The Lubrani Connection: Revisiting Israeli-Druze Relations in Lebanon’s 1983 War of the Mountain

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article ponders Israeli-Druze relations during Lebanon’s 1983 War of the Mountain in light of derestricted sources pertaining to the Robert C. McFarlane mission in Lebanon. After the assassination of the Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel in September 1982 and the rise to the presidency of his brother Amine, Israel’s relations with Lebanon’s Christians soured. By contrast, Israel’s connections with the Lebanese Druze intensified, and the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin threatened to establish a “Druze Canton/Israeli Protectorate” in the Shuf-Aley region. Ostensibly, Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze community, allied himself during the Lebanese Civil War with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Syria. Untapped diplomatic documents show, however, that Jumblatt also courted Israel and developed ties with the Menachem Begin administration. Uri Lubrani, an Israeli official who recruited members of Israel’s Druze community to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the 1950s, played an important role in developing Israel’s ties with Jumblatt. In this paper, I flesh out the dynamics of Israel’s discrete relations with Lebanon’s Druze community and their implications on the trajectory of the Lebanese conflict.