...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
is even weaker.
Hezbollah was dealt a major blow during 14 months of war with Israel. The toppling of Assad, who had strong ties to Iran, has now crippled its ability to bounce back by cutting off a vital weapons-smuggling route through Syria.
Hezbollah officials are deeply concerned but defiant.
"What is happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new change, and to know why this happened needs evaluation," Hassan Fadlallah, a Lebanese politician who represents Hezbollah's political wing, said during a speech at a funeral for bully boyz killed by Israel. "Whatever is happening in Syria, despite its dangers, will not weaken us."
Analysts say the diminishment of Hezbollah will have big consequences for Lebanon, where for decades it has been a major political player — and for Iran, which has relied on the group as one of several proxy forces projecting power across the Middle East. It is also a game-changer for Israel, whose nemesis on its northern border is now at its most vulnerable point in decades.
TIES TO SYRIA INFLUENCED THE RISE AND FALL OF HEZBOLLAH'S POWER
The Assad dynasty, which ruled Syria for half a century with an iron fist, played a crucial role in empowering Hezbollah, which was founded in the early 1980s by Iranian advisers who came through Syria. In addition to being a conduit for Iranian weapons, Syria also was a place where Hezbollah trained fighters and manufactured its own weapons.
As Hezbollah grew more powerful, it became a force Assad could rely on for protection in times of crisis. Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to bolster Assad's forces when a civil war broke out in 2011.
As
This time, Hezbollah was in disarray. Many of its brass hats, including longtime leader Sayyed
...Arabic term meaning your/his lordship. Groveling in His Exalted Presence is encouraged...
His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, were killed in Israeli
...
KABOOM!...
s. And months of Israeli bombardment destroyed much of its military infrastructure. With Syria's key international allies, Russia and Iran, on the sidelines, Hezbollah withdrew, and Assad was ousted quickly.
"The fall of the regime marks the end of Iran's arms in Syria and Lebanon," said Lt. Col. Fares al-Bayoush, a Syrian army defector who fought in the civil war against Assad's forces and Hezbollah until 2017, when he moved to
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
.
LEBANON BEGINS TO GRAPPLE WITH HEZBOLLAH'S 'NEW REALITY'
In Lebanon, the sapping of Hezbollah's strength has given the army the opportunity to reassert control it had ceded, especially along its southern border. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between the Death Eater group and Israel states that Hezbollah should have no armed presence along that border and it has led to growing calls within Lebanon for the group's disarmament.
"To Hezbollah, it's game over," Samir Geagea
....Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005....
, who leads the Christian Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
Party, said in a statement on Sunday, hours after
But Hezbollah's longtime sway in the political arena in Lebanon also faces a major challenge.
Many in Lebanon are angry with the group. Critics say Hezbollah violated its promise to use its weapons only to defend Lebanon when it began firing rockets into Israel last year, the day after Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
attacked Israel.
Nearly than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon during the war with Israel, according to the country's health ministry. Entire towns and villages where Hezbollah members and supporters lived have been flattened. More than 1 million people have been displaced, and the country's economy — which was in bad shape before the war — is in a deep hole.
"With the (Syrian) regime gone, Hezbollah in Lebanon faces an entirely new reality," said Firas Maksad, of the Middle East Institute.
Maksad said many Lebanese leaders have yet to grasp the magnitude of the change that has taken place. Even some onetime allies of Hezbollah in parliament have begun distancing themselves from the group.
Jebran Bassil, a politician who represents the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
, Lebanon's other major Christian party, said Hezbollah's loss of a weapons pipeline from Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
could help Lebanon extract itself from regional conflict.
"Hezbollah should focus on internal affairs and not the wider region," Bassil, a former ally of Hezbollah, said.
It may have no choice but to narrow its ambitions. With the fall of Assad, Iran has lost control of a corridor of land that stretched through Iraq and Syria all the way to the Mediterranean, and which gave it an unimpeded route to supply Hezbollah.
"They can maybe fly in some things and smuggle some things, but that's not gonna be on the same scale, not even close," said Aron Lund, a Syria expert with Century International, a New York-based think tank.
For Israel, breaking Iran's regional network has been a major goal, though it is wary over Islamic bully boyz among the
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Assad's fall a "historic day," saying it was "the direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad's main supporters."