Incidents that caused fear of new violence occurred between 1958 and 1959; the expansion of the government from 4 to 8 members (October 1959) and of the Chamber from 66 to 99 (decided in April 1960) contributed to a certain détente, and the elections (June-July 1960) could take place in calm, so much so that President Shihāb, considering his peacemaking work concluded, expressed his intention to resign (July 20, 1960); however he was dissuaded. A new crisis with Egypt occurred in 1961, due to the hospitality granted to the Syrian exiles. At the end of the same year, on December 31, the military and elements of the National Social Party (heir to the Syrian People’s Party) tried to seize power; the attempt was stopped after a few days of fighting and the perpetrators were arrested and tried. A certain internal tension still existed in September 1964 at the end of the mandate of Fu’ād Shihāb, who refused to re-propose his candidacy; the apprehensions proved unfounded, and on August 18 Charles Ḥelu was elected president. In relative tranquility, broken in the autumn 1965 by incidents with Israel for retaliatory actions against guerrilla attacks, in December 1965-January 1966 the Karāmah government faced the age-old and difficult problem of reforming the administrative and judicial organization of the state, at the in order to eliminate the major inconveniences deriving from the division of offices on a confessional basis. In March 150 senior officials and magistrates were forced to leave the service, but the Karāmah government fell. The new cabinet, formed by ‛Abdallāh el-Yāfī, he found himself facing a serious financial crisis: a wave of mistrust in the banking system, on which the Lebanese economy was largely based, caused a hasty withdrawal of deposits, especially from Intra Bank, which closed its branches in October. The government had to intervene in defense of savers and of the economic activities themselves, by imposing a system of controls and guarantees; however in December el-Yāfī had to resign, and was replaced by Karāmah. In June 1967, Lebanon explicitly expressed his solidarity with the Arab countries engaged in the conflict with Israel, even without participating directly in it; Popular demonstrations resulted in damage to British and US assets. In March 1968 there were elections for the renewal of the Chamber, prepared by a govemment chaired by al-Yāfī; a “Tripartite Alliance” prevailed grouping the predominantly Maronite parties (Falangi, National Liberal Party, National Bloc) and a Democratic Bloc with a left-wing tendency, also divided by internal rivalries, which prevented the formation of a clear majority. A resurgence of the activities of the Palestinian resistance contributed not a little to complicate the situation, which was answered by reprisals from Israel, which accused Lebanon of providing them with hospitality and assistance. A clash, the first in two years, took place at the border in May 1968; in December, in response to a guerrilla attack on an Israeli plane in the Athens airport, the Israeli air force attacked the Beirut one, destroying almost all the Lebanese airliners to the ground. Accused of incapacity,

According to Healthvv, the problem of solidarity with the Palestinian resistance (the Lebanon housed over 260,000 refugees) and the danger it represented for the harsh Israeli reprisals for guerrilla actions was meanwhile re-proposing the question of relations between Christians and Muslims. The first were for a policy of moderation towards Israel, the others for a more decisive support for the guerrillas, but in substance the weight that each community had to have in politics and administration was in dispute: in the legal fiction they were considered as representing half of the population, but the last census dates back to 1939 and the calculations now recognized a clear prevalence of Muslims. In the spring and summer of 1969 infiltration of guerrillas from Syria and the creation of new bases of attack against Israel, which responded with reprisals, provoked friction with the army, which decided to attack in October. The threat of a new civil war was thwarted by the signing in Cairo (November 2), by the commander-in-chief of the Lebanese army and the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yāsir ‛Arafāt, of an agreement for which the guerrillas agreed to limit their activity to some designated areas. The agreement was further perfected in January 1970, but did not put an end to the frictions: in March there were clashes between Falangists and guerrillas in Beirut, in which neither the government nor the army were involved; in May there was a serious Israeli attack with air raids and the occupation, for two days, of a large area in the south. After Ḥelu’s mandate expired, in August 1970 Suleimān Farangiyyah was elected president, who entrusted the government to Ṣā’ib Sallām. The latter took measures of detente, easing censorship in the press, radio and television and repealing the ban imposed on some extremist political parties (Communist Party, Syrian People’s Party, Ba ‛ th of pro-Iraqi trend and others). In spite of this, strikes and demonstrations against the cost of living and unemployment, student riots, armed clashes between opposing factions continued throughout 1971.

In April 1972, new House elections led to a shift to the left in the equilibrium. The expulsion of the Palestinian resistance from Jordan caused a resurgence of actions out of Lebanon and consequent Israeli reprisals, and the residents of the most directly affected southern villages demanded in March 1972 that the army exercise greater surveillance on the guerrillas. In September the retaliation for the killing of Israeli athletes in Munich resulted in heavy losses for the army, which in December attacked some resistance bases. New Israeli attacks in February 1973 and attacks by Palestinian extremists resulted in the resignation of the Sallām government, which accused the army of incapacity. In March the tension between the army and the guerrillas reached its peak: Palestinian camps were attacked from the ground and from the air, infiltration attempts from Syria were rejected. The intervention of the Arab countries led to a truce and a new agreement by which the resistance undertook to disarm the refugees, to give up training in Lebanese territory and to stop the attacks on Israel. Pressures from Sunni Muslims to get more posts in the government, riots, incidents between party militias continued to help maintain an atmosphere of tension. Although not directly involved in the war of October 1973, Lebanon suffered from it in the southern provinces, subject to repeated attacks even after the cessation of hostilities. In February 1974 the government, chaired by Taqī ed-dīn Ṣolḥ, he proposed a reform of the distribution of offices that would respond to the demands of Muslims, causing a firm reaction from the Maronites. For their part, the Shiite Muslims of the south demanded greater representation and investment in the development of their region, threatening to arm themselves against both Israel and the government. Overall, the situation at the beginning of 1975 was still extremely tense, as demonstrated by violent clashes in Beirut and in the rest of the country, between Christian-inspired paramilitary formations and Muslim-inspired paramilitary formations, which they wanted to give an interpretation of struggles. between “conservative” and “progressive” forces. The fight continued fiercely without the other Arab countries agreeing to reject any external intervention, were capable of assuming a common attitude that would lead to a truce. Only towards the end of 1976, when Syria, breaking the delay, decided to intervene directly to put an end to the clashes, did the other Arab countries accept the formation of their own “peacekeeping force”, which in any case turned out to be mainly composed of Syrians. However, in 1978 the situation became extremely dramatic with the raging of the war between Maronites, Syrians and Palestinians, especially in the city of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. which, however, turned out to be mainly composed of Syrians. However, in 1978 the situation became extremely dramatic with the raging of the war between Maronites, Syrians and Palestinians, especially in the city of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. which, however, turned out to be mainly composed of Syrians. However, in 1978 the situation became extremely dramatic with the raging of the war between Maronites, Syrians and Palestinians, especially in the city of Beirut and in southern Lebanon.