Elias Rababi

Born in 1913 Rababi was a Maronite and a member of the Kataeb Party.^[1] Following the establishment of the party in 1936 he was appointed its regional director and actively involved in the recruitment activities.^[2] He was the candidate of the party in the by-election on 4 May 1945 in Mount Lebanon.^[3] However, not Rababi but Philippe Takla won the seat.^[3][4] The party's newspapers, Al Amal and Action, were also edited by him for a long time,^[1] and Rababi headed the propaganda and press department of the party.^[5] He also was a columnist for the An-Nahar newspaper in the 1980s.^[6]

Rababi was one of the persons who developed early connections between the Israeli officials and the Kataeb Party in the period 1948–1951.^[1][7] In the 1950 meeting they discussed the financial assistance of Israel to the party concerning the preparations for the next general elections.^[7] Rababi also organized a meeting between Pierre Gemayel, Kataeb leader, and Yehoshua Palmon, an Israeli diplomat, in Switzerland in 1950.^[8] These contacts were first uncovered by an Israeli journalist and historian, Benny Morris, who wrote for The Jerusalem Post in 1983.^[9]

Rababi was the ambassador of Lebanon to Germany between 9 October 1959 and 1 October 1962.^[10] Then he served as the ambassador of Lebanon to Argentina until February 1966.^[11]

Rababi died in December 1999.^[12]