While I would classify different Christian groups here as more strongly anti Zionist or more ambivalent, the SLA has no legacy in the form of “Pro-SLA” villages.

Even among the Christians who think the Zionists are our long lost secret brothers, the SLA (just “Jeish Lahad, “Lahad’s Army”) are virtually universally considered disgusting bloodthirsty monsters, at least by the older generation. They don’t get talked about when you’re trying to indoctrinate your kids into believing Lebanon is an eternally Christian nation.

Explicitly sectarian Christian nationalism here relies heavily on the aesthetics of “classy” Europeanness so it doesn’t really fit with it. The strongest case for this is the enduring hero-worship of Bachir, and the way he’s memorialized and aestheticized. Many of the better-off younger Christians who lean rightward don’t even know the SLA existed, while many Shia people grew up with stories of the SLA warcriming their relatives.

Now there were a lot of reports in 2024 and a few this time of Christian leaders and villages in the south getting assurances that they will be safe, I don’t think this is necessarily the legacy of the SLA. Probably the enemy trying to PR something out of the Christian population to make the invasion easier. South of the Litani, the Christian and mixed villages were liberated by the Hezb in 2000, so the perception of where everyone feels they are in the conflict is complicated.