Middle East & Africa | Once more, with feeling

Bad ideas are back on the menu in the Middle East

From a proxy force in south Lebanon to regime change, what’s old is new again

Major Saad Haddad and Christian militias or SLA (South Lebanon Army) from South Lebanon
Photograph: Getty Images
|DUBAI

In the late 1990s Israel started work on a memorial to honour the South Lebanon Army (SLA), its proxy force during its occupation of Lebanon. It was inaugurated in May 2000, two days before Israeli troops withdrew from the country. The SLA collapsed almost immediately; its fighters fled to Israel or surrendered. The monument was blown up by Hizbullah.

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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Once more, with feeling”

From the October 19th 2024 edition

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