Extracts: Hezbollah’s attack in 2006 led to 34 days of vicious fighting with Israel that left Lebanon in ruins, with more than 1,100 people killed, much of southern Lebanon flattened and infrastructure across the country badly damaged
18 years later, clearly having learned nothing, Hezbollah would do it all over again – except that this time its gamble would prove to be far more detrimental to the group and to Lebanon as a whole
Israel has punished Hezbollah for launching a front against it on 8 October 2023 by killing most of its political and military commanders, including Hassan Nasrallah, its top leader. It has levelled the group’s headquarters
Israel has infiltrated the organisation like never before And it has emptied much of southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah’s support base resides.
Never in the history of Hezbollah has there been this much panic among its constituencies and this much uncertainty about its future
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Whether Israel will translate its tactical gains into strategic ones is unclear but what is certain is that Lebanon cannot endure under the present circumstances
Hezbollah simply cannot continue to operate outside the confines of the Lebanese state, with no oversight or accountability, answering to a foreign power and unilaterally making decisions of war and peace on behalf of all Lebanese
None of this is normal or constitutional in any functioning society. Of course, changing all this is all easier said than done
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There is nothing in Hezbollah’s experience and philosophy that suggests it will ever fold or drastically change its ways
Hezbollah is closely linked to the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and to dissociate itself from the Islamic Republic would mean suicide
Yet ironically, the path Hezbollah has chosen has brought it closer to self-destruction Hezbollah like Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, chooses to ignore basic truths
