IRL - Lebanon

URL; http://www.ghazi.de/civwar.html

This goes into detail about the Lebanese Civil War, which began on April 13, 1975 essentially when gunmen killed four Phalangists during an attempt on Pierre Jumayyil's life. The assassins were believed to have been Palestinian, and then later retaliation was done when a bus full of Palestinians going through a Christian neighborhood was attacked. According to this source, which is a short essay/informative summary of the beginnings of the Civil War, "Most Beirutis stayed inside their homes during these early days of battle, and few imagined that the street fighting they were witnessing was the beginning of a war that was to devastate their city and divide the country." Also important and worth noting is that many believed the civil war to be a result of Muslim and Christian tension, which is significant because the Lebanese population is divided between these two religions. The significance of this is that it gives some information about the ability (or lack thereof) of different groups in Lebanon to be able to coexist peacefully in the past, and gives me some background knowledge about some of the issues that we will be discussing in class most likely. It also provides some information about the background of Lebanon and the effect that its religious diversity, different from its neighboring countries, has had on its recent history. The primary limitation of this source is that it is somewhat opinion-based, and therefore may not be the best source of information on its own. However, it is essentially the same information as our class text, thus I trust that in essence it is valuable.