On the first anniversary of the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the former Secretary-General of Hezbollah, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, the party chose to defy a large portion of Lebanese society, challenge the Lebanese government’s decisions, and ignore mediation efforts. It gathered a massive crowd of supporters at the Raouché Rock, one of Lebanon’s most famous landmarks on Beirut’s seafront, and lit up the rock with the image of Nasrallah alongside his successor Hashem Safieddine, who was himself assassinated by Israel shortly after being appointed to replace him.
In a blatant challenge to the Lebanese government’s orders, Hezbollah acted as it wished, disregarding both popular and official opposition to this move, as well as the political and security consequences that could follow. The question here is: “Does this act truly justify such tension in a country already stretched to breaking point?”
It appears that it does, but not for the sake of honouring their “legendary leader.” Rather, the insistence on projecting Nasrallah’s image on Raouché Rock is clear proof of political bankruptcy rarely seen in Lebanon, apart from parties wiped out by the civil war such as the Sunni Nasserist group al-Mourabitoun. After Hezbollah’s defeat in the “Support for Gaza” war against Israel, the party was weakened to the point where its only remaining options are to provoke the Lebanese government, seen as the weakest actor on the scene, or to inflame other sectarian groups.
Israel has effectively ended the myth of the “crown jewel of the resistance axis,” the claim of being the “strongest regional player in the Shia Crescent,” and the illusion of “resistance.” Today, challenging Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has become Hezbollah’s only outlet. Needless to say, the party has no intention of handing over its weapons to the Lebanese state, despite being militarily defeated and internally fractured. Its leadership, and the community it drags along, lives in a state of denial, political as well as social, that drives it towards pointless defiance and reckless violence. Its constant threats of civil war are evidence of this.
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Following the turn taken by Hezbollah’s new Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, who recently hinted at opening a new page with Saudi Arabia, the party’s defiance of Lebanese government decisions seems to be the only available tool to rally its Shia base. A growing number of the Shia elite are drifting away, accusing Hezbollah of dragging both their community and Lebanon into destructive conflicts for the sake of Iran’s regional agenda.
What is truly visible today is that this defiance is the party’s “Utmost.” Hezbollah can no longer carry out the kinds of confrontations it once threatened. Projecting Nasrallah’s image onto Raouché Rock is a trivial act, yet the party portrays it as if it were an achievement equal to controlling Lebanon; something it once did, but those days are now gone for good.
It should be recalled that this projection of Nasrallah and Safieddine’s images on Raouché Rock stirred heated controversy in Lebanon over the past few days. MPs representing Beirut, mostly Sunni, strongly rejected it, viewing it as a provocation and a reminder of Hezbollah’s armed assault on Beirut on 8 May 2008, when its fighters stormed Sunni neighbourhoods in a military operation that Nasrallah later called the “Glorious Day.”
Prime Minister Salam issued a decree prohibiting the use of public spaces for any occasion without official authorisation and assigned security forces to enforce it. Mediation efforts with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hezbollah’s Shiite ally, produced a compromise: the party would be allowed to hold its gathering but would be barred from projecting Nasrallah’s image on Raouché Rock. Hezbollah ignored the deal.
Lebanon is now open to all possibilities. Israel could interpret the image of Nasrallah on Raouché as proof of Hezbollah’s dominance over the state. Should that happen, the American envoy Thomas Barrack’s mediation efforts would collapse under an irrefutable excuse: Lebanon’s government is too weak to restrain Hezbollah. Would that not be reason enough for Israel to return to the language of war?
