Between Maps and Meaning

Before I start I want to apologize to myself, and my few readers for not posting in sometime. After this month I hope to post 2 stories per month as a goal. Forgive me though as this has been a busy month, and things have come up in recent weeks that required my attention. Hopefully after sometime I will be able to completely process everything that has happened to me since the end of April to now. Perhaps then you might find yourself reading about as I may find myself writing about it. For now, let us shift our focus to this unique country.

Lebanon has a long history, and to go through it completely here would take so long. Not only due to time will I avoid it, but also due to skill in writing. There are much better historians who have written amazing histories on the region and country of Lebanon. This is designed to be a brief look at it’s more recent history and overview of current affairs today. Should you find this interesting I will be happy to make recommendations on what to read next.

Lebanon has a very unique geography. It borders the Mediterranean sea, Syria, and Israel. It has two mountain ranges: the Mount Lebanon range and the Anti-Lebanon range. The Mount Lebanon range runs through much of the middle of the country almost splitting it in half. While the Anti Lebanon to the east of the country range runs across it’s border with Syria. It’s western borders give it more hospitable Mediterranean climates with warm dry summers while providing a more rainy winter. Then there is the Beqaa Valley that is known for fertile soils. This valley finds itself between the two mountain ranges in Lebanon. Here the country produces tons of agriculture including some more luxury products like wine. As a matter of fact people have been producing wine with grapes from this region for over 6,000 years.

The reason I wanted to write about Lebanon is because they have such a unique government structure. Their entire system is built around the issue of religion. There are major sects of Christianity and Islam that exist in large populations all trying to coexist together. They have 3 powerful heads of state. The first is the president who must always represent the Christian community. The next is the Prime Minister who must always represent the Sunni Muslim population. Finally the Speaker of Parliament must always represent their Shia Muslim population. The Parliament itself is then split up 50% Christian and 50% Muslim. Even more those seats are split up by individual sects within those broader religious groups. I want to note for the sake of not making this a complete lesson on government I won’t go into detail on too much of the responsibilities these groups and seats have. What I will say is Lebanon had a civil war that lasted 15 years and continues to shape its issues today. When Lebanon was established in our modern world in the early 1940s much of the power rested with the Christian president. Growing Muslim populations and pushed out Palestinians entered the picture in the 1970s upset with the balance of power. This lead to major wars, the “Green Line” in Beirut, and foreign occupation by Syrian and Israeli forces. Explaining this bloody civil war could fill hundreds of pages and it has! Please read more qualified histories on the topic. I only provide this information since the Taif Agreement essentially ended the war and established the above mentioned government break down. There were tons of militias that formed during that civil war and all but one was required to disarm. That group is Hezbollah, and it is causing issues that is affecting modern Lebanon today.

Before we get into Hezbollah let’s talk about Lebanon’s financial situation. In the 1950s and 1960s before their horrible civil war Lebanon got heavily into banking. They were known as the Switzerland of the middle east. It was a place that had unique privacy laws and trusted exchange rates making it a great place to park large sums of money. The civil war of course put a harsh stop to this. At the end of the civil war in the 1990s Lebanon once again began to build it’s banking system back up and trust in that system was growing again. Despite such a recent revolution the country saw major increases in investment, and although they typically have more imports than exports the economy was growing. In 2019 the country got hit with a major economic collapse. See as long as they had investment into their banking system there was always money the government could borrow. Ideally the government hoped they could borrow money from the bank, invest it back into the country, and pay off the bank with successful investments into things like development or real estate. Their gambling was not paying off though and what they owed the banks was becoming too large to ignore. Of course the government was not just failing at some good deed, there was corruption and mismanagement everywhere. The government needed to find a way to raise money. In 2019 they proposed a new tax, they would tax WhatsApp calls, and to the Lebanon population this was not acceptable. Massive protests broke up and the banks closed for 2 weeks. When they opened their doors they made limits on withdrawals. This was a system that was supposed to have a guaranteed exchange rate for dollars, that in part is why it was so trusted. Yet what 2019 exposed is the economic system had no legs to stand on, and with Covid shortly following months later in 2020 the entire economic system collapsed. Inflation went up, trust was low, unemployment sky rocketed, and the people no longer trusted their government or banks. The Switzerland of the middle east had failed.

Hezbollah is a militant group classified as a terrorist organization by much of the world. Israel is conducting an invasion of the south of Lebanon for the purpose they claim is to rid the area of Hezbollah. They have asked civilian populations to leave north of the Zahrani River. This would mean Israel would be occupying at least for a time 10-15% of the country of Lebanon. Displacing thousands who had little money and prospects to begin with. Israel has had agreements with Lebanon before asking them to rid the country of Hezbollah themselves, but it has been a struggle. The civil war took much of the power of the president away so accomplishing goals as a united country is hard. They have a system that seems can never come to an agreement. They have taken an approach to appease Hezbollah. Even the Sunni Muslim parts of the government are afraid to upset the Shia Muslims by taking action against Hezbollah. I believe there’s still some underlying trauma from the last civil war. No one in that country wants to see that happen again. Lebanon though is seemingly trying to take steps to combat Hezbollah once and for all. They are working with US and Israeli intelligence to come to an aggregable disarmament of Hezbollah coupled with the withdrawal of Israel inside it’s borders. These talks are ongoing as I’m writing this in May 2026, and things can change rapidly between me typing this and the full release of this article.

What is next for Lebanon? I fear a splitting of this country along religious lines. The Lebanon we know today may not be the Lebanon that we know in the future. This country if they split themselves into another civil war will have to deal with tons of outside influence. Israeli interests, Iranian interests, and the growing potential of Turkish power in the region. I’m not sure how this government and people can coexist. What makes someone Lebanese? I pray this country finds a way to find a true identity. Instead of drawing lines across religious sects they need to find a way to make a unified identity. The truth is the Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, all just want a fair short in this world. They want to be able to have families, feed those families, and pursue their vision of happiness. This chaos that the country is facing very well could be what is needed to unite them. I pray for the people of Lebanon. It seems like this country has only known hard times, but that toughness will be needed. I pray for strength and wisdom for their leadership as both will be needed to assure a successful future for Lebanon. God be with them, Amen.