In early August, Lebanon declared that it was no longer under Iranian patronage or dictates, and then vowed to disarm Hizballah.
A Foreign Policy article entitled “Why Hezbollah Is Rich and Lebanon Is Poor” tells part of the story of how the people of Lebanon suffered an economic collapse under Hizballah. And now, Hizballah is determined to hold on to power, threatening to provoke a civil war in the face of efforts to disarm the group.
Hizballah referenced the Lebanese government as “treasonous”; in Hizballah’s view, Lebanon should be focused on Islam and Islamic jihad, with the priority being “death to Israel…death to America.” To oppose that vision is treasonous in Hizballah’s view.
Hizballah still hasn’t learned from Israel’s exploding pagers incident. Instead, it declares “We will fight as we fought in Karbala.” This signals Hizballah’s determination to continue the bloody jihad no matter what the losses. The Battle of Karbala happened in 680 CE, when Husayn ibn Ali, Muhammad’s grandson, led a small army against the forces of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, but was defeated. The battle lead to the “martyrdom” of Husayn, his family and many of his followers. Historically, this was the beginning of the Sunni-Shi’ite split; Shi’ites still mourn the death of Husayn annually. That Hizballah would reference this battle shows the extent of zeal driving the group. Despite the passage of time since Karbala, Hizballah is ready to fight to the death at attain “martyrdom” in the way of Allah. It also underscores the extent of the Islamic zeal that motivates jihadists.
It’s also obvious, however, that the Lebanese government will put up a fierce fight, and that Israel will side with Lebanon against the threat of Hizballah, should it indeed rise again.
“Hizbullah Threatens Civil War Following Government Decision To Disarm It, Says The ‘Treasonous’ Government Must Fall,” by N. Mozes, MEMRI, August 28, 2025:
The Lebanese government’s historic decision on August 7, 2025 to disarm Hizbullah and the other militias in the country, and to restrict the possession of weapons to the Lebanese Army and official security forces, was met with fury by Hizbullah, which hurried to clarify that it would not relinquish its weapons even at the cost of sparking an internal conflict or civil war in Lebanon.
Hizbullah – which disputes the legality of the decision on the grounds that the Lebanese Constitution and the Taif Agreement both sanction its activity against Israel[1] – accuses Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his government of treason and of succumbing to Israeli and American dictates. It calls to overthrow the government, although its representatives have not resigned from it and continue to hold their positions in it.[2]
In its messages to the public, Hizbullah characterizes its weapons as sacred and a senior Shi’ite cleric even referred to them as “the weapons of Allah.” Videos circulated by the organization on its media and social media platforms featured speeches by former Hizbullah officials, including the organization’s former secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, which underlined the duty of jihad and the sanctity of the weapons, among them videos titled “My Weapons Are Too Sacred to Be Removed”[3] and “We Shall Not Be Traitors and Shall Not Relinquish Our Weapons.”[4]
In an attempt to enlist maximum support from the Shi’ite public, Hizbullah officials describe the government’s decision as a blow to the entire Shi’ite sect, which must be opposed.
These officials also lent the conflict a religious-historical dimension by comparing the Lebanese government and Hizbullah’s political rivals to the second Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu’awiya (Yazid I), who in Shi’ite Islam is an emblem of oppressive tyranny that must be fought, and promised to fight the government’s decision just as the Shi’ite Imam Hussein ibn Ali fought Yazid in the historic Battle of Karbala.[5]
Hizbullah’s patron Iran and other elements in the resistance axis – specifically the Houthi Ansar Allah movement in Yemen and the Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq – have come to Hizbullah’s defense. They attacked the Lebanese government and its decision, urged Hizbullah to oppose it and clarified that they would help it do so.
This report reviews Hizbullah’s responses to the Lebanese government’s decision to disarm it.
We Will Not Give Up Our Weapons; We Will Fight As We Fought In Karbala…
rick says
So typical of a crazed terrorist organization that once did have a power hold on the government of Lebanon and now lost it. It cannot accept that. If it were a democratic group it would seek a legal and non violent way to regain some of their power but this is an organization that depends not on votes but on killing and threats. Maybe now Lebanon will come together against Hezbollah and rid the country of this impediment to progress and a normal life. That its only support comes from the Shi’ite population that may mean that the Christian and Sunni populations will have to fight a sectarian war. Sectarian violence or sectarian strife is a form of religious violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion within a nation or community. That would be unfortunate but if that may be what it takes to rid Lebanon of Hezbollah. Once Hezbollah is abolished the future of Lebanon has a chance to regain what it once was.
Rick Gordon says
Kudos to the Lebanese government for its courage in rejecting armed Hezbollah terrorism. I assume it puts targets on all of the higher placed government officials – and hope they are sufficiently protected.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Good. Let’s see how well they fight, after being decimated by Israel. Honestly, the Lebanese government should join the civilized world in declaring Hizbullah a terrorist group and banning it
Wellington says
Typical projection here from Hezbollah but very much in keeping respecting how “bad hombres” accuse the other side of exactly what they are doing.
Other culprits in this regard that come to mind are 1) the Islamic sphere of mankind in general, thus all the Islamophobic rubbish, etc.; 2) Western Leftists who regularly assert that Western conservatives are a threat to freedom, democracy, the rule of law, etc. when in fact Western Leftists are clearly a threat to liberty, democracy and the rule of law; 3) your standard authoritarians like Putin and XI who place the blame on all others but themselves; and 4) yes, somewhat an overlap with 2), but I wanted to be specific being the American I am and indicate clearly that the Democratic Party of the USA finds itself worked up into projection regularly, examples being accusing Trump of being an authoritarian when this is exactly what the Democratic Party engaged in during the entire Covid debacle, censoring anyone who disagreed with Anthony “I am the science” Fauci, and ditto castigating and censoring all those who were skeptical of the Russian collusion hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop rubbish and the Joe Biden is perfectly fine rot.
Projection is a regular feature of mankind and the less any organization, institution, polity, etc. does not prize those twin beacons of freedom and truth which invariably advance the cause of humanity, the more likely they are to engage in projection. It’s a classic inverse proportionality here.
James Lincoln says
So, which is:
Hizballah or Hezbollah?
Why all the different spellings?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I have heard Israelis pronounce it “Hiz-bahl-la”, which is why I spell it Hizbullah. Hezbullah is obviously said w/ a different accent
Luchtpint says
To some degree, this probably stems from the fact that Arabic is divided into regional varieties, with slightly differing pronunciations and the like.
Which makes transliteration to Western-laguage media more or less “arbitrary”, let’s say.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Arabic#/media/File:Arabic_Varieties_Map-2023.svg/2
James Lincoln says
Thanks for the replies, Infidel and Luchtpint.
Dianne Mueller says
Spoke to a man the other day who was looking forward to going home to Lebanon. I asked him about the Hizballah takeover years ago and he told me that was only in the north (I believe) not the entire country. So, in effect, he was not concerned about the Islamic takeover of his country. I didn’t push him on the subject but I was definitely confused.
Kepha says
I notice that a bunch of those guys are very fair-skinned with light-colored beards. Yet they dare to scream that Ashkenazi Jews have no claim to Fertile-Crescent and Levantine descent!
FTR, Uncle Kepha is lukewarm on Zionism, and believes that God’s elect people are gathered about the Messiah, not some piece of Middle Eastern Land. But he is also no fan of Islam in any of its guises; prays for the Muslim students to whom he teaches English Language Development and social studies; and rejoices that a number of Muslim immigrants in the West have found the Messiah (I understand that the Christian resurgence in Kabylia was spearheaded by returning Gastarbeiter).
Islam is the religion of war.