Maronite uprising in Mount Lebanon, a French-led naval force arrived to help, making threats against the governor, Dawood Pasha, at the Sultan's Porte and later removing Karam to safety.
"According to the agreements reached at San Remo, France had its control over what was termed Syria recognized, the French having taken Damascus in 1920. Like all formerly Ottoman areas, Syria was a Class A Mandate, deemed to "... have developed enough to be able to stand on their own feet once the mandated time was over.
On October 27, 1919, the Lebanese delegation led by Maronite Patriarch Elias Peter Hoayek presented the Lebanese aspirations in a memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference. The Maronites were Christians, yet living amongst Arabs of the Muslim faith.
The demographics of Lebanon were profoundly altered, as the added territory contained people who were predominantly Muslim or Druze: Lebanese Christians, of which the Maronites were the largest subgrouping, now constituted barely more than 50% of the population, while Sunni Muslims in Lebanon saw their numbers increase eightfold, and the Shi'ite Muslims fourfold.
The Modern Lebanon's constitution, drawn up in 1926, specified a balance of power between the various religious groups, but France designed it to guarantee the political dominance of its Christian allies. The president was required to be a Christian (in practice, a Maronite), the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. On the basis of the 1932 census, parliament seats were divided according to a six-to-five Christian/Muslim ratio. The constitution gave the president veto power over any legislation approved by parliament, virtually ensuring that the 6:5 ratio would not be revised in the event that the population distribution changed. By 1960, Muslims were thought to constitute a majority of the population, which contributed to Muslim unrest regarding the political system.
During World War II when the Vichy government assumed power over French territory in 1940, General Henri Fernand Dentz was appointed as high commissioner of Lebanon. Vichy France is the common name of the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It was an independent ally of Nazi Germany until late 1942 when Berlin took full control. The Vichy government enacted strong conservative laws that censored the press, prohibited divorce, and made abortion a capital offense. As part of the Vélodrome d'Hiver raid, the Vichy government arrested and deported 13,000 Jews to camps, of whom 4,000 were children that the Gestapo had not demanded.
This new turning point led to the resignation of Lebanese president Émile Eddé on April 4, 1941. After five days, Dentz appointed Alfred Naqqache for a presidency period that lasted only three months. The Vichy authorities allowed Nazi Germany to move aircraft and supplies through Syria to Iraq where they were used against British forces. Britain, fearing that Nazi Germany would gain full control of Lebanon and Syria by pressure on the weak Vichy government, sent its army into Syria and Lebanon.
The Syria–Lebanon campaign, also known as Operation Exporter, was the Allied invasion of Vichy French-controlled Syria and Lebanon in June–July 1941, during World War II.
After the fighting ended in Lebanon, General Charles de Gaulle visited the area. Under various political pressures from both inside and outside Lebanon, de Gaulle decided to recognize the independence of Lebanon. On November 26, 1941, General Georges Catroux announced that Lebanon would become independent under the authority of the Free French government. Lebanon was on its own 7 years before Israel was, and was not faced with a war. The French took it badly. "Elections were held in 1943 and on November 8, 1943 the new Lebanese government unilaterally abolished the mandate. The French reacted by throwing the new government into prison. In the face of international pressure, the French released the government officials on November 22, 1943 and accepted the independence of Lebanon".
By 1944, there were 6,261 Jews in Lebanon. Their numbers were increased after 1948 by Jews from Syria. By 1990 less than 100 Jews were left living there.
Today Lebanon has been taken over by terrorists. "Beirut suffered devastating explosions in August that many have attributed to government negligence. The blasts—on top of Lebanon’s failing economy, rampant corruption, insufficient infrastructure, and increasing poverty—have fueled conversations about whether Lebanon is so dysfunctional that it should be considered a failed state.
The gradual disintegration of the Turkish Empire brought the number of its Jewish population in the Balkans, etc. under other authorities, the changes generally being for the worse. This had continued to WWI. Then Turkey became reorganized on nationalist lines and the former minorities largely disappeared through the exchanges of population with Greece. Turkish Jews no longer were especially a favored minority but became a recalcitrant one. 37,000 Jews emigrated to Israel after 1948. 20,000 remained in Turkey in 1990 with 18,000 in Istanbul, 1,500 in Izmir, and smaller communities in Edirne, Brusa, and Ankara.
Despite having faced many different challenges in recent years, including a deluge of refugees coming in from Syria as a result of the civil war and an ISIS invasion in the nation’s northeast, Lebanon is an anchor of stability in the Middle East and an important US partner according to 2018 news. Hezbollah terrorists are backed by Iran and remain in Lebanon as close allies.
Resource:
Update: 12/26/2020 :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lebanon
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Syria%E2%80%93Lebanon_campaign
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Syria
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/lebanon-failed-state-heres-what-numbers-say?gclid=CjwKCAiA8ov_BRAoEiwAOZogwXahMXkOIg0NayLuwKaAUGp7HLT6qScpkB25CIL1DqPjJNvyWX0hqBoCXZoQAvD_BwE
https://spiritofamerica.org/blog/help-us-troops-maintain-stability-one-lebanons-challenging-regions?gclid=CjwKCAiA8ov_BRAoEiwAOZogwYOzQoGnNjuqwTY77-3qhRnuK-tZuWAozBE5JBJ8MV1kp3X5m-2f0BoCfd8QAvD_BwE
The Secret War Against the Jews by John Loftus and Mark Aarons
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/ottoman-empire
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