It is not surprising that Lebanese Christians and Sunni Muslims hate the Shi’a militia Hezbollah, that has effectively been Lebanon’s government for many years, and brought the country a world of woe, from the goose-stepping bezonians in Beirut who terrorize the non-Hezbollah members of the citizenry to the huge explosion on August 4, 2020, caused by 3,750 tons of ammonium nitrates poorly stored by Hezbollah in a hangar at the Port of Beirut. That explosion killed 218, wounded 7,000, and caused $15 billion in property damage. This was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. And now Hezbollah has brought down the wrath of the Israeli Air Force, that has been bombing Hezbollah sites in Dahieh, in southern Beirut, as well as in the Bekaa Valley, but inevitably some non-Hezbollah sites and people, though not intended targets, have also been hit. And the news about bombing in southern Beirut and the Bekaa is enough to scare away visitors from visiting Lebanon, thus depriving the country of much-needed tourist dollars. This world of woe has been too much for many Lebanese, including Shiites, who have had enough of Hezbollah’s disastrous war on Israel, as well as of its having become the most powerful military force in Lebanon, and the country’s unelected ruler. More on this spreading disaffection with Hezbollah can be found here: “Unreported in the Western Media: Hezbollah Is Losing Popular Support in Lebanon,” by Hany Ghoraba, Algemeiner, November 1, 2024:
If one were to rely on the Western media for an assessment of the degree of support among the Lebanese population for Hezbollah, it would be easy to draw the totally erroneous conclusion that the diverse Lebanese ethnic groups have all rallied around Hezbollah.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. From the Christians to the Druze, and from the Sunnis to the dominant Shiites, there is a massive revulsion being expressed against the Iranian proxy terrorist group Hezbollah, which had bullied its way toward becoming a mafia-like state within a state.
For the first time in over four decades, the Lebanese terrorist group appears frail. Following the elimination of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sep. 27, the halo around its invulnerable strength against Israel and other regional rivals faded rapidly. Now the group is facing local disgruntlement, added to its diminishing ability to get involved in military conflicts around the region, including Syria and Yemen.
It is not just the killing of Hassan Nasrallah that makes Hezbollah seem weak. In addition, the IDF has killed his heir apparent, Hashem Safieddine, as well as ten of the twelve members of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, and two dozen of its top commanders. Employing its “exploding pagers,” the IDF has killed dozens, and wounded — quite severely in some cases — 3,250 members of the terror group. At the time, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akbar wrote that “In just one minute, the enemy managed to deliver the harshest blow to Islamic resistance since the onset of the conflict.”
In the last month, the IDF has killed an estimated total 3,000 Hezbollah members. The group not only looks weak — it is weak.
The terrorist organization — which was once considered to be one of the richest in the world thanks to the influx of narcotics money — is currently suffering its worst crisis and no longer perceived by the Lebanese public eye as a defender of their land.
The IDF has bombed Hezbollah’s “banker” — Al-Qard al-Hasan — both its headquarters and nearly two dozen of its branch offices, destroying untold amounts of Hezbollah cash held in those buildings and putting Al-Qard out of business. And the Western powers have been managing to interdict more and more of the drugs from Venezuela and Colombia that Hezbollah traffickers have been sending to the US and Europe, as well as to the Middle East, thus depriving Hezbollah of its main source of income.
Even before the death of Nasrallah, the Shia population showed disdain towards Hezbollah and its leader for hijacking their lives, and forcing the people to obey its Iranian-affiliated command or face dire consequences or death.
Lebanese Shia do not like being ruled by Hezbollah, with its iron grip on their lives, forcing them to live according to its dictates or to face prison, or even death. They find particularly galling that Hezbollah, while it rules so despotically over them, is in turn nothing more than a puppet of Iran, willing to sacrifice Lebanese lives to further the aims of Tehran.
Mike says
Hugh: good article, but a small correction. During World War One, I understand that there was a collision of two munitions ships in the harbour of Nova Scotia, Canada, which was the largest single explosion until the use of the A-bombs in World War Two.
I believe (someone please correct me if I’m wrong) that that record (that is, of the Halifax explosion) still holds?
Mike says
(In terms of non-nuclear explosions, I meant to say.)
gravenimage says
Mike, both blasts were huge. More people died in the Halifax explosion, but I believe that the Beirut explosion was both larger and more destructive overall.
Certainly, Halifax was the largest man made explosion before WWII–but I believe that Beirut is in the running for largest non-atomic explosion.
Mike says
Oh ok, thanks
gravenimage says
Thanks, Mike. Both huge, in any case. And any sane Lebanese must be horrified by what Hezb’allah is doing to their country–formerly the most civilized nation in the region after Israel.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
“The IDF has bombed Hezbollah’s “banker” — Al-Qard al-Hasan — both its headquarters and nearly two dozen of its branch offices, destroying untold amounts of Hezbollah cash held in those buildings and putting Al-Qard out of business.”
Is this plausible? How hard is it to store cash in a fireproof safe?
LSWCHP says
The banks have been subjected to aerial bombardment. Fireproof doesnt count when subjected to a thousand pound bomb detonation.
gravenimage says
Hezbollah is Losing Support Even Among Lebanon’s Shiites
……………………………
Good to hear!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
If the Lebanese shi’ites are truly disgusted, they should abandon the Green Zone (the area south of the Litani River, including Tyre) and move to the Baka’a valley, Tripoli or elsewhere in Lebanon. Let the Green Zone be re-populated w/ Christians, so that Israel doesn’t need to fear any attacks on Galilee. I simply don’t trust any muslims – sunni nor shi’a – to keep the peace
Hopefully, Lebanon gets Samir Geagea as its next president, and hopefully, he too signs an Abraham Accords style deal w/ Israel
Mick says
Great article Hugh, which I will copy to friends.
gravenimage says
+1
memi says
Great article! Before Hezbollah’s influence, Beirut used to be called “the Paris of the Middle East” and the burqa was a ‘thing of the past’-with an educated secular society!
Wish articles like this would appear in N.York Times or Washpost/CNN. People don’t realize that Lebanon was a thriving country where Christians, Jews and secular Muslims lived in peace–until theocratic Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, made the country a narco-state and terrorist hub where the Muslim Brotherhood jihadists are also assisting in its massacres from its Ankara headquarters.
In 1975, with the civil war in Lebanon, Iran’s Hezbollah found a way to reach into its former mostly secular population and make huge profits in narcotic transports, targeted attacks and human trafficking. The middle class of Lebanon left for good and what remains are a number of (now in minority) Christians, secular Muslims and Jews outnumbered by the Hezbollah jihadists running its political system.
The West should permit Israel to make Hezbollah disappear from Lebanon’s political system before the whole country falls in the hands of Iran and its Turkish “pushers”.
Lebanon should not be allowed to create a powder keg in the Middle East & East Med as Iran, Qatar and Turkey are planning with Hezbollah and Muslim Brotherhood. Key countries like Egypt, EUA, Saudis, Libya and north Syria and Cyprus will be next in their destabilization plans.
Let Israel finish its job — and, in the process, save Europe and the West from Islamofascism and terrorism, growing jihadism and more massacres on Israeli, European and secular Muslim populations!
gravenimage says
Exactly.
abu taleb says
You don’t support Hezbollah but you let them run all over you. So your not supporting Hexbollah hardly means anything.