Major Hadad of Lebanon and the Jews of Israel: Where it all started

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

Kings Solomon and Hiram and architect conversing about the Temple 

                                                               Of Solomon     

Hiram had extended his kingdom to Cyprus and Libya and maintained friendly relations with King David of Israel to whom he sent wood and craftsmen for his palace.  Hiram was the king of Tyre, a Phoenician city in today's Lebanon.  Tyre was the rival of the city, Sidon.  Phoenicians were an ancient people of Syria but had towns in today's Lebanon such as Beirut, Sidon, Tyre.  Their language was akin to Hebrew.  The writing used by them and the ancient Hebrews was changed just a little by the Greeks and so on to other Europeans.  The Egyptians controlled Phoenicia from about 1500 BCE to the days of the Hittites.  Hiram of Tyre was an ally of Solomon (961-920 BCE) and Ethbaal of Sidon was a friend of King Omri of Israel (887-876 BCE) .  
                                                  

                                                       
King Solomon, David's son, who reigned from 961 BCE to 920 BCE, was good friends with The King of Tyre-Hiram.  Hiram sent him architects and builders as well as the cedar trees of Lebanon that were so famous.  The work was finished in Solomon's 11th year of his reign and ensured the central position of Jerusalem in the kingdom.  Hiran had sent wood, gold and the 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.  

Oh Jezebel !  

                                                                     

Jezebel 843 BCE-daughter of Ethbaal, King of Sidon
Sidon was an ancient city in Lebanon, capital of Phoenicians called Sidonians.
She had introduced her native Baal cult into Israel and by doing
so, aroused the anger of the religious people led by Elijah.
She was said to be a bloodthirsty woman who persecuted the prophets and caused the death of Naboth a man with a garden plot who wouldn't sell it to the king and for that she had him killed.  She was killed in an uprising of King Jehu (842-814BCE) who had her killed as well as the priests of Baal.  She certainly influenced her husband, Ahab. 
 

Solomon and Hiram had commerce going jointly from Elath and Ophir through the Red Sea.  The Tyrian princess Jezebel married  King Ahab  of Israel (876-853 BCE).  She pushed her polytheistic religion onto the people of Israel and it even reached into Judah.  During the Assyrian 721 BCE and Babylonian periods 597-586 BCE , Tyre was denounced by the prophet Ezekiel.  The city suffered a series of seiges and in 332 BCE was captured by Alexander the Great.  

Under the Romans, Tyre, which had been endowed with a temple by King Herod, was a center of commerce and a purple dying business, and it had a Jewish population including rabbis.  The Palestinian Gaonate (heads of Jewish academies) was transferred to Tyre after 1071.  Benjamin of Tudela in about 1170 found there about 500 scholarly Jews, some owning ships, others engaged in glass-manufacture.  Tyre was held by the crusaders from 1124 to 1291 but subsequently declined and is now a small Lebanese port with a population of about 10,000 in by 1992.  

The Jewish population that existed in Lebanon had ancient roots.  It has been concentrated in Beirut.  Formerly there were communities in Tripoli, Tyre and Sidon.  Most of the Jews were in commerce.  
                                                          

Israel's War of Independence May 14 1948 

At the Good Fence of Lebanon after the War

During the Israel War of Independence of 1948, when Lebanese forces invaded Israel, some discriminatory regulations were impose on the Jews but removed after the fighting ended.  In 1944 there were 6,261 Jews in Lebanon.  Their numbers were augmented after 1948 by Jews from Syria, and the community in 1964 was about from 5,000 to 7,000 Jews.  After 1967's War, the community became much smaller.  Most of the 1,000 remaining in 1975 left during the Civil War of 1973  and by 1990 less than 100 remained.  What happened was the the Arab countries forced the Jews out and they moved to Israel. 

Update:  "When Christian Arabs ruled Lebanon, Jews enjoyed relative toleration. In the mid-50’s, approximately 7,000 Jews lived in Beirut. As Jews in an Arab country, however, their position was never secure, and the majority left in 1967."Most of the remaining 1,800 Lebanese Jews emigrated in 1976, fearing the growing Syrian presence in Lebanon would curtail their freedom. Most Jews went to Europe (particularly France), the United States and Canada."

When I was in Israel in 1980-to the end of 1985, a Major Hadad of Lebanon and his men were guarding the boarder between Lebanon and Israel, helping Israel in this way.   "An adherent of the Greek Catholic rite, Major Haddad broke away from the Lebanese Army in 1976 and operated a loosely-knit militia force of about 1,500 Christian, and some Moslem, soldiers that received arms, money and training from Israel. He was formally dismissed from the Lebanese Army seven years ago but was reinstated earlier this month.

In 1976 the Lebanese Civil war raged on and the Lebanese Army began to unravel.   Major Saad Haddad (Melkite Christian) in the South of Lebanon broke away and founded the Free Lebanon Army (FLA) or Free Lebanon Militia (FLM.)

