Where Does Hezbollah Go From Here?

In light of the recent fall of the Assad government in Syria, and the recent announcement that the Zionists will occupy southern Lebanon, it is time to re-evaluate the situation in the Levant and what this means for Hezbollah.

It is vital to understand just what Hezbollah is. Despite the insistence of Zionists both foreign and domestic, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization. They are not a mere militia, nor are they just a political party. They are a holistic socio-political movement, While their army is vital to Hezbollah, the army draws it’s support from the people. The socio-political side of Hezbollah is vital to winning the popular support necessary for the armed wing to exist.

Their strategy is to build dual power, both inside and outside the government, and to take over the tasks that the Lebanese government has abandoned. As they grow, they will naturally take on more responsibility until such a time as they simply replace the state. They are active in politics at all levels and their responsibilities often include things like managing municipal services for cities and towns all over Lebanon, but they also provide a vast network of services ranging from from agricultural co-ops and non-profit Islamic banks banks to schools and news networks. All of this vital infrastructure was badly degraded by the Zionist attacks.

To give an example of the sheer scale of damage, the Lebanese press outlet Al-Akbar reported that a whopping 43,750 civilian buildings were destroyed by the Zionists and 317,500 were damaged.

While many of those were destroyed by direct fighting or through airstrikes, the IOF marauders have systematically demolished buildings with little regard for their status. Seeking to deny Hezbollah any possible fighting positions in a future war, they have demolished any building they deem to be militarily useful, a term so broad it can apply to nearly everything. According to the UN Peacekeepers, the deliberate and direct destruction by Israeli army constitutes a flagrant violation of Resolution 1701 and international law.

Entire towns near the border have been razed to the ground, and even in cities south of the Litani river the practice is so widespread that Zionist bandits film themselves rigging homes to explode. The Zionists could not touch these homes while Hezbollah defended them, but now the cowards gleefully film the detonations for internet memes.

At a time when Hezbollah lacks liquidity and their supporters in Iran are facing a general economic crisis, it will take many years to fully rebuild Lebanon. Still, Hezbollah remains the only force in Lebanon willing to try, which will be vital towards rebuilding the organization going forward. Hezbollah is already disbursing funds to those who lost property to Zionist aggression, and efforts to clear out the rubble are ongoing.

Of course, Hezbollah’s losses were more than just material. Between the pager attacks and the Zionist assassination campaign, thousands of their best and most experienced members are dead and many more are maimed. Their top leadership, under the overall command of Hassan Nasrallah was devastated by targeted assassinations, and their replacements were often killed just as quickly.

Almost immediately after the ceasefire, Jihadi forces under the leadership of Abu Mohammad al-Julani launched a general offensive in Syria, with the full backing of Turkey, the Zionist entity and, of course, the United States, without whom neither would be capable of operating. Syria collapsed at a shocking pace, and Assad has fled to Russia.

While much can be said about the situation in Syria, it undoubtedly constitutes a major defeat for Hezbollah, Iran and the resistance axis. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise. Syria was a pillar of the resistance, and a major theater of it’s operations. Beyond the considerable arsenal of weapons stored there, Syria was also the primary transit route for Iranian made weapons into Lebanon and the hands of Hezbollah. To secure their flanks and vital supply lines, Hezbollah infantry fought and died alongside the SAA, and they were one of the most reliable and effective forces in the entire civil war.

The experience gained fighting in Syria came at a cost, but it proved instrumental to defeating the IOF on the battlefields of Lebanon. Hezbollah is not a militia like the resistance in Gaza, they are an army every bit the IOF’s equal in training and discipline. At cities like Khiam, Hezbollah infantry held the line for over a week, repelling all attacks from the IOF even as they suffered constant artillery and air bombardment. The city was surrounded on three sides and attacked repeatedly with both armor and infantry, none of which could break the defenders.

Khiam was a key city for the defense of Lebanon, and like so much of the country it has a long history. During the civil war which raged from the late 1970s until the Zionist withdrawal in 2000, Khiam was the home to a prison where the Zionists and their proxies in the far right South Lebanon Army mercilessly tortured Lebanese resistance fighters, dissidents and anyone who got in their way or refused to collaborate. Despite widespread international condemnation, the Zionist terrorists operated with the absolute impunity that they are used to. Their patrons in Washington vetoed all efforts to hold them accountable.

“The torturers had just left but the horror remained. There was the whipping pole and the window grilles where prisoners were tied naked for days, freezing water thrown over them at night. Then there were the electric leads for the little dynamo — the machine mercifully taken off to Israel by the interrogators — which had the inmates shrieking with pain when the electrodes touched their fingers or penises. And there were the handcuffs which an ex-prisoner handed to me yesterday afternoon.

Engraved into the steel were the words: "The Peerless Handcuff Co. Springfield, Mass. Made in USA." And I wondered, in Israel's most shameful prison, if the executives over in Springfield knew what they were doing when they sold these manacles.

They were used over years to bind the arms of prisoners before interrogation. And they wore them, day and night, as they were kicked — kicked so badly in Sulieman Ramadan's case that they later had to amputate his arm. Another prisoner was so badly beaten, he lost the use of a leg. I found his crutch in Khiam prison yesterday, along with piles of Red Cross letters from prisoners — letters which the guards from Israel's now-defunct "South Lebanon Army" militia never bothered to forward.

What is it that makes men do things like this? The prisoners — thousands of them over the two decades of Khiam's existence — included guerrillas, relatives of gunmen, civilians by the dozen whose crime was innocence, who would not collaborate with the Israelis or the SLA, who refused to join the murderous little militia, who declined to give the Israelis information about the Lebanese army.- British Journalist Robert Fisk