Beirut 1975: The Bus That Started Lebanon's Civil War

On April 13, 1975, a busload of Palestinians was ambushed in the Beirut suburb of Ain al-Rummaneh, triggering 15 years of civil war. But that bus didn't start the war—it was just the spark. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the combustible mix that had been building for years: the breakdown of Lebanon's unwritten power-sharing pact, the rise of armed militias, the influx of Palestinian fighters after Black September, and the paralysis of a state that could no longer contain its contradictions. They explore the roles of Pierre Gemayel's Phalangist party, Kamal Jumblatt's leftist-Druze alliance, and the PLO leadership under Yasser Arafat. They also look at a lesser-known figure, Maroun Khoury, the Phalangist militant whose death in a church that morning set off the chain reaction. This episode digs into the social geography of Beirut's 'Green Line'—the fault line that split the city into Muslim west and Christian east—and how a single burst of automatic fire turned a cold peace into a hot war. A story of miscalculation, fear, and the tragic momentum of history.

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