Hezbollah is facing a new challenge, and this time it is not a military one, but rather political. Perhaps few countries need peaceful “popular revolutions” more than Lebanon does. In my simplistic way of thinking, Lebanon should actually be on the top of the list; followed by the USA. Corruption in Lebanon is endemic. Its…
At the end of August, the Lebanese organisation Hezbollah fired two rockets at an Israeli armoured personnel carrier at the border. Several Israeli soldiers were injured. In response, Israeli troops fired on Lebanese territory adjacent to the border. The shells fell on bare ground, without causing harm to people or nearby buildings. Hezbollah chalked up…
Over the years, researchers have copied and parroted inaccurate declassified US intelligence reports on Hezbollah’s sources of income around the world. These documents claim Hezbollah lives off selling smuggled cigarettes and illegally copied CDs or on income generated by selling drugs in Latin America and around the world. The US also accuses Hezbollah of profiting…
Every Israeli prime minister – not least Benjamin Netanyahu – understands that a military entanglement with Hezbollah, Lebanon’s armed Shia movement on Israel’s northern border, is a dangerous wager, especially during an election campaign. It was Shimon Peres who lost to Netanyahu in 1996, weeks after the former prime minister had incensed Israel’s Palestinian minority…
There are rare moments in history, when even the most determined enemies can suddenly recognize the futility of battle. Sometimes, just for a moment or two. Sometimes, for longer. Such moments of sanity may save thousands, even millions human lives. And, such moments are not expressions of weakness or cowardice; on the contrary; they are…
Hezbollah is preparing to down an Israeli drone in the coming days, after leaving time for Israeli politicians and media to increase their criticism and attacks on Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, accused of undermining Israel’s vital deterrence strategy in force since 1955. The Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has decided to make his…
