The Lebanese People Are Fed Up With Hezbollah
It's time to support the militia's domestic opponents.
Field Report
In Lebanon, Seething Resentment at Iran’s Top Proxy
As war looms between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanese want Hezbollah disarmed — but without international support, they’re powerless.
The Lebanese toll of Hezbollah’s ongoing military escalation with Israel includes hundreds dead, more than 95,000 inhabitants of southern Lebanon displaced, and a new, massive blow to the country's already failing economy: the near collapse of its tourism sector. (Watch CPC’s interviews with the affected parties in the video report from Lebanon above.)
“Nearly all bookings in Lebanon — by individuals, tour groups, and expos — have been canceled, so no one is showing up,” explained Pierre Ashqar, Vice President of the Lebanese Tourism Federation. Tourism revenues, vital to Lebanon’s battered economy, are down 95 percent this year.
“It’s all because of Hezbollah,” added Charles Jabbur, spokesman for the Lebanese Forces, a predominantly Christian opposition party. “They decided to go to war at the behest of Iran. They’re implementing an Iranian agenda with no connection to the Lebanese.”
Jabbur expressed frustration, pervasive among Lebanese, that the heavily armed militia functions as a state within a state, making unilateral decisions to the country’s detriment, while the government lacks the power to restrain it. “What right does Hezbollah have to go to war without consulting the government, the state, or other groups within Lebanon?” he asked.
This view extends to all the country’s sects — even Lebanese Shi’a, whom Hezbollah claims as its constituency. A recent poll by the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar found that over two thirds of the population, including half of all Shi’a, oppose Hezbollah’s military escalation with Israel. As we previously reported, some independently minded Shi’a have founded a civic organization, Taharror, to protest the war.
In Washington and elsewhere, advocates of accommodation with Tehran have long argued against supporting local opponents of Iran-backed militias in Arab lands, claiming there is no meaningful opposition to support. In Gaza, this view led to the abandonment of brave dissidents who sought to unseat Hamas through street demonstrations and activism. As local anger at Hezbollah approaches a boiling point, it behooves great powers — on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Arab region — to avoid making the same mistake in Lebanon.
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