Will killing Nasrallah kill the resistance?
JVL Introduction
The assassination of Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has shocked many in the Arab world. He was not always popular and was certainly wrong for his full support for Bashir Al-Assad; indeed, he “had many critics and opponents in Lebanon and in the Arab and Islamic world, but he was largely viewed as the vanguard of the resistance against Israel.” The article notes that Israel has killed Hezbollah leaders before and new ones take their place as militant – or more – than the leader who went before.
The question is what next? We are seeing Israel’s dramatic escalation in Lebanon; the death of Nasrallah has not led to any easing up of the bombardments of the south of Lebanon or of Beirut, let alone of Gaza. It may well take time, given also the near destruction of Hezbollah’s communication system, for the organisation to replace Nasrallah but if Israel is hoping that resistance in Lebanon to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians or Israel’s threats to people in Lebanon will end, they would be mistaken. Nasrallah’s influence was strong because he was seen as always standing up to Israel and to the USA as well.
LL
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sun 29 Sep 2024. Read the original here.
Shockwaves From Nasrallah's Killing Will Reverberate for Generations Across the Arab World
Nasrallah’s killing reaches far beyond Hezbollah’s military and political implications. It spans countries and communities throughout the Arab and Islamic world
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It’s Nasrallah, not Nasrullah, and no it wont.
thank you – will correct…
“While Hezbollah’s massive intervention in the Syrian civil war and his full support of the Bashar Assad regime damaged his image”
It might have damaged his image with US imperialism but without the support offered to Syria by Russia, Iran and irregular Lebanese and Iraqi forces, today it would be a failed state like Libya.
Why was his support of Assad bad, but self described leftists are still ok supporting Labour, despite the blood of about 1 million Iraqis on its hands ? You got the likes of Starmer speaking at the UN about the inhumanity of Putin, but he says nothing of his own party’s record. Seems like anything Arabs or non-Europeans do is judged as evil, but Euros get off the hook, so we got this terrible article from the more liberal Zionist rag calling Nasrallah into question, but no one wants to mention the massive blow to US and French imperialism his group were responsible for back in 83 or how they took on the iof in 2006.
Nasrallah had a better understanding of US global domination than does the person who criticised his support for Assad. Should Russia prevail in Ukraine against the expansion of NATO and the deliberately provoked conflict then the hand of the Palestinians will be greatly strengthened because the power of the USA (and UK) will be diminished. It’s all part of the same struggle. Don’t fall for western propaganda!!!
Israel attacked Lebanon in 1982 and 4000 people were killed in Sabra and Shantila massacre. Nasrallah came into leadership of Hezbollah and at that time it was simply a militia, he managed to build it into a much more powerful force with many political links and allies. There is no reason to expect Israel’s current actions, taking out Hezbollah leadership, that this will change much. Hezbollah is still in Lebanon regardless of 1982, or 1992 Israeli actions. However, you may now get a new leader of Hezbollah that is able to escalate their performance further, rather akin to the actions of Nasrallah. I think their strategic and political conduct may eventually surprise the one dimensional Netanyahu’s government…one of war, war and more war. The idea that concepts such as Hamas or Hezbollah can be eliminated has been proved erroneous, by Netanyahu’s own actions.
Some people seem to like it though:
Kemi Badenoch told Sky News: “I would be congratulating prime minister Netanyahu, I think what they did was extraordinary. Israel is showing that it has moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West as well.”
The article is right to criticise the Assad regime. We are all of us I would hope looking for a world in which human values prevail. What kind of socialism justifies one set of atrocities by pointing to the atrocities of its opponents. At the receiving end of both are suffering individuals.
Why is the article “right to criticise the Assad regime” Ruth Knox ? Thats all well and good, but the problem with the Western (self described) left and socialists, is that for all the talk of socialism, they love it when the West decides to overthrow any actually existing socialist/progressive leaders in other parts of the world – check out people like Paul Mason, Owen Jones and The Guardians fanboy behaviour regarding the bombing of Libya for example. Even people who go out and protest things like the Iraq war, including Jeremy Corbyn, will happily support the political party thats responsible, telling themselves that the problems the leader because their completely unable to accept its the other way around.
There are two possible outcomes of political assassinations. Either the political movement slows down and dies, or it gains strength as it feeds on the resulting anger and frustration. Killing Nasrallah, has to be viewed in the context of how Nasrallah became Nasrallah, how he organized a resistance and uplifted his people, the shia of Lebanon. Without this context, trying to understand the impact on regional by killing Nasrallah will be poorly understood. Hezbollah as an organization has shown resilience and have been very innovative, and same can be expected from them now in this confrontation with Israel and the west. It is safe to assume that Nasrallah must have groomed a successor to continue after him, what needs to be seen is whether this successor is more militant than Nasrallah or not. Hezbollah, is not going away any time soon, nor is its ability to resist Israel.