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One of the results of the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975 was the formation of closer ties between Israel and the Lebanese Maronite community, which eventually led to increased Israeli involvement in that country. In the course of the 1982 Peace for Galilee Operation, Israel even attempted to establish a 'new order' in Lebanon, setting up a regime there that was based on Maronite hegemony and functioned under its aegis.
Israel's involvement in Lebanon, especially in its unsuccessful years 1992-95, gave rise to stormy public debate in Israel. This debate spawned studies which attempt to understand the roots of this involvement and mainly the political conception on which it was based. Most of these studies tend to see the roots of the close Israeli-Maronite ties from 1975 onwards in the relations which had existed long before those between the Jewish community (called Yishuv) in Palestine and, subsequently, between the State of Israel and certain Maronite factions. Such ties were formed as early as the 1930s, continued into the 1940s and reached their peak in the period immediately preceding the establishment of the State of Israel and immediately following its establishment, when the country's regional policies and defence concepts were just beginning to evolve.(1)
These studies also suggest that the fabric of relations that developed between the Jews and the Maronites, which lasted until the failure of the Israeli involvement in Lebanon, was rooted in perceptions that had begun to take shape in those years. These perceptions were shared by many in the security and political establishment in the Yishuv in Palestine, and subsequently in the State of Israel, as well as by prominent leaders of the Lebanese Maronite community. According to these perceptions, Israel as the national homeland of the Jews and Lebanon as the national homeland of the Maronites, could and must co-operate in order to strengthen their position against the Muslim-Arab world surrounding them.(2) The study of archival material available in Israel and other countries, as well as of the memoirs and other writings of Israeli leaders, ostensibly provides ample support of these claims.
Regarding the pre-State era, contacts between representatives of the Zionist Movement and Lebanese President Emile Edde and other Maronite leaders (1933-39), and the signing of a...