The mask is off: Lebanon is Hezbollah

“Lebanon” has not existed for quite some time. The country’s agenda is dictated by Tehran, and its military and economy are designed to serve the needs of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, ISRAEL HAYOM

I have some news for my readers: there has been no state of Lebanon for some time now. The entity to the north of us is nothing but a mask covering up the bitter reality – the state is a state of Hezbollah, and its ruler is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Its agenda is dictated by Tehran, Hezbollah’s army is stronger than the official Lebanese army, and the economy is designed to serve Nasrallah’s goals.

The Lebanese parliament, government, president, and all other state institutions are nothing more than a façade for players directed by Nasrallah, who also decides on what they will be paid for “good behavior” and whether his collaborators can collect favors from the corruption that is running rampant.

The public is well aware of the situation and is furious about it. Two weeks ago, the people took to the streets to protest “corruption” and demand that the government resign. The unifying slogan has been “Everyone – as in, everyone,” meaning – get rid of all the ministers because they are all corrupt, including the ministers that Hezbollah has placed in the government.

Nasrallah and his Iranian sponsors are afraid that the mask will fall off, break, and expose the country’s true face – which is the face of Hezbollah – to the world at large. If that happens, the world will stop selling weapons to the Lebanese army (“We have to strengthen the Lebanese army for the challenges facing it,” say French weapons manufacturers and others) and stop lending the country money that just goes to support the thieving regime Hezbollah has put in place.

In a speech last Friday that lasted over an hour, Nasrallah warned the citizens of Lebanon against anarchy, warning that if the protests got out of control, they would meet “active intervention” (meaning, the forcible dispersal of the protests) by members of the “resistance” (Hezbollah).

On Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned, along with the rest of the government, including Hezbollah ministers – meaning the demonstrators’ first demand has been met. Their second demand is to appoint a government of non-party-affiliated experts to run the country. It appears that Nasrallah won’t object to the idea, if only to keep his mask on. He will, however, make sure that the “experts” will do what he tells them to. That way, he can play for time, but the public could take to the streets again if they realize they were fooled.

Hariri’s resignation and the fall of the government is the first crack in the mask, and Nasrallah will now hunker down and start working assiduously to breathe life into state institutions so they resume functioning and keep supplying him with cover like they did in the past. He doesn’t have an easy task ahead of him, because the protesters are as sick of Nasrallah as they are of his corrupt lackeys.

The sense of togetherness that has blossomed in the nation’s squares, the “festival” that has gone on for two weeks already, the major role the women of Lebanon are playing in the protests, and the national flags with their stylized cedar trees and the slogans being shouted are all signs that the genie is out of the bottle, and at this stage is refusing to go back in. If, heaven forbid, a few dozen of the protesters were killed, it might be the final nail in the coffin. Or it might not. Nasrallah is sweating bullets, that’s for sure.