Lebanese politician
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| Born | Raymond Émile Eddé
15 March 1913
Lebanese National Bloc |
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Raymond Eddé (
Palestinian
military interventions in Lebanon.
Early life
Eddé was born in
Jesuit
schools and graduated with a law degree in 1934.
Career
Eddé succeeded his father, who died in 1949, as leader of the National Bloc. He was subsequently elected to the
gerrymandered
and rigged.
In the National Assembly, Eddé sponsored reforms in Lebanon's rent laws (in 1954) and banking (1956), laying the basis for the Swiss-style confidential banking system that proved to be a factor in Lebanon's explosive
military intelligence service), and resigned from the cabinet in protest. He led the parliamentary opposition to the regime of Chehab and of
Charles Helou, his handpicked successor, throughout the 1960s.
In 1968, Eddé's National Bloc joined the
Beirut Airport on 28 December 1968 as evidence of this. His consistent position of avoiding a military confrontation with Israel was rare in
Lebanese politics.
Convinced that the dozen years of
Sunni
Muslims.
When the
Sunni Muslim West Beirut. Remaining on good terms with local Muslim politicians, his intervention on many occasions helped bring about the release of Christians who had been kidnapped by Muslim militias. A believer in coexistence between Christians and Muslim, Eddé opposed plans to partition Lebanon into ethnic and sectarian statelets, plans which he accused the
United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of conspiring to foist on Lebanon, and visited France and the
Vatican in an attempt to rally opposition to the purported conspiracy.
In 1976, Eddé stood as a candidate for the Presidency; his failure to win a single vote in the National Assembly led to allegations of electoral misconduct. On 22 December of that year, following three attempts on his life, he left Lebanon for Paris, where he was to spend the rest of his life. He refused to return while
Israeli
troops remained on Lebanese soil, in what he called an occupation. He continued to speak out on Lebanese affairs. His last words, when he died on 10 May 2000, were,
"I'm thinking. I'm thinking of Lebanon."
Eddé's nephew,
Lebanese National Bloc
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References
[1]
[2]
External links
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