Lebanese Shi'ites Take a Stand Against Hezbollah
Lebanese Shi’ites organize against Hezbollah, Hamas frees a dissident Muslim cleric, and calls to de-radicalize Gaza face an acid test.
Not in the Headlines
Hamas is attempting to reconstitute its civilian police force in Gaza City. Intermittent reports for over a month suggest this has been happening even amid IDF operations. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government praises U.S. for re-designating the Houthis a terror group. They called on other countries to follow suit. A new poll by the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar shows nearly 70 percent of Lebanese oppose entering the war with Israel. Even among Hezbollah’s Shi’ite constituency, half reject war.
Faces of Courage
Lebanese Shi’ites take a stand against Hezbollah.
Lebanese street demonstrations before a Hezbollah crackdown, 2019.
Nine days after October 7th, Lebanese Shi’ites launched a new organization to counter Hezbollah. “Taharror”—Arabic for liberation—opposes war with Israel on grounds it “serves Iran’s strategy and agenda in the Arab world at the cost of destroying Lebanon,” and advocates “modernity and a liberal system” instead of Hezbollah domination.
At the group’s founding event in Beirut’s Smallville Hotel, speakers called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon to end Hezbollah-Israel fighting. While clashes escalated along the border, Taharror waged grassroots events in Shi’ite areas and made its case on Lebanese TV and social media.
Who’s behind this gutsy venture? Shi’ite veterans of the nationwide 2019 street demonstrations, which met a brutal Hezbollah-led crackdown. Taharror co-founder Ali Khalife is a professor at Lebanese University and one-time candidate for parliament. Another co-founder, physician Hadi Mourad, spearheaded the “White Coats Organization,” which blasts Hezbollah elites for presiding over a failed healthcare system.
Taking on the world’s leading terror organization is a tall order. But these scrappy activists enter the ring with an advantage: the support of most Lebanese citizens. According to Hanin Ghaddar, senior Lebanon analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “Taharror has gained considerable visibility and support from Shi’ites and Lebanese generally for the simple reason that they are saying publicly what every Shi’ite says in private: no one wants war, and the Lebanese cannot afford another confrontation with Israel.”
Comment
Lebanon was once the Switzerland of the Middle East. Can its people reclaim that legacy?
Lebanese Shi’ites who take a stand against Hezbollah are hardly in it for wealth or fame. They stand for a tradition dating back to Lebanon’s founding: neutrality.
Before Hezbollah, generations of Lebanese leaders maintained a neutral posture in regional affairs, making the country a capital of commerce and communication and earning Lebanon the moniker, “Switzerland of the Middle East.” Today, Lebanon is the opposite of neutral; it’s a central front in Iran’s war on Israel. But neutrality endures as a rallying cry for the many Lebanese who do not want to be a party to that conflict.
In April 2022, Lebanese of every sect convened to demand their country restore its posture of neutrality. Addressing a live TV audience, they called on Hezbollah to disarm — and let the Lebanese government alone decide on war and peace while the population reopens to all its neighbors, including Israelis.
The people who made this case lack wealthy patrons, a military arsenal, and a propaganda machine — but most Lebanese agree with them. Hezbollah depends on money and weapons for the simple reason that its own ideology is bankrupt. In a fair competition with Lebanon’s peace camp, it would lose. The question is, what can be done to level the playing field?
Insider’s Glimpse
The Gazan imam kidnapped by Hamas was freed. A turning point, or an exception to prove the rule?
On January 4th, we revealed in the Free Press that Hamas had abducted Mohammed Mushtaha, a Gaza City imam who refused to give a sermon praising Hamas.
Last week, we confirmed that Mushtaha was released from captivity two days after the Free Press article ran. The story went viral, with many Palestinians demanding his release. According to Palestinian affairs expert Ghaith al-Omari, “Hamas appears to have decided that the political cost of holding him captive was too great.”
More brave figures like Mushtaha will be essential to defeating Hamas ideologically – but will they step up while Hamas is still in a position to harm them?
Recent developments raise the concern that no arrangement to protect such people will be forthcoming. On his latest visit to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken eschewed any reference to dismantling Hamas as a U.S.-backed war aim, defining the goal Washington supports more narrowly as “ensuring that October 7 can never happen again.” Hamas, meanwhile, is reportedly attempting to reconstitute its repressive security apparatus in parts of Gaza City.
If Hamas retains the power to govern in Gaza, it will teach a new generation to idealize October 7th, strive to perpetrate worse, and oppress the Gazan population indefinitely. Though we feel gratified to have helped secure Mohammed Mushtaha’s release, we fear that no system is emerging to put the extraordinary courage he and others have shown to good use.
Quoted
The day will come for the despot to pay. — Lebanese proverb
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