{"id":100,"date":"2019-09-08T23:02:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T22:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/?page_id=100"},"modified":"2020-07-06T08:36:05","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T07:36:05","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/","title":{"rendered":"Jawad Boulos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/?p=574\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"570\" height=\"176\" src=\"http:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/small-banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-69\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/small-banner.jpg 570w, https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/small-banner-300x93.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Radio interview with Jawad Boulos on Radio Liban<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/www.jawad-boulos.org\/audio\/simonawad2.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dear Reader,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This site is dedicated to the memory of a Lebanese statesman who  could probably best be defined as the theoretician of the Lebanese  Nation. Jawad Boulos was born at the turn of the twentieth century or  the dying years of the Ottoman Empire. This was an era when  nationalistic aspirations in the Arab Orient were starting to find  articulation in the writings and pronouncements of an educated elite  which mostly looked towards the West for inspiration, but wished to moor  the lofty principles of \u201cself-evident\u201c rights and the aspiration to  self -determination in the latticework of the fertile crescent\u2019s  historical experience.<br> Jawad Boulos believed as he later wrote that Lebanon had, throughout  history, exhibited the features of a geographical, social and economic  unit bounded by borders that were among the few natural frontiers  possessed by any of the countries of what is now known as the Middle  East. He held that the reality of the existence of the Lebanese nation  withstood both the scrutiny of rational analysis and the test of  historical experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lebanon, he declared, was indeed one of the  oldest nations on earth. The fact that its borders had been definitely  set by the colonial powers of the early twentieth century did not  contradict this view. France herself, as he pointed out by way of  example, had seen her borders vary throughout history and her current  frontiers were not entirely historical in the basic sense of the word.  Nor did give credit to those who held out the map as proof that Lebanon  had been carved out of Syria and that geography commanded that both  countries should constitute an evident political unit. Lebanon\u2019s  situation vis a vis Syria was not exceptional he held; could anyone  seriously argue, for example, that Portugal was an inherent part of  Spain? Or that Chile was carved out of Argentina?<br> Our politician turned historian outlined the essence of his thinking on  the roots of Lebanese nationalism in his seminal essay, the \u201cReal  Foundations of contemporary Lebanon\u201d which is perhaps his most revealing  and challenging work. In it, he developed the fundamental idea that the  Lebanese nation was a not rooted in the ties of language, ethnicity or  religion but was rather forged by Lebanon\u2019s geography which set it apart  from its continental hinterland while orienting it towards the sea and  its wide horizons rather than the sterile deserts of the interior. He  held that Lebanon\u2019s geography had practically compelled it to become a  country of refuge for persecuted communities who wished to preserve  their religious and cultural identities. These communities were cemented  together by the fundamental concept of \u201cvivre ensemble\u201d; that voluntary  social and political compact of the Lebanese people to live together  and, collectively, to defend their freedoms. It is precisely this  compact that was, and remains, the bedrock of the Lebanese nation.<br> It is this same vivre-ensemble that has been put under severe stress by  the emergence of supranational organizations informed by unyielding and  radical ideologies rooted in the idea of exclusivism and religious  supremacy. And it is the rise of such organizations that has led  informed observers to wonder whether the erasure of borders would lead  to the end of consociationalism and whether the dismantling of both,  concomitantly with the systematic targeting of religious minorities,  forbears the definitive failure of the very \u201cidea\u201d of Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Presciently, it was Jawad Boulos\u2019 view that the very nature of the \nLebanese individual imprinted by the country\u2019s geography and climate \ncould promote nothing other than a participative system of government \nprecisely because its geography and historical experience made it a \nrefuge for minorities who wished to preserve both their collective \nidentity and their personal freedoms across historical times.