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Reda Mansour
Poet, Historian, Diplomat

The world needs to Help Free the Lebanese People from Hizballah

For the last twenty-five years, Hezbollah has been trying to convince the world that they are the shield of their nation, the defenders of the Lebanese people. They forced the Lebanese to call them “the resistance” and accept that the group deserved increasing allegiance and authority. But Hezbollah’s thirst for power left the group’s leadership blind, unable to perceive the moment when their “resistance” narrative would fail. The world now sees the real Hezbollah: a group that wants power in Lebanon.

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When Israeli forces were still in southern Lebanon the Hezbollah “resistance” narrative was easy to sell. The Lebanese were forced to agree with Hezbollah leader Nasser Allah that there was a foreign enemy that needed to be fought. However, when Israeli forces left, the group did not disarm and found itself in the advantageous position of being far more powerful than the national military. It was only a matter of time until Hezbollah would turn against the people they claimed to protect.

Lebanon has never been an ideal democracy or a stable government, but it has been the freest and most democratic country, other than Israel, in the Middle East. It has been a pocket of liberty in the region with the highest number of dictatorships and military regimes in the world. Lebanon’s freedoms made it the refuge of intellectuals in exile and political dissidents, as well as the hope of common people throughout the region.

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Lebanon is also a fragile country. Its government has to keep a delicate balance between more than twenty different ethnic, religious, and denominational groups, making it too divided to prevent invaders and the rise of radical ideologies. These are the reasons why so much violence has been attracted to this sad country. Its enemies have been threatened by its freedoms and lured by its weaknesses.

Hezbollah’s cynicism had led it to believe that it could take over Lebanon by force. The group has the support of Iran and Syria and backed by such strong allies; Hezbollah believes that the highly divided Lebanon will be able to muster little defense. This is the same feeling Hamas had when it too took over its national government and literally through its opponents out the window, leaving them to crash to their deaths on the harsh reality of the Gaza sands.

But Hezbollah’s attempt at conquest will fail. The pro-Iranian Islamic extremists will learn that Lebanon is not an easy place to conquer. It has been proved time and again that the country is manageable only by consensus. No internal or external parties have managed to change that; no matter how strong they were or how long they tried.

The diversity that is all too often Lebanon’s weakness is also its safeguard against tyranny and occupation. There is nothing that unifies the Lebanese like a common enemy. Hezbollah might gain some land, but it will suffer heavy casualties. It might burn down a TV station, but the views it opposes will simply be broadcast from elsewhere.

Most importantly, Hezbollah has lost its self-proclaimed title of “resistance group” and gained the apt title of “militia.” Some Lebanese have gone so as to risk their lives by openly renaming Hezbollah the “party of Satan,” the direct opposite of the translation of the group’s name in Arabic, which means the “party of God”.

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It is no longer possible for Hezbollah to invent enemies when Lebanon’s two neighbors are Israel, a country that remains behind its internationally recognized border, and the other is Syria, Hezbollah’s closest ally.

The Lebanese people have made it clear; that they are no longer willing to be the victims everyone is willing to sacrifice in their war against Israel. They are sending a plain message to Hezbollah’s leaders that endless wars on their southern border must not continue. The “resistance” narrative that Hezbollah needs fifteen thousand rockets, one hundred thousand lines of communication, and thousands of armed men to liberate one small farm in Shebaa is no longer expected.

It is imperative that international community helps the brave Lebanese people hold onto their freedom and fragile democracy. The time has come to support them in any way possible, and by doing so send a clear message to all extreme Muslim groups in the region: the world might protect their right to practice their religion freely in a democratic country, but it will not allow them to murder democracy in the name of their holy wars.

About the Author
Reda Mansour served as the Ambassador of Israel to Brazil, Ambassador to Panama, Ambassador to Ecuador, Deputy Ambassador in Portugal, Consul General of Israel in Atlanta, and Consul in San Francisco; at age 35 he was the youngest Ambassador in Israel's history, and the first Druze- career diplomat. He holds a Ph.D. from Haifa University where his doctoral work focused on the intellectual history of modern Syria. He also holds a master's degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and speaks five languages. Mansour was a visiting professor at Haifa University and Emory University in Atlanta. Currently he teaches Middle East Studies at Reichman University.