Phoenicians, Friends of Israel Until the Royal Houses Married

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

 Phoenicians, an ancient people of Syria with a language akin to Hebrew who were controlled by the Egyptians from the period after the expulsion of Hyksos (1500 BCE) to the time of Rameses III.  Their special ability was expressed, especially in Tyre, in maritime trade.  Their ships traded with almost the entire known world (Ezek. 27).  They discovered distant lands and disseminated the products of Middle Eastern countries.  

Their colonies, spreading from Cyprus to Carthage and Spain, paid tithes to Tyre, but the bonds loosened in the face of Greek competition.  Outstanding in their home industries were purple-dyeing and glass manufacture.  Artistically, they were influenced by their neighbors of Egypt, Greece, etc.  

         Worshipping Baal

        Sacrificing babies

The Phoenicians religion was the Canaanite faith with the chief deities being BAAL, lord of fertility and the rains, and Astarte, goddess of fertility.  Anat was the goddess of war, and Melkarth the patron-god of Tyre.  Worship was conducted under trees and on ills, but there were also temples with images.  their religious practices included the sacrificing of children to MOLOCH and the dedication of religious prostitutes.  

The Phoenicians' land was today's Lebanon.  Tyre was founded in the 3rd millenniium BCE on an island 1.5 m. off the shore of Phoenicia, with a double harbor and was the rival of Sidon, as they were all city states.  Hiram of Tyre (10th century BCE) sent artisans and cedar-wood to King Solomon of Israel to help build the Temple.  He also sent gold and craftsmen to Solomon's Temple and residences as well as sailor to his Red Sea fleet, receiving in exchange  wheat, oil and 20 Galilean cities.  The 2 kings jointly exploited the commerce between Elath and Ophir via the Red Sea.  

Then it happened:  a mixed marriage where Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon,  married King Ahab, son of Omri, ruled (876-853 BCE) of Israel and the religious and cultural influence of Tyre penetrated to Israel and even to Judah.  The prophets headed by Elijah, tried to stop the worship.  

In Assyrian and Babylonian times, Tyre was denounced by Ezekiel (Ch.27), suffered a series of  stages and in 332 BCE, was captured by Alexander the Great.  The mountains of Lebanon were great, however, covered with Cedar trees on the Western side.  

Under the Romans, Tyre, which had been endowed with a temple by Herod, was a center of commerce and purple dyeing as usual, and its Jewish population included rabbis.  After 1071, about 500 scholarly Jews were found in Tyre, some owning ships, others engaged in glass manufacture.  The Crusaders held Tyre from 1124 to 1291, then declined and it is now a small Lebanese port with a population of 10,000 in 1992.                      

Submerged ancient columns with the skyline of the modern city in the background.

Today Tyre is the fourth largest city in Lebanon after Beirut, Tripoli, and Sidon. It is the capital of the Tyre District in the South Governorate. There were approximately 200,000 inhabitants in the Tyre urban area in 2016, including many refugees, as the city hosts three of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: Burj El Shimali, El Buss, and Rashidieh.

 Panorama of Sidon as seen from the top of the castle in 2009

Sidon was regarded as the capital of the Phoenicians, called Sidionians in the Bible and in verses by Homer.  When it fell under the Roman rule, it lost its independence.  The overwhelming majority of Sidon's population belong to the Sunni sect of Islam, with few Shiites and Christians. Sidon is the seat of the Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Sidon and Deir el Qamar, and has housed a significant Catholic population throughout its history. Sidon also hosts the seat of the Shiite Ayatollah of South Lebanon.In the 1930s, when Lebanon was still under the French mandate, Sidon had the largest Jewish population in Lebanon, estimated at 3,588, compared to 3,060 in Beirut. Now they should all be in Israel.  

The president of Lebanon is: Incumbent Vacant since 31 October 2022.  The President of the Lebanese Republic (Arabic: رئيس الجمهورية اللبنانية, French: Président de la République Libanaise) has been the head of state of Lebanon. The president is elected by the parliament for a term of six years, which cannot be renewed immediately because they can only be renewed non-consecutively. By convention, the president is always a Maronite Christian who fulfills the same requirements as a candidate for the house of representatives, as per article 49 of the Lebanese                   

 constitution.  The last one was in 2016, Michel Aoun.  Michel Naim Aoun is a Lebanese politician and former military general who served as the President of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 until 30 October 2022. Born in Haret Hreik to a Maronite Christian family, Aoun joined the Military Academy in 1955 and graduated as an artillery officer in the Lebanese Army.

Lebanon’s political system ensures representation for its officially recognized religious communities, but limits competition and impedes the rise of cross-communal or civic parties. While residents enjoy some civil liberties and media pluralism, they also suffer from pervasive corruption and major weaknesses in the rule of law. The country’s large population of noncitizens, including refugees and migrant workers, remain subject to legal constraints and societal attitudes that severely restrict their access to employment, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights.

More than 1.5 million Syrians resided in Lebanon as of 2021. Of that number, some 841,000 were officially registered as refugees by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; the government has barred the agency from registering new Syrian refugees since 2015. Syrian refugees have faced arbitrary arrests and other forms of harassment, and most live in poverty due in part to limitations on their employment options. The government has also enforced housing regulations to compel Syrian refugees to destroy their informal camps, threatening to use the military against those who did not comply. Syrians have sometimes been deported despite the risk of mistreatment by Syrian authorities.

On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by the Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus.Ammonium nitrate is a chemical that exists in multiple concentrations and physical forms. It is principally used as an agricultural fertilizer, in the manufacturing of first aid products (such as cold packs), and explosives used in the mining and construction industries.

 The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same warehouse. As of 2023, the exact cause of the explosion is still under investigation. Aoun expressed intention government would make up to 100 billion pounds (US$66 million) in aid available to support recovery operations. On 10 August 2020, Hassan Diab and his cabinet stepped down from office. Michel Aoun accepted the resignation of the government and the Prime Minister, and asked the government to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed. During his address after the 1st year commemoration of the blast, Aoun stumbled in his speech after he mistakenly said the phrase 'Lemon doubly' which was used as a way of mockery ever since.  (Another term for “Unfortunately” According to the President of Lebanon Michel Aoun.

“For many months, the country has drowned in a political crisis in which, Lemon Doubly, the details of cabinet formation prevailed over the program, the government’s rescue project.”

No president, and now:  With support of Iran and Hezbollah, experts believe Hamas  is well established in Lebanon

Rockets fired by Palestinian terror group at Israel last week likely originated from Iran; group may have significant firepower after at least five years of force buildup.

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidon

https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-support-of-iran-and-hezbollah-experts-believe-hamas-well-established-in-lebanon/