In a farewell to Lebanon will always be reminded of the claim of the country to be the “Switzerland of the Middle East” have been. This has turned out to be the advertising slogan from long ago as a myth. Only for a short flowering, which had been favourable location in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levantine merchant tradition of the country lasted. Beirut’s merchants and bankers had benefited over the decades that they held close ties to Paris and that the newly rich Prince from the Gulf needed a middle man, in the West business relationships for threading.
Rainer Hermann
editor in the policy.
F. A. Z.
This is the Golden time, which has made the Lebanon a lot of money. However, at the time, many Lebanese have had to leave to escape poverty and the search for a good life in your country. Many have been as a trader in Africa, South America and, most recently, to the Arabian Peninsula wealthy – or, as the murdered Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, even hard-to-reach.
the game ball to the Arab interests
More than the “Switzerland of the Middle East” was the Lebanon of the soundboard of the conflicts in the Middle East. What happened in the Region, It was also reflected in the small country with 18 recognised religious communities down. After the founding of the state of Israel, many Palestinians fled to Lebanon, where they were at the mercy of the interests of large Arab States. So a confrontation with the Palestinians was the spark that destroyed in 1975, the unstable equilibrium and the civil war ensues, lasting until 1990. In that time, it was in 1982, founded the Shia militia Hizbullah by Iran, which claimed since then to have a say in Lebanon.
In the last years of the civil war, one of the biggest scandals of the country fell. Greenpeace revealed in the summer of 1995, the Czech cargo ship Radhost. had brought between September 1987 and June 1988 from Italy to 16,000 barrel of highly toxic industrial waste in the port of Beirut. The controlled by the Christian militia, the Forces Libanaises of Warlord Samir Geagea. Of course, 6000 barrel were shipped back to Italy. The remaining 10,000 of the barrel, however, were disposed of off the coast of the Mediterranean sea or in the mountains of Lebanon to be buried. Lebanon was to the toxic waste dump in Europe, and militia leader deserved it well.
