The Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and American Bunglers

303 Pages·2016·2.14 MB·English

by  Jonathan Randal

“In the early 1980s Jon Randal’s book on the Lebanon war was passed around
young correspondents and aid workers like a sacred text. It is one of the first
accounts of the misadventures of the Middle East to give a fair voice to all sides
and satisfactorily explain what really goes on.”
—HUGH POPE
Author, Dining with Al-Qaeda
“It is a tribute to Randal that after a long career spent in unpleasant situations he
can still be moved to outrage at the bestiality he witnesses in Lebanon.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Randal is not only a fearless reporter but also a talented writer.”
—The Baltimore Sun
“Solid, passionate and insightful.”
—The Los Angeles Times
A
BOUT
JUST WORLD BOOKS
“TIMELY BOOKS FOR CHANGING TIMES”
Just World Books produces excellent books on key international issues—and does so in a very timely
fashion. Because of the agility of our process, we cannot give detailed advance notice of fixed, seasonal
“lists.” To learn about our existing and upcoming titles, to download author podcasts and videos, to
learn our terms for bookstores or other bulk purchases, or to buy our books, visit our website:
www.justworldbooks.com
Our secure-purchase webstore is at: justworldbooks.mybigcommerce.com.
Also check our updates on Facebook and Twitter!
Our first title was published in October 2010. By March 2012, we had published ten titles, including:
The Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and American Bunglers, by
Jonathan Randal
The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, by Miko Peled
Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East, edited by
William B. Quandt
War Diary: Lebanon 2006, by Rami Zurayk
Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination, by Manan Ahmed, with a
Foreword by Amitava Kuma

Other works by Jonathan Randal:
After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters with Kurdistan
(1997)
Osama, the Making of a Terrorist (2004)
In memory of Françoise Demulder, or Fifi to her friends, as brave and beautiful a war correspondent as
ever there was, whose prize-winning photograph serves as the cover of this book and better than words
—certainly mine—bears timeless testimony to the particular folly of Lebanon’s “little wars.” For this
black-and-white shot of Beirut’s Quarantina district in January 1976, she became the first woman to be
awarded the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year. Note the almost painterly but nonetheless
naturally dramatic composition: Against a background of burning buildings, an old woman pleads with
a masked Christian militiaman as a man in a keffiyeh herds three frightened little boys, one of whom has
his hands held over his head. Fifi was an elegant, gutsy, and quintessentially French charter member of
the “moveable village” of reporters, photographers, and cameramen who moved from Vietnam to
Lebanon and to many other Third World conflicts in the last decades of the 20th century. Never was her
courage more impressive than in the last five years of her life, when a fluke accident during a
complicated operation left her paralyzed and bed-ridden. She died in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret
in 2008, aged 61. Special thanks to Geneviève Lamoureux and Sylvain Breton, executors of her estate,
and to the Agence Roger-Viollet for allowing use of the photograph. —JR

Main text, © 1983 Jonathan Randal. 2012 Preface, © 2012 Jonathan Randal.
Historical cover photograph by Françoise Demulder, © The Image Works and used here by permission.
Portrait of Jonathan Randal on cover, © 2012 Kun Tian.
Grateful acknowledgment is made by Mr. Randal for permission to reprint selections from Moshe Sharett,
Personal Diary (1953–57), 8 vol. (Hebrew), Maariv Publishing House, Tel Aviv, 1979, edited by Yaakov
Sharett.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except brief passages for review purposes. Visit our
website, www.justworldbooks.com.
Library of Congress Cataloguing Data: Randal, Jonathan, 1933– The Tragedy of Lebanon
LCCN 2012931106
ISBN-13: 978-1-935982-16-6
ISBN-10: 1-935982-16-8
1. Lebanon—History—Civil War, 1975–76.
2. Lebanon—History—Israeli intervention, 1982– 3. Randal, Jonathan C., 1933– . 4. Journalists— United
States—Biography. I. Title.
DS87.5.R36 2012
Contents
Preface to the 2012 Edition
Preface to the 1983 Edition
1. Miracles and Hallucinations
2. Does the Rooster Know?
3. Things Fall Apart
4. The Irresistible Ascension of Bashir Gemayel
5. The Offhand Americans
6. The Israeli Connection
7. All Fall Down
8. November 1983