Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners

FLLF

12/12/2006

The Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners was usually described as a "shadowy right-wing group." While there was never any evidence, they were alleged to be "linked with the Lebanese Christian Phalange Party." The Phalange were opposed to the Syrian and the PLO presence in Lebanon. However, the situation in the Middle East was so muddled, and so devoid of accurate reporting, the party that was opposed to Syrian involvement was usually presented as Syria's ally.

The car-bombings and gunfights claimed by the FLLF in the fall of 1981 targeted the PLO, Syria, and their allies - and that included America which was on the wrong side as usual. The PLO, not wanting the world to think that they were responsible for plunging the only civil country in the Middle East into civil war, claimed that Israelis orchestrated the bombings. The veracity of their claims however, is only matched by the veracity of their religion.

It is entirely possible that many of the attacks claimed by the FLLF, such as those on French interests, on the Israeli Consulate, and on a Jewish club in Sydney, Australia, were actually perpetrated by the PLO and blamed on the Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners. In any regard, there is no proof the group ever existed and if they did, they have been inactive since 1983. No FLLF members were ever arrested or brought to trial.

The very existence of the mysterious Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners organization must be evaluated against the backdrop of the multi-sided civil war that engulfed Lebanon from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. The conflict broke out when Lebanon's long-standing system of power sharing on religious lines collapsed when the Palestinians arrived from Jordan. As Muslims, sharing had never been their strong suit. The PLO factions used the country as a base for terrorism against Jordan, Israel, and the Lebanese government, creating chaos on all sides. The situation deteriorated to the point, Islamic Syrian troops entered as peacekeepers, although the PLO regarded them as occupiers - which is what they ultimately became.

Syria wouldn't withdraw its troops until 2005, and only did so then because of Syria had become a dependant of Iran following the collapse of the Ba'ath government in Iraq. As a Shia proxy, Damascus withdrew its uniformed military because the civilian militias of Hezballah, Iran's unofficial military, were more effective clandestinely controlling Lebanon and attacking Israel. As a direct result of America's bumbling, the Iranian clerics are not only free to complete their nuclear arsenal, they control Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, giving them a land crescent into Israel.