Lebanon is Different: The Lesson Israel Has Failed to Grasp for 100 Years

History is one of the most hotly debated subjects in Lebanon.

In a country whose society comprises diverse religious groups and holds various versions of history, efforts to construct a single national narrative capable of embracing all its components have repeatedly met with failure, particularly when addressing the most sensitive periods of Lebanon’s past.

Nevertheless, there remain a number of important historical milestones that enjoy relative consensus among the majority of Lebanese society.

The National Pact of 1943 is one such important milestone. Almost no Lebanese student leaves school without knowing the story of this pact. This was the moment that practically marked the birth of modern Lebanon.

In its report, Al Jazeera on Thursday (13/8/2026) reported that at the time, Prime Minister Riyadh al-Sulh, as the highest representative of Muslims in the state, declared his final recognition of the independent Lebanese entity.

In return, President Bishara al-Khouri, representing the pinnacle of Christian political leadership, acknowledged Lebanon’s Arab identity and abandoned the option of seeking foreign protection.

Through this compromise, a foundation was laid that for decades served as the common ground to which Lebanese society always referred whenever it sought to emerge from conflict towards a horizon of coexistence.

However, that is only the most familiar face of the National Pact. There is another side that is far less present in the collective memory of Lebanese society. The pact simultaneously closed a Zionist wager that had been underway for several decades, namely the possibility of separating Lebanon—or some of its components—from its Arab environment and turning it into a natural ally for the Zionist project then being built in Palestine. Lebanon was thus expected to become a strategic breakthrough that would pave the way for broader penetration into the region.

Ambitions towards South Lebanon

Lebanon’s contact with the Zionist project began simultaneously with the emergence of that project in Palestine.