Nabih Berri and Lebanese Politics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 1-16

3. Nabih Berri’s Early Years

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 17-27

4. From a Marginal Militia Leader to a Key Man

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 29-51

5. A Fight for Survival: Leading Amal and the Shi‘ites in the Jungle of the Civil War

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 53-89

6. Serving as Speaker: Reaching National Status; Losing Shi‘ite Hegemony

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 91-152

7. Berri’s Political Stands

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 153-176

8. Conclusions

   • Omri Nir

   Pages 177-184

9. Back Matter

   Pages 185-226

   PDF

Nabih Barri is a key figure in the Lebanese and Shi'ite politics for the last three decades. As the leader of the Shi'ite Amal movement since 1980 and as the Lebanese Speaker since 1992, Barri played a major role in all political events and processes in Lebanon between the early 1980's and today, including the current severe Lebanese crisis.

• crisis
• perception
• politics

"Omri Nir is a tenacious and thorough reader of Lebanon s politics. His portrait of the Shia leader Nabih Berri is full and judicious. Nir has no axe to grind; he has given that quintessential survivor in Lebanon s politics a discerning and accurate assessment." - Fouad Ajami, Professor and Director of Middle East Studies, The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies & Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution

"A penetrating, nuanced appraisal of Lebanon's veteran Shi'a parliamentary speaker. In a fine political biography, Omri Nir brings into focus the link-man between what is probably Lebanon's largest sectarian community and the country's non-Shi'a majority. A scrupulously fair portrayal of Nabih Berri's personal story and political affairs - a timely, much needed corrective to the relentless Western media conflation of the Lebanese Shi'a with Hezbollah." - William Harris.

OMRI NIRE Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University, Israel.

Policies and ethics