For a Shiite intifada against Hezb!

It is up to the Lebanese Shiites alone to disavow Hezbollah, to