Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and American Bunglers Kindle Edition by Jonathan Randal (Just World Books)u

It's amazing how Western observers--and seasoned journalists to boot, Jon Randal chief among them--still feel justified (and smugly so) labeling Lebanese Christians "Right Wing", and Muslims "Left Wing." This is all the more mind boggling when the epitome of retrogression, patriarchy, feudalism, and reactionary conservatism in the Middle East today (as in the days of Randal) remain Middle Eastern Muslims. Pray tell who were the "Left Wingers" of Randal's "analysis"? The feudal Jumblats? The fascist Syrian Social Nationalists? The racist totalitarian PLO? For a decent work of legitimate dispassionate "social science" on Lebanon WITHOUT Randal's axe-to-grinde, one ought to have a look at Theo Hanf's foundational "Coexistence in Wartime Lebanon." Among its most memorable passages, which destroy Randal's hack journalism, is his description of the Left-Right dichotomy in Lebanon--which, in Hanf's telling, are “political and social fantasies [that] correlate with the analyst’s [own] political convictions”, not Lebanese realities…) Indeed, Left-Wing Progressive Muslims and Conservative Right-Wing Christians might be politically soothing (and Politically Correct to use a modern term) for Western observers and journalists and academics racked with guilt over their Culture’s intrusions into the Middle East; but they are misleading at best, and dangerous at worst when it comes to Lebanon. To borrow again from Theo Hanf:

The cliché of ‘rich [right-wing] Christians’ and ‘poor [left-wing] Muslims’ [or better yet, a ‘bourgeois French-speaking Christian’, and a ‘proletarian Arabic-speaking Muslim’], has had a brilliant journalistic career—and it may not be over yet… [but it is hardly an accurate and honest description of Lebanon’s political divisions…]

In fact, lest this eluded Randal's keen observer's eye, it has traditionally been the Christians of Lebanon who stood for parliamentarianism and constitutional democracy, and it’s been the Christians who espoused “so-called Leftist” causes (from social reform movements, to fiscal reform and wealth distribution, pension and welfare systems, 40-hour work-weeks, paid holidays and week-ends and sick-leave and the rest); and it’s been the Muslims who’ve favored atavistic reactionary politics, patriarchy, and the suppression of minority rights and minority narratives, and it’s been the Muslims (Leftists in Randal's telling) who have traditionally stood for conservative causes and resisted change…

In a 1976 interview with the Lebanese daily al-Bayraq, Kamal Jumblat, (then the “conscience” of the Lebanese Left, and the darling of the International Left) spoke warmly of Hitler and the Nazis. “We must not take a strong stand against Nazism” he said “just as we must not agree with everything the Leftists say—Nazism should be reviewed…