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THE LEBANESE SHI’A AS A POLITICAL COMMUNITY

Omri Nir was a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tragically, Dr. Nir was killed in December 2016, while attempting to shield his 10-year-old son Illai who had lost his footing during a hike in the Negev. Illai also died a few days later from his injuries. Omri Nir was a distinguished expert in the politics of modern Lebanon and in particular the Shi’a community in that country. Dr. Nir collaborated …

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IRAN AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN THE ARABIC-SPEAKING WORLD: THE BEST OF ENEMIES?

Click here for PDF This article focuses on relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arabic-speaking Middle East. The introduction looks at the historical and ideological background to relations between the Brotherhood and Iran. The article then focuses on two examples – relations between Teheran and the […]

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IN THE ARENA OF THE ZU’AMA – REVIEWING HIZBALLAHʼS ROLE IN LEBANON

PDF version available here   Hizballah is usually defined as an Iranian group whose origins are found within the Shi’a and Iranian traditions. In this paper, however, we examine the activity of Hizballah as a Lebanese za’im, namely, within the context of the Lebanese elite families (zu’ama). We explore various aspects of Lebanese zu’ama that […]

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THE SUNNI-SHI’I BALANCE IN LEBANON IN LIGHT OF THE WAR IN SYRIA AND REGIONAL CHANGES

PDF version available here In recent years, Lebanon has become an active front in the struggle between Sunni and Shi’i Muslims in the Middle East. While in previous decades, both sects were considered a single Muslim bloc in the political balance against Lebanon’s Christians, over the 15 years of Syrian control in Lebanon following the […]

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THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE-GENERAL COMMAND (PFLP-GC) AND THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR

As the Asad regime’s most loyal Palestinian proxy, the PFLP-GC’s role in the conflict in Syria is of great importance. Currently, the group’s interests center on countering Syrian rebel forces in Syria and their allies in Lebanon. In this role, the PFLP-GC has suffered a number of significant losses, and for the first time in […]

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TWILIGHT LEBANON, 1990-2011

This article is an extract from William Harris, Lebanon: A History 600-2011 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Surveying Lebanon’s communities through fourteen centuries and the modern country from its origins after 1800, the book closes with today’s downbeat Lebanon. The extract features a twilight zone, between Lebanon’s devastating war period of 1975-1990 and the implosion […]