ABSTRACT
The drive, Israel assured the US government, would stop 40 kilometers, some 27 miles, into Lebanon. Despite Israeli promises, however, the Israeli Defense Forces continued to move north for a week until it had encircled Beirut, Lebanon's capital and a Palestine Liberation Organization stronghold. In response, the Reagan administration suspended a signed Memorandum of Strategic Understanding, with which it had formed a loose military alliance with Israel, and dispatched veteran diplomat and negotiator Philip Habib to Lebanon to defuse the crisis. In 1975, Lebanon's simmering religious and political tension erupted into full-fledged civil war as a result of an increasing Palestinian population in Lebanon and escalating tensions between Christians and Moslems. Bashir Gemayel was also the key to carrying out Habib's plan to remove all foreign forces from Lebanon. For almost the first time, the United States began addressing Lebanon's internal political situation in the hope of easing tension through some rapprochement between the many militant politicians.
