{"id":9782,"date":"2026-06-09T17:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=9782"},"modified":"2026-06-09T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:59:00","slug":"lebanon-fifty-years-of-crises-and-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=9782","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon: fifty years of crises and conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The collapse of <b>Lebanon <\/b>cannot be explained by a single factor. <\/p>\n<p>It is the result<b> of decades of war,<\/b> foreign interference, sectarian divisions and deep <b>political corruption<\/b>. However, the activities of Palestinian armed organizations, the rise of <b>Hezbollah <\/b>and the growing influence of <b>Iran <\/b>have been instrumental in weakening the <b>liberal state<\/b> and consolidating a state of permanent instability.<\/p>\n<p>After 1970, when the Organization for the <b>Liberation of Palestine<\/b> was expelled from <b>Jordan<\/b> during the events of <b>Black September<\/b>, Lebanon became the main centre of Palestinian armed activities. The organisation created strong military structures inside the country and in many areas it effectively acted as a <b>parallel authority<\/b>. Conflicts with Israel originating on Lebanese soil prompted repeated military responses, and internal tensions between the communities eventually led to the 1975 <b>civil war<\/b>. For much of Lebanese society, the presence of armed organizations not accountable to the state was a serious blow to national sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Following the <b>Iranian Revolution of 1979<\/b> and the <b>Israeli invasion<\/b> of Lebanon in <b>1982<\/b>, conditions were created for the emergence of Hezbollah. With financial, military and ideological support from Tehran, the organization quickly became a dominant force in the Shi&#8217;a region and gained significant influence in southern Lebanon. Although it presented itself as a <b>movement of resistance<\/b> against Israel, it gradually evolved into a <b>state within a state<\/b>, and to this day is classified by many countries as an <b>Islamist terrorist organization<\/b>. In any case, it has maintained an independent army, its own welfare structures and considerable political influence, often operating outside the country&#8217;s institutions.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Iran has used Hezbollah as a key tool to <b>extend<\/b> its influence in the <b>Eastern Mediterranean<\/b>. Decisions concerning military conflicts with Israel or participation in the Syrian war were not taken in the light of Lebanese interests, but were part of a broader regional strategy of Tehran. As a result, Lebanon repeatedly found itself at the centre of conflicts that went beyond its own national issues.<\/p>\n<p>However, the crisis cannot be attributed solely to <b>external factors.<\/b> The Lebanese political class also bears a huge responsibility. For decades, the political system was based on clientelism, family power networks and large-scale corruption. <b>Public money was wasted, <b>reforms were not carried out and state institutions were <b>weakened<\/b>. The economic <b>collapse<\/b> that erupted in 2019 revealed the scale of the problems: failing banks, soaring poverty and the collapse of key public services.<\/p>\n<p>The <b>explosion<\/b> in the port of <b>Berritu in 2020<\/b> was perhaps the most telling symbol of this failure. The <b>tragedy<\/b> was not only the result of negligence, but also of a culture of opacity, irresponsibility and civil protection that had eroded the state over decades.<\/p>\n<p>So, the current state of <b>Lebanon<\/b> is the product of several factors that <b>have been reinforced<\/b>: the presence of armed Palestinian organizations in the past, the rise of <b>Hezbollah<\/b>, the strategic influence of Iran, and the deep corruption of the political system. All of these factors contributed to the creation of a weak state, which to this day struggles to assert its sovereignty, ensure stability and provide <b>prospects<\/b> for its citizens.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lebanon&#8217;s collapse cannot be explained by a single factor. It is the result of decades of wars, foreign interventions, &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}