As a Lebanese, I consider the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to be one of the happiest days in the history of my country. As a Middle Easterner and a human being who cares about peace, I see this as a transformative day.
For a while, I have observed that several voices in Quebec have sought to blame Israel for the assassination of Nasrallah and the beheading of the Hezbollah leadership team. I love Quebec, having visited it and given conferences there on numerous occasions. However, I would like to set the record straight: Nasrallah and his organization have been terrorizing the Lebanese people since the 1980s. They have been responsible for the continued collapse of my country as well as the oppression of my people.
My family paid the price. A Christian from South Lebanon, my family took a stand against Hezbollah’s influence by working with Israel to achieve peace between the two countries, as almost happened on May 17, 1983, before the agreement was canceled by the Lebanese government in March 1984.
It was Nasrallah himself who, on the podium, a few days before the withdrawal of the Israeli army from southern Lebanon in May 2000, declared that anyone who cooperated with Israel would be persecuted. Three options presented themselves to us.
The first was to “surrender ourselves to the Lebanese authorities” only to meet a disastrous fate in the hands of Hezbollah. The second was to flee to Israel. The third was, to use Nasrallah’s words, to end up “murdered while squeezing [notre] mother in [nos] arm “. We chose the second.
Life in South Lebanon and Lebanon as a whole has changed in the blink of an eye. Hezbollah members oppressed the opposition and imposed a way of life. And they were not limited to the south of the country.
Nasrallah is also responsible for the massacre of children, women and men elsewhere in the Middle East. It should be remembered that in addition to being the instrument of the regime of the Iranian mullahs, Hezbollah has been a key ally of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. The group supported by Iran helped al-Assad’s forces regain control of several crucial Syrian provinces, including Aleppo, and helped him maintain his grip on power despite internal opposition.
Nasrallah is also the tragedy of Madaya. Far too many Syrians remember his organization’s crimes. Out of respect for all these victims, let us avoid presenting him in a falsely neutral light to disguise his barbarity.
Hezbollah has degraded the situation in Lebanon to the point of making it even worse than that which prevailed during the civil war of the 1970s. The death of Nasrallah is a liberation for all Lebanese who want to see their homeland prosper, freed from the control of its organization and its masters in Tehran.
I understand that it is normal to want Israeli attacks to stop. But how could we not hope, as a Lebanese, that his assassination would allow a real change in the balance of power in the country?
The situation in Lebanon after the elimination of Nasrallah could radically change. There are fears of an uprising by Hezbollah supporters against sectors that have publicly opposed their organization in recent years. The Lebanese army is still unable to exercise full control of the country and its military capabilities are inferior to those of Hezbollah, even today as it controls the southern region of Lebanon, the Plain of Bekaa and certain areas of Beirut.
While Israel has just begun a limited operation in the south of the country, the void left by Nasrallah will soon be filled. But by whom?
It is certain that it must not be done by Nasrallah’s successors or other groups who would have an interest in maintaining an outbreak that will soon get out of control. This void must be filled by those who care about Lebanon and the strength of its nation.
The cedar country deserves at least that.