<br>\nA firm proponent of Lebanese independence, Jawad Boulos firmly opposed \nthose who wished to hurry its declaration. He was wary of British vision\n for the Post War Middle East in view of the British government\u2019s \ncommitments to the Zionist movement which would inevitably culminate in \nthe establishment of Israel and consequentially, to the dispossession of\n non-Jews in Palestine and their displacement to neighboring countries \nand Lebanon in particular. He understood France could not maintain the \nmandate in the Levant long after the end of the War. If France was going\n to leave anyway he reasoned, why force her out while she was defeated \nand weak and submit perforce to British designs and Zionist ambitions? \nWhy humiliate France and risk her centuries old friendship? Why not \nnegotiate France\u2019s departure and obtain from her a treaty commitment to \nprotect and defend Lebanon\u2019s independence in the turbulent times to \ncome? Independence was not about words and posturing. It was about \nactions and the marshaling of resources which would be needed to \nmaintain it. When the French were indeed compelled to leave, he quipped \nthat the Maronites had abandoned her centuries old protection while \nsecuring little in the way of countervailing guarantees. This, he \npredicted, would prove catastrophic.<br>\nJawad Boulos was a fixture of the political scene of his day. An admirer\n and political ally of President Emile Edde in who\u2019s law firm he \ntrained, he was an active member of the National Bloc (Ketleh watanyeh) \ncoalition though never a member of Edde\u2019s party. He became the standard \nbearer of the pro-French coalition in North Lebanon and faced off \nrepeatedly against the Constitutional Bloc which was led by Hamid \nFrangieh and Abdel Hamid Karame and openly supported by the British. \nGeneral Spears, the chief British representative in Lebanon actively \nengineered the defeat of the more popular National Bloc in the 1943 \nelections. The British were particularly active in undermining the \nelectoral list in North Lebanon which was co-headed by Jawad Boulos and \nRashed Mokaddem who was arrested on trumped up charges and later sent \ninto exile. That defeat would have a devastating effect on the career of\n our promising statesman just as it would mark the turning point for the\n National Bloc which would never fully recover.<br>\nBy 1958 however, Jawad Boulos had become a sort of \u201ceminence grise\u201d in \nLebanon . He was a politician of deep erudition and broad culture with a\n significant political base and a wide network of personal friendships \nspanning communities, regions and countries. A rarity among Lebanese \npoliticians, he had a reputation for honesty, integrity and was \nrecognized as an ascetic. As such, he was considered a credible and \nnecessary candidate for the Presidency by many. In the run up for the \nPresidential elections of 1958, he had the favors of the Western camp \nwho were actively seeking a credible candidate of nationalistic and \nrepublican convictions to succeed President Camille Chamoun. His chances\n were so real that he received the early congratulations of General \nFouad Chehab when the two men met at his home in Beirut to discuss \nopportunities for cooperation under an expected Boulos presidency. But \nfate intervened. On July 14th 1958, just two weeks shy of the election, \nthe Hachemite Monarchy in Irak was overthrown in a coup which brought \nGeneral Abdel Karim Kassem to power. The United States, concerned with \nwhat it perceived as a Communist challenge to the Pax Americana, \ndetermined that a military man was needed at the helm in Lebanon \nresulting in the election of Fouad Chehab.<br>\nThe relationship with the now President Chehab was contentious from the \nvery beginning. Chehab was wary of a man whom he viewed as an erstwhile \ncompetitor and opponent. The President was also engaged in a political \ncontest with the National Bloc led by Raymond Edde whose Party Boulos \nsupported and remained loyal to all his life. Both Boulos and Edde \nviewed the accession of a military man to the Presidency in Lebanon with\n unease. They deeply believed in Lebanese exceptionalism and were \nunsettled by a precedent which they feared would lead the country down \nthe path of military authoritarianism and one-man rule which had become \nthe norm in the Arab world. Their worst fears were realized when Chehab \nempowered the military\u2019s second bureau and turned it into an apparatus \nof political repression. Where the President could not secure political \nsupport for his policies he would turn to the security establishment to \ncrank up the pressure. As the Chehab presidency unfolded, the President \nbecame increasingly dependent on Army Intelligence whose mandate he \nconstantly allowed to expand. The constant persecution by the Second \nBureau of political factions who opposed Chehab ended up aligning these \nfactions against him. When the Syrian Nationalist Party attempted its \ncoup on December 31st 1961, they were quietly cheered on by many, even \namong those who opposed the party\u2019s ideology. The party\u2019s intention was \nto replace Chehab with Boulos whose impeccable Lebanese nationalist \ncredentials would undoubtedly temper the fear that the putchists\u2019 \nideology would inevitably inspire.<br>\nThe failure of the coup once again drove Jawad Boulos away from politics and into the arms of his first love; history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an exception among historians, Jawad Boulos was not an academic \nbut a lawyer and a professional politician. He believed that absent \nsufficient knowledge of the history of their region, local politicians \nstood at great risk of adopting faulty policies that could have \ndisastrous implications for the country. He understood, citing Burke \nthat \u201cPeople will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward\n to their ancestors\u201d. He believed that although the lessons of history \nwere not dogmatic in nature, the understandings commanded by an \nappreciation of historical events have practical value in that they \nconvey teachings which individuals and nations can and must use to their\n benefit. As a school of concrete experiences, history introduces us to \nexperimental knowledge of humanity which is deeper and more varied than \nthat which can be gleaned from our personal observations. He realized \nthat the experience of others does not enlighten the many because we are\n conditioned to believe that we are of a \u201cdifferent\u201d nature. Even though\n truth is in reality factual rather than rational when viewed through \nthe prisms of both history and politics, he argued, the shapers of \nopinion have all too frequently been ready to cede to chimeric doctrines\n and ideologies which are rooted in abstractions and have no link to the\n reality thereby causing much damage and destruction. It was an argument\n that many of Jawad Boulos\u2019 critics and detractors would use against him\n in connection with his defense of the concept of a Lebanese nation.<br>\nJawad Boulos keenly knew that Lebanon\u2019s experiment with republicanism \nwas fragile and that the successful administration of this unique \nattempt at sustaining a truly democratic and fully inclusive system of \ngovernment in the Post Ottoman Levant required that officials should be \nwell versed in the lessons that the past had to offer and aware of the \nfundamental drivers of the historical experience that could only be \nignored at great peril.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He felt he needed to take on the responsibility for providing that \nbedrock of knowledge and identifying those drivers to serve as \nguidelines informing the decisions of statesmen.<br>\nIn approaching his subject, he was intellectually inspired by the school\n of thought of historical determinism. He believed that a careful \nscholar could uncover historical \u201cconstants\u201d in the unfolding drama of \nevents and that these constants were themselves determined by geography.\n Politics was the daughter of history and history the son of geography \nand geography itself was immutable.<br>\nThis did not mean that he believed in absolute determinism. While he \nheld true that Man was not wholly independent of his environment, chance\n probabilities remained a factor in driving history because men were \nrelatively autonomous beings both physiologically and mentally and each \nindividual retains a large element of freedom. This freedom is not \nabsolute but affected by numerous external influences with color man\u2019s \nattitudes. On balance over historical times, human initiative favored or\n hindered as it is by the influences of nature, is constrained by \nrestrictive conditions that tamp down its impact and condemn it to a \nsecondary role.<br>\nThe leading luminary of this school of thought was the British historian\n Arnold Toynbee who wrote the foreword of the first tome of Jawad \nBoulos\u2019 sweeping work and masterpiece \u201cPeuples et Civilisations du \nProche Orient des Origines a nos jours\u201d which was written in French and \npublished between the years 1961 (Tome I) and 1968 (Tome V). During this\n time he also wrote a history of Lebanon which he published in 1970 \n(Lebanon and the neighboring countries).<br>\nWith the onset of what became known as the \u201ctwo year war\u201d (1975-1976) \nbut more commonly, if incorrectly, as the Lebanese Civil War, Jawad \nBoulos found himself once again at the forefront of the political stage.\n Along with leading lights such as Charles Malek, Fouad Ephrem El \nBoustani, Said Akl, Edward Honein , Abbott Charbel Kassis and political \npatriarchs Sleiman Frangieh, Pierre Gemayel and Camille Chamoun he \nfounded the \u201cLebanese Front\u201d which met in Awkar and devolved into the \ncentral policy making body of Christian and other nationalist forces in \nLebanon during the war. The Lebanese front was instrumental in devising \npolicy, providing direction, mobilizing resources and support and \ncoordinating between the various nationalist factions facing the PLO and\n its allies in the Lebanese left, the Syrian nationalists and their \nforeign mentors. In 1978, he resigned in disgust from the front after \nthe Ehden Massacre. He retired to the \u201cChrist Roi\u201d monastery to live out\n the remaining years of his life. In 1982, a few weeks before his death,\n he published his last work also written in French but translated into \nArabic \u201cLes Tournants Majeurs de l\u2019Histoire du Proche Orient depuis \nl\u2019Islam\u201d.<br>\nJawad Boulos\u2019 body of work was aimed first and foremost at demonstrating\n the authenticity of the Lebanese entity throughout history and \ndefeating the view that Lebanon was an artificial social and political \nentity wholly proceeding from the Sykes Picot agreement. His writings \nalso defended the view that the ideology of a greater Syria was a \nromantic fallacy and that this purported Greater Syria which would \nencompass the entire Levant had never existed throughout history, nor \ncould it exist as a political unit in modern times. His last book aimed \nat proving that the concept of an Islamic Oumma, inasmuch as it would be\n attached to a specific geographical area such as the State created by \nthe first Caliphs was itself a purely ideological construct with no \ngeographical or historical foundations in the Levant. The only purely \nArab caliphate which was centered on Damascus lasted close to 100 years \n(the Omeyyad Caliphate (640\u2014750); the blink of an eye in historical \nterms. After that, the Caliphate(s) came under the influence of the \nPersians and Turks, ceased to be centered on Levantine Damascus, and \nintermittently, would also move away from Sunnism (under the Fatimids).<br>\nIn an era where, to quote Henry Kissinger \u201c ever more issues are treated\n as if of factual nature, the premise becomes established that for every\n question there is a researchable answer, that problems and solutions \nare not so much to be thought through as to be \u201clooked up\u201d. But in the \nrelations between states- and in many fields- information, to be truly \nuseful, must be placed within a broader context of history and \nexperience to emerge as actual knowledge. And a society is fortunate if \nits leaders can occasionally rise to the level of wisdom.\u201d<br>\nIt is this wisdom that Jawad Boulos sought to uncover and communicate. \nIt is our loss that his, and other like minded voices were drowned out \nin the drama of Lebanon\u2019s \u201dgrab what you can as fast as you can\u201d \nattitude that permeated government after independence and till this day.<br>\nThis website aims to celebrate the memory of this patriotic statesman \nwho believed in the greatness of his Nation and of its people and who \nwould not rest until he had put forward the theoretical principles that \ninformed his convictions. It aims at introducing the coming generations \nwho have been steeped in the idea that their country is somehow an \nartificial entity, a passing historical mistake that will somehow be \ncorrected by the emergence of a new regional order. It is in essence an \narchive of the intellectual outpouring of a man whose vindication in \npolitics, I remain convinced, would have changed the course of the \nmodern history of Lebanon and perhaps protected it from much of the \nturbulence that it faced in the second half of the twentieth century \nright up to the date of this writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have taken the decision of making Jawad Boulos\u2019 works available \nonline in the form of e-Books so that they can once again be at \navailable to the larger public. These books are unfortunately no longer \nin print and are not available in book stores. The site also provides \naccess to a selection of conferences he gave, interviews he granted, \narticles he wrote, reports about his activities and views, letters he \ncomposed or received and opinions that referenced him or his work. I \nhave tried to make this archive as complete as possible. Inevitably new \ndocuments will surface as I hope they will. Readers are welcome to post \nany documents, photos or information they may have to further enrich the\n site. All contributions are welcome.<br>\nThank you for visiting the site, I hope you will conclude that it \nprovides valuable insight into the history of Lebanon and the Middle \nEast and a useful tool for those who are searching for a deeper \nunderstanding the dynamics that have shaped our Nation and continue to \nimpact the entire Middle East.<br>\nThis Website would not have seen the day without the generous \ncontribution of Mr. Edmond Abchi. When I called Edmond to thank him for \nthe grant he had previously made to fund the restoration of the \nmausoleum of Youssef Bek Karam and the statue of Patriarch Douaihi, he \nchallenged me to test his commitment to any project connected with \nupholding the history and traditions of our beloved Ehden. I did! And \nthe result was his unhesitant, unconditional and unlimited support to \nthis project. I would like to express my gratitude to this exceptional \nman who has never strayed far from his roots of his ancestors and who \nremains anchored in the values that have made the strength of the \nMaronites: Faith, strength of character, commitment to the task at hand,\n attachment to freedom, love of the land, attachment to identity, unity \nof purpose and generosity of spirit. May his kind multiply and be \nblessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jawad Simon Boulos<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beirut&nbsp;on August&nbsp;13th, 2015<\/p>\n\n\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radio interview with Jawad Boulos on Radio Liban Dear Reader, This site is dedicated to the memory of a Lebanese statesman who could probably best be defined as the theoretician of the Lebanese Nation. Jawad Boulos was born at the turn of the twentieth century or the dying years of the Ottoman Empire. This was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-100","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}