ABSTRACT

A Mixed Armistice Commission (MAC) had been set up after the first Arab–Israeli war, but as observers liked to point out, the most serious problems the MAC had to deal with involved sheep straying over the frontier. In April 1975, civil war broke out in Lebanon between the Maronite militias and those of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM). The LNM represented the Druze and various factions, such as the Syrian Socialist Nationalist party, the Lebanese Communist party, and others, mainly Muslims, who were dissatisfied with the prevailing system. As the Egypt–Israel peace treaty formally went into effect, the two countries moved to "normalize" relations, and Israel began its withdrawal from the Sinai. The withdrawal was completed in April of 1982, when Ariel Sharon, then defense minister, oversaw the forcible removal of 3,000 Israelis and the dismantling of their settlement at Yamit. The border with Lebanon had generally been quiet after the ceasefire in 1949.