Sons of Resistance: Bashir Gemayel, Ali Hassan Salameh in “freewheeling and open” Beirut: What Shaped Modern Lebanon

Lebanon has for a long time been the fault line for conflict in the Middle East. Old world European interests morphed into Cold War battles that turned Beirut into an international city of spies, terrorists and warlords. After being forced out of Jordan in 1970, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) established headquarters in Beirut. Perhaps their most flamboyant leader was Ali Hassan Salameh the son of a notorious Arab warlord who dedicated his life to fighting Israel. Ali was hunted by the Mossad over his role in Black September which seized and killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Ali lived in Beirut with his Christian wife who was the first Arab woman to be crowned Miss Universe. Opposing the PLO in Beirut was the charismatic Christian leader Bashir Gemayel, son of the founder of the Kataeb (Phalange) Party in Lebanon. The presence of radicalized and armed PLO guerrillas in Lebanon stressed Lebanon’s delicate government organized along religious lines. As “sons of resistance”, both men would be violently assassinated in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. This book reviews the historical development of Lebanon and offers a modern warning that even democratic and open societies can breakdown and suffer civil war when a government is unable or unwilling to protect its citizens. Bashir Gemayel warned the West that their enemies were the same and that Lebanon offered something more important than oil—-civilization. Bashir warned the United States that they were not safe in America from attacks. The long road to 9-11 traveled through Beirut where Osama Bin Laden watched America retreat from Beirut when their troops were attacked by Shia militants in 1983. Read more