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Saturday 30 August 2008

The Lebanon I love will rise once more

Richard Beeston has known Beirut for five decades, since the days when Kim Philby lived there. Here he recounts a recent visit to the city he loves

Whereas 50 years ago Christians and Muslims rubbed along together reasonably well, I spoke to many Christians on my recent visit who publicly express their dislike and even detestation of their Muslim fellow-citizens. When I first arrived in Lebanon the Maronites had everything going for them. Today they are a dwindling minority in a rising sea of Islam, much to blame for their fate but in a state of denial that they were ever in the wrong. At the height of their power, after independence, they treated the Muslims as second-class citizens and, during the long civil war, they not only failed to stay united but even turned on each other in some of the most savage fighting of the era. Today a ravaged Lebanon has lost much of its charm. It now has little to offer the Western tourist in terms of beaches, scenic beauty and atmosphere compared, say, with Greece or the Croatian coast. And it has to share its Arab visitors from the Gulf and Saudi Arabia with the shopping-mall delights of Dubai.

I still can’t help liking the place, though. The food is great and the country produces extremely good wine. The Lebanese remain the most hospitable, amusing and smartest people in the Middle East, constantly able to pick themselves up and start over again — characteristics which should help them overcome their latest disaster.

Richard Beeston was the Daily Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent until 1969. His account of 30 years as a foreign reporter, Looking for Trouble, is published in paperback by IB Tauris in September.

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