ABSTRACT
The struggle over Lebanon was a microcosm of the struggle for the Middle East since its civil war opened Lebanon to external intervention, producing a complex kaleidoscope of interaction between a mosaic of internal factions and external forces. In good part, this struggle pitted Israel (backed by the USA) against Syria and Iran. The struggle for Lebanon is most usefully understood, not as part of a civilizational conflict between Islam and the West, but as a conflict of national interests: if Israel could control Lebanon, it could smash Syrian and Palestinian resistance to its hegemony. Syria and Iran sought to make Lebanon, respectively, a buffer and a front in the struggle with Israel.