"Headquartered in Marjayoun, Lebanon, the SLA's twenty-five hundred fighters were Maronite Christians (40%) and Shiʿa Muslims (60%), although Christians predominated among the officers." 

The militia has garrisons in Christian and Shiite Moslem villages in parts of southern Lebanon and makes patrols in the area, but it is not impressive  militarily, according to Western and Israeli analysts, and it has never became a real force in the region. Many local Shiite militiamen spurned the major's authority. It curbed Palestinian Infiltration

                                                              

Bachir Gemayel b: November 10, 1947,  was elected as president on August 23, 1982 and was assassinated on September 14, 1982.  He was only 34 years old, and a Maronite Christian, belonging to the minority group who is to rule the country.  "He was a senior member of the right-wing Christian Phalange party and the founder and supreme commander of the Lebanese Forces militia during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). He was the youngest president-elect and one of the most controversial figures in Lebanese history. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation blamed the Syrian Social Nationalist Party for the bombing that killed him."

Before Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Major Haddad's militia played an important role, in Israeli eyes, in curbing Palestinian guerrilla infiltration into northern Israel (where I lived) . But by early this year, United Nations and Israeli sources reported, the militia's significance for the Israelis lay chiefly in the system of informers that it maintained across southern Lebanon..  "  He died in 1984 from cancer at age 47.  He used to take his R&Rs in the army hospital in Haifa, which I had to use for a broken arm.  Israel had promised to care for his family if anything should happen to him.                                                        

The Lebanese civil war took place from 1975 to 1990 and claimed the lives of some 200,000 people which left Lebanon in ruins. This Civil War affected the whole Middle East.  Many from Syria found refuge in Egypt under Morsi's beck and call.  

The Maronite Christians of Lebanon "  derive their name from the Syriac Christian saint Maron, whose followers migrated to the area of Mount Lebanon from their previous location of residence around the area of Antioch, establishing the nucleus of the Syriac Maronite Church. Some Maronites argue that they are of Mardaite ancestry, but most historians reject such claims. Maronites were able to maintain an independent status in Mount Lebanon and its coastline after the Muslim conquest of the Levant, keeping their Christian religion, and even the distinctive Aramaic language as late as the 19th century.

             The Arabs had invaded Lebanon in 635 to 637.  

According to the Maronite church, there are approximately 1,062,000 Maronites in Lebanon, where they constitute up to 24% of the population. 
"About 50% of Lebanese are Maronites, but many are abroad. In Lebanon, Christians make up 35-40% of the country and Maronites make up at least 25% of the total Lebanese population." 

Under the terms of an informal agreement, known as the National Pact, between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, the president of the country must be a Maronite Christian. 

                                                       

A Maronite community of about 11,000 people lives in Israel. The 2017 Annuario Pontificio reported that 10,000 people belonged to the Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Haifa and the Holy Land and 504 people belonged to the Exarchate of Jerusalem and Palestine.  

Today, Hezbollah terrorists are in Lebanon.  They are in control.  
"BEIRUT (Reuters) - The powerful Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah on Tuesday urged the new government to launch talks with banks to bring down the cost of servicing the state’s massive public debt, setting out its view on the major problem in unusually clear terms."  "Although Hairi is still the Head of State in Lebanon, he is virtually powerless as Hezbollah and its allies are in firm control of most

Hezbollah Terrorists 

of the Lebanese government."  
                              
Their goal is still to destroy Israel.  "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran “controls” the new government of Lebanon via Hezbollah, during an address to a United Nations delegation in Jerusalem on Sunday. He made the remarks ahead of the delegates’ tour along the Lebanese border where Israel says it has uncovered Hezbollah infiltration tunnels."

Hizballah uses southern Lebanon as a base for terrorist attacks against Israel.


Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/15/obituaries/maj-saad-haddad-47-israel-s-christian-ally-in-southern-lebanon.html
https://www.quora.com/What-do-Lebanese-think-of-the-South-Lebanon-Army
https://www.thoughtco.com/timeline-of-the-lebanese-civil-war-2353188
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maronites
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/hezbollah-now-controls-lebanon-america-still-gives-hundreds-of-millions/
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/iran-hezbollah-control-new-lebanese-government-claims-netanyahu/
https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/03/hezbollah-warns-israel-all-options-are-on-the-table/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jews-of-lebanon
https://telaviv.academia.edu/EyalZisser
https://www.mepc.org/node/4873
Dr. Marc.  friend of author.

Hezbollah's Vendetta Against Syrian Refugees and the Non-Muslim World

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                             

Besides the bombing of neighborhoods as well as the recent slaughter by chemicals, a Syrian  can be kidnapped at any time by Hezbollah or other terrorist group, or even the soldiers of Assad for any reason and be held for ransom.  That's how precarious  life is for the Syrians who have remained in Syria.   Hezbollah operates in Lebanon and Syria.   Their ideology is that of Shi'i radicalism.  They are a terrorist group who had formed with the help of Ayatollah Khomeini's followers in the early 1980's in order to spread their Islamic revolution.  They follow the Islamic Shi'a ideology of the Islamic Jurists, something developed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who was the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Israel had occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years, necessary to fight against Palestinian terrorism of the PLO which was coming from there. Jordan had fought against the PLO in their Black September battle where the Palestinians tried to take over Jordan.  This led to the Israel-Lebanon 1982 War where Israel occupied Lebanon and had taken Beirut.  That's when the Shi'a in southern Lebanon rebelled.

Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister of Israel,  had commented about it in 2006.  It was Menachem Begin who had been Prime Minister in 1982.   "When we entered Lebanon, there was no Hezbollah.  We were accepted with perfumed rice and flowers by the Shi'a in the south.  It was our presence there that created Hezbollah.  Hezbollah terrorists were the first to use suicide bombers, assassinations and capturing foreign soldiers.  They became a  paramilitary by using missiles, Katusha's and other rocket launchers as well as explosive charges instead of the usual terrorist acts of capturing, murdering and hijacking.  Lebanon's Civil War ended in 1990.  Syria allowed Hezbollah to keep their arsenal and let them control the Shi'ite areas along the border with Israel.  Gone evidently was Major Hadad and his Christian soldiers who used to patrol the area for Israel when I lived there from 1980 to 1985.

Syria used to occupy Lebanon for decades but were forced to withdraw in 2005.  Now Hezbollah has stepped in and has offered Assad lots of support.  The fear of Lebanese leaders is that if the Sunnis dominate a new Syrian regime without Assad, they would be caught between Damascus and Lebanon's Sunni community

Lebanon's government  had been the Christian minority, but with the  assassination of the Christian president, that was ended.  Palestinians had made camp in Lebanon and had done a good job of taking over until Sharon allowed Major Hadad of the Christian militia and his men to rid themselves of that problem by committing the Sabra and Shatilla massacres.  Sharon was blamed who was  the responsible party at the time who could not imagine what his friends were doing in the camp.  That was in 1982.  Thus, Major Hadad and many Christians were forced to flee.

The original aim of Hezbollah was to transform Lebanon into a formal Faqihi Islamic republic, but this had been abandoned, or perhaps not?

With the civil war in Syria, 1,220,000 Syrians have fled into their next door neighbor's land, Lebanon.  It's like going from Oregon to Washington.  Syria's population  with 90% Sunni/Shi'as had been 22,505,000.  Lebanon, a very small country, had only 4,196,453 with a 60% Sunni/ Shi'a population.  Out of these Syrian refugees, many are un-registerd and about 500,000 were migrants.  Lebanon is the land of cedars as told in  our Bible in which King Solomon was able to buy the trees to build part of the temple.  The land covers only about 5% of Oregon's land area.  At this time, Lebanon has no sitting government but has a prime minister designate who is struggling to form a cabinet.

Hezbollah controls the southern suburbs of the capital and the northern city of Tripoli.  There are many car bombs killing dozens and wounding hundreds in this area.  Gun battles on Saturday between a Sunni Shiyyah family killed 4 in the Baalbek area.  Hezbollah was the killer.

Neighborhoods have been turned into battlefields.  Grenades today are rocket-propelled and the shooting lasts during the daylight hours from dawn to dusk.  Lebanese army members try to restore calm.  The Lebanese government does not want Assad's regime to collapse because they foresee a conflict in Lebanon following it.

Jordan has created refugee camps for the fleeing Syrians, but Lebanon is opposed to that.  They do not want to cause these refugees to stay longer than they have to.  They are only living there temporarily.  It turns out that most of the refugee children are trying to get menial jobs.  They are being exploited and abused, but the schools teach in English and French, and these Syrian children only speak Arabic.  There are 100,000 school aged Syrian children but only 30,000 enrolled in schools.

Syrians are looking for apartments to rent and of course the demand has caused the prices to be sky high.  Many have to live in makeshift tents or shacks made of plastic and cardboard in farmers' fields.  There is a lot of tension between the two peoples.  More than 2/3 of the Lebanese people want the UN to establish Syrian refugee camps.  Violence has increased by the fact that they are Sunnis living in the Hezbollah- controlled   Bekaa Valley, which in turn is threatening the minority Christians.

The USA's assistance to Syria has been in  the amount of $1.4 billion since the Civil War started.  Obama is sending them another $74 million for host communities in Lebanon and for the refugees themselves.  The Lebanese had had their own 15 year Civil War which ended in 1990 and have found ways to survive, with many of these ways being underhanded.  One way is to become an entrepreneur with a generator and have the nearby residents paying monthly for its use when electricity fails in the city during blackouts.

Resource:http://blog.oregonlive.com/today/print.html?entry=/2013/09/syrian_refugees_their_impact , from Oregonian newspaper online, 10/1/13  Syrian refugees:  Their impact hits Lebanon hardest, jeopardizing a delicate balance.... by Richard Read  rread@oregonian.com
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Haddad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Lebanon_War.html