For decades, Lebanese citizens have borne the brunt of Hezbollah hijacking Lebanese political decisions. The situation has worsened dramatically following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel for which Hezbollah, as Iran’s agent, unilaterally joined forces with Hamas the next day to start launching rocket attacks on northern Israel without any public or official Lebanese consent.
Amid a total electrical blackout that struck the country on Aug. 17, the Lebanese people feel more disgruntled as Hezbollah relentlessly drags the country into war with Israel.
A deluge of Lebanese social-media accounts bashed Hezbollah’s actions and its recklessness in handling the country’s fate. A video posted on Al Arabia News’ website shared some of these disgruntled voices. This video is a continuation of criticism directed at Hassan Nasrallah, the senior leader of Hezbollah, and the elements of his Iran-backed terrorist group inside Lebanon and abroad.
Openly criticizing Hezbollah can be dangerous to a person’s health in Lebanon. Under the hashtag, “I will not sacrifice myself for you, sir,” many disgruntled Lebanese citizens wrote messages, such as:
* “The Lebanese people do not deserve to have weapons and ammunition stores planted among their safe homes. … How long will this horror continue?” wrote Aline Samed with a video of an explosion of a munitions storage depot near civilian areas on Aug 19.
• Another account wrote, “No one turns their people into human shields except the axis of ecstasy.” (This is a mocking reference to the Axis of Resistance, comprised of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas).
• “Hezbollah marched us to war with an Iranian decision; Lebanon is getting bombarded while Iran is enjoying quietness and security,” wrote William Nakhle.
Several Lebanese residents posted complaints against Hezbollah using an image that depicts the Hezbollah logo atop a fiery explosion. The accompanying Arabic text translates to “Hezbollah’s munition stores are between people’s homes, the people are not human shields.”
• “The people will not sacrifice themselves for you,” wrote Eddy El.
• “The party is the one who causes people to be injured, killed, and their homes and properties to be destroyed,” wrote Hanine Abdel Massih.
On Aug. 25, after detecting an imminent massive Hezbollah attack, Israel launched a preemptive strike on the terror group’s rocket and missile infrastructure in Southern Lebanon. Thousands of Hezbollah missile launchers were destroyed, according to Israeli military reports. Hezbollah claimed that it launched a barrage of 320 rockets on northern Israel, none of which hit any major Israeli targets.
Since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and missiles daily, Israel has targeted Hezbollah launch sites along with its commanders, ammunition depots and other terrorist targets. Lebanese officials say 564 Lebanese have been killed; however, the Israeli government has meticulously documented that the vast majority of those killed were Hezbollah terrorists. Even Hezbollah has not disputed those claims. And while its leaders like to complain that more than 100,000 Lebanese have evacuated from the south of Lebanon, the only reason they are doing so is because Hezbollah has been deliberately firing missiles and rockets directly from the safe haven of civilian areas.
On the other side of the border, an even greater number of Israelis—estimates range up to 110,000—have fled the upper one-seventh of their own country as Hezbollah has fired more than 5,000 rockets, missiles and drones indiscriminately at Israeli civilian homes and cities. Kiryat Shmona, once home to 25,000 Israelis, is now a virtual ghost town with more than 70% of its homes damaged or destroyed.
Hezbollah has constructed military installations across Lebanon and has total control of its southern regions bordering Israel. It also controls the southern district of the capital Beirut, which has comprised one of the terrorist group’s strongholds for decades. Some of the military installations include long tunnels beneath Lebanese cities.
In a show of force, Hezbollah released propaganda videos last week showing the intricate web of tunnels that the commanders and fighters of Hezbollah possess. Lebanese citizens mocked the video and criticized its message.
“Solid infrastructure, clean roads, electricity, Hezbollah’s Lebanon underground looks more beautiful than Hezbollah’s Lebanon above ground. You are taking care of the General Secretary (Nasrallah)?” asked Lebanese journalist Mariam Magdoline in a video on Aug. 18. “What is this video, Hezbollah: Are you feeding Lebanon like a lamb and preparing it for slaughter in high-definition technology?”
“Frankly, not only are you sending the message that Beirut’s southern district is the target, your message says: No! All of Lebanon is a security square for us (Hezbollah); we live in the mountains, we plan to leave no safe place for the Lebanese people,” added Magdoline. “Hezbollah is increasing the videos these days; is it really that weak militarily to the extent that it is increasing the number of (propaganda) videos and conducting a psychological warfare accompanied by the holy Quran as if your actions are holy?”
Hezbollah militants have grown used to walking freely, armed in public areas and at events such as its recent show of power during a funeral in a Palestinian neighborhood in Lebanon. This matter has irked Lebanese civilians, who believe that Hezbollah is a state within a state in their country.
Hezbollah influence in Lebanon far exceeds that of a central caretaker government, especially in matters of security, as the militants maintain firm control, particularly in Southern Lebanon. Videos of Hezbollah militants threatening Lebanese security forces are all over the Internet. In one, two men force an entire police unit in the town of Kafrkahel to withdraw their car under the threat that a Hezbollah-affiliated militia of 3,000 soldiers will come to eliminate them. The officers were insulted by humiliating swear words and called “crusaders” for being Christian.
Even before the current war in Gaza, Hezbollah systematically paraded and flaunted its power publicly in Lebanon, including in Beirut. Last year, a video went viral that showed Hezbollah’s armored vehicles and heavy artillery batteries being paraded on trucks through the streets of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.
Lebanese politicians have also expressed their anger and fear of the reckless Hezbollah behavior that is pushing a battered Lebanon to a full-scale war, with the country forced to serve Iranian interests.
“Hezbollah doesn’t have the right to control the fate of the Lebanese as well as make crucial decisions that concern their destiny without their consent,” said veteran politician Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces Party in a press conference on Aug 16.
It is similar to remarks Geagea made last May in an interview with the Associated Press. “No one has the right to control the fate of a country and people on its own. Hezbollah is not the government in Lebanon. There is a government in Lebanon in which Hezbollah is represented.”
Lebanon was on the brink of total economic bankruptcy in April 2022 after its deputy prime minister, Saadeh Al-Shamy, declared the state and Central Bank of Lebanon bankrupt only to withdraw those statements hours later.
That said, the current dismal economic status of Lebanon is reflected in the total blackout that hit the country in August, affecting the entire country, including its airports and state institutions.
The Lebanese citizens now rely entirely on environmentally damaging and costly generators to power their homes, as the national grid is offline. Emergency gas and oil shipments are en route from Egypt and Algeria to rectify the dire situation.
In 2006, Hezbollah instigated a month-long war against Israel by killing four Israeli reservists and kidnapping two others from Israeli territory. Following its brazen aggression, the U.N. Security Council passed U.N. Resolution 1701, which calls for Hezbollah and all terrorist forces in Southern Lebanon to withdraw to the Litani River and for the area south of that to be free of any armed personnel, assets or weapons other than those of the Lebanese government and the United National Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Israel withdrew back to its border, but Hezbollah embedded thousands of armed terrorists right up to the Israeli border. They dug deep tunnels under the border to carry out terrorist operations to kill and kidnap Israelis (exactly as Hamas did on Oct. 7), and installed tens of thousands of rocket and missile launchers.
Lebanese parliament minister George Adwan expressed his disappointment with the weakness of the Lebanese state and the fact that its sovereignty has been hijacked by Hezbollah and Iran.
“There is a force outside the state that imposes on the state what it wants, and Lebanon is subject to a decision outside the homeland and the entity, so the decision of war and peace is not ours,” said Adwan on Aug. 24. He called upon Prime Minister Nagib Mikaty to redeploy the Lebanese army in the area bordering Israel to prevent the escalation of war, saying Mikaty “must unite the government and deploy the army on the border. The deployment of the army may prevent the expansion of the war and be an entry point for implementing Resolution 1701.”
“We all know that no homeland will remain, and no entity will continue without a capable, strong and a just state that solidifies its presence across the land. … And where is that state today? Today, the state is weak and vulnerable, and there is a force imposing on it what it wants,” Adwan wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that same day. “The government is powerless, and the presidency is empty. The state’s decision is absent and dominates the decision of war and peace. The fate of the nation and the citizens has become linked to the decision of others who do not consider Lebanon’s interest first and last.”
A caretaker leader, Mikati is vehemently conducting calls and meetings with foreign heads of states, ministers and diplomats in an attempt to contain an escalating situation that may lead to a full-scale war. However, Mikati ignores the elephant in the room, as the main problem facing Lebanon remains a domestic one which is Hezbollah’s de facto control over Lebanon.
Lebanon’s fate as a state is reliant upon extracting itself from the clutches of the terrorist—supporting Iran and its resident terrorist agents Hezbollah. Thus far, the presidency and government have shown no signs of facing Hezbollah’s never-ending ambitions, despite the human, economic and political costs incurred by the terror group’s actions in Lebanon.
