Hezbollah, which started with only a small militia, has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television-station, and programs for social development.

Hezbollah alongside with some other groups began the 2006 – 2008 Lebanese political protests in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

On December 1, 2006, these groups began the 2006 – 2008 Lebanese political protests, a series of protests and sit-ins in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Elections were held in 1943 and on November 8, 1943 the new Lebanese government unilaterally abolished the mandate.

Israel defended its actions by informing the Lebanese government that it was responsible for encouraging the PFLP.

The retaliation, which was intended to encourage a Lebanese government crackdown on Palestinian militants, instead polarized Lebanese society on the Palestinian question, deepening the divide between pro-and anti-Palestinian factions, with the Muslims leading the former grouping and Maronites primarily constituting the latter.

In the interim, while armed Lebanese forces under the Maronite-controlled government sparred with Palestinian fighters, Egyptian leader Gamal Abd al-Nasser helped to negotiate the 1969 " Cairo Agreement " between Arafat and the Lebanese government, which granted the PLO autonomy over Palestinian refugee camps and access routes to northern Israel in return for PLO recognition of Lebanese sovereignty.

Intense attacks against U. S. and Western interests, including two truck bombings of the US Embassy in 1983 and 1984 and the landmark attacks on the U. S. Marine and French parachute regiment barracks on October 23, 1983, led to an American withdrawal, while the virtual collapse of the Lebanese Army in February 1984 was a major blow to the government.

Since the end of the war, the Lebanese have conducted several elections, most of the militias have been weakened or disbanded, and the Lebanese Armed Forces ( LAF ) have extended central government authority over about two-thirds of the country.

Major powers United States and France rejected Syrian reasoning that they were in Lebanon by the consent of the Lebanese government.

In Resolution 425, the UN had set a goal of assisting the Lebanese government in a " return of its effective authority in the area ", which would require an official Lebanese army presence there.

Hezbollah became a part of the Lebanese government following the 2005 elections but is at a crossroads regarding UNSCR 1559's call for its militia to be dismantled.

The beginnings of the modern army arose during 1916, when the French government established the " Legion of the Orient ", which included Lebanese soldiers.

On the day Lebanon declared independence, the Lebanese Third Sharp Shooters Regiment was placed at the disposal of the Lebanese government in order to maintain security.

After gaining independence in 1943, the Lebanese government formed an official delegation in 1944 to negotiate with the French the terms related to handing over the LAF.

After establishing authority over the LAF in 1945, the Lebanese government intentionally kept its armed forces small and weak due to the country's unique internal politics.

In Lebanon, the right-wing Guardians of the Cedars, a fiercely nationalistic ( mainly Christian ) political party which opposes the country's ties to the Arab world, is agitating for " Lebanese " to be recognized as a distinct language from Arabic and not merely a dialect, and has even advocated replacing the Arabic alphabet with a revival of the ancient Phoenician alphabet, which lacks a number of characters to write typical Arabic phonemes present in Lebanese, and lost by Phoenician ( and Hebrew ) in the second millennium BC.

Due to its high rainfall ( 900 – 1200 mm ), mild temperatures and high mountains ( Mount Meron's elevation is 1, 000 – 1, 208 metres ), the upper Galilee region contains some unique flora and fauna: prickly juniper ( Juniperus oxycedrus ), Lebanese cedar ( Cedrus libani ), which grows in a small grove on Mount Meron, cyclamens, paeonias and Rhododendron ponticum which sometimes appears on Meron.

Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from all Lebanese territory, in August, Lebanon's new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to " liberate or recover occupied lands ".

In 1997, Hezbollah formed multi-confessional Lebanese Brigades to Fighting the Israeli Occupation, which was an attempt to revive national and secular resistance against Israel, which marks the Lebanonisation of resistance.

Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon that damaged Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport ( which Israel said that Hezbollah used to import weapons and supplies ), an air and naval blockade, and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah was responsible for thousands of Katyusha rocket attacks against Israeli civilian towns and cities in northern Israel, which Hezbollah said were in retaliation for Israel's killing of civilians and targeting Lebanese infrastructure.

After gradual decline of its strength, Phoenician city states on the Lebanese coast were conquered outright by the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, which organized it as a satrapy, though many of Phoenician colonies continued their independent existence-most notably Carthage.

Consequently, the demographics of Lebanon were profoundly altered, as the territory added contained people who were predominantly Muslim or Druze: Lebanese Christians, of which the Maronites were the largest subgrouping, now constituted barely more than 50 % of the population, while Sunni Muslims in Lebanon saw their numbers increase eightfold, Shi ' ite Muslims fourfold.

Syria was charged by Arab League with disentangling the combatants and restoring calm from the time of the second Lebanese civil war ( which began in 1975 ) until 2005 when the Lebanese revolted against the Syrian presence and caused the withdrawal of Syrian troops with the support of the International community.

The Free Patriotic Movement, The Kataeb Party, also known as the Phalange Party, the National Bloc, National Liberal Party, Lebanese Forces and the Guardians of the Cedars ( now outlawed ) each have their own base among Christians and it's controversial as to which group has the largest popularity.

On September 3, 2004, the Lebanese Parliament voted 96-29 to amend the constitution to extend President Émile Lahoud's six-year term ( which was about to expire ) by another three years.

Highway 90 runs north-south on the Israeli side for a total distance of 565 km from Metula on the Lebanese border in the north to its southern terminus at the Egyptian border near the Red Sea port of Eilat.

The Syrians remained in control of a strip of territory along the Sea of Galilee originally allocated to the Jewish state, the Lebanese occupied a tiny area at Rosh Hanikra and the Egyptians retained the Gaza strip and still had some forces surrounded inside Israeli territory.

At the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990, despite the Taif Agreement asking for the " disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias ," Syria, in control of Lebanon at that time, allowed Hezbollah to maintain their arsenal, and control the Shiite areas in Southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the disarmament of militia with the Taif agreement at the end of the Lebanese civil war.

Over 100 Lebanese refugees were killed by the shelling of a UN base at Qana, in what the Israeli military said was a mistake.

* 2006 – Lebanon War: At least 28 civilians, including 16 children are killed by the Israeli Air Force in what Lebanese call the Second Qana massacre and what Israel considers to be an attempt to stop rockets ' being fired, from Lebanon, at Israeli civilian targets.

* 1976 – Lebanese Christian militias overrun Karantina, Beirut, killing at least 1, 000.

He won the confidence of the Ottomans by fighting on their side at Marj Dabaq and, apparently pleased with the behavior of the Lebanese amirs, introduced them to Salim I when he entered Damascus.

This army proved itself in 1623, when Mustafa Pasha, the new governor of Damascus, underestimating the capabilities of the Lebanese army, engaged it in battle and was decisively defeated at Anjar in the Biqa Valley.

Israel invaded Lebanon in response to Fatah attacks in Israel in March 1978, occupying most of the area south of the Litani River, and resulting in the evacuation of at least 100, 000 Lebanese, as well as approximately 2, 000 deaths.

In October 1990, the Syrian air force, backed by the US and pro-Syrian Lebanese groups ( including Hariri, Joumblatt, Berri, Geagea and Lahoud ) attacked the Presidential Palace at B ' abda and forced Aoun to take refuge in the French embassy in Beirut and later go into exile in Paris.

On February 21, 2005, tens of thousand Lebanese protestors held a rally at the site of the assassination calling for the withdrawal of Syria's peacekeeping forces and blaming Syria and the pro-Syrian president Lahoud for the murder.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora denounced the attack as " aimed at destabilizing security and diverting attention from efforts exerted to solve the internal issues prevailing in the country ".

Efforts to alter or abolish the confessional system of allocating power have been at the centre of Lebanese politics for decades.

This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Lebanon at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Lebanese Pounds.

On August 1, 1945 at 00: 00 hours, the LAF was placed under full authority of the Lebanese National Government ; this day is commemorated annually as Lebanese Army Day.

Throughout history the Lebanese Army employed different arms and equipment which, at the time, were considered state of the art.

The Lebanese Special Forces are also well known for killing and eating snakes with their bare hands at graduation ceremonies.

* Lebanon: The Arabic-speaking Lebanese consist at about 95 % of the population, with the remainder consisting of a few small ethnic minorities, as well as refugees or asylum seekers.

In May 2010, due to her half Lebanese ancestry, Elizabeth chose to play for Team Lebanon at the World Team event in Las Vegas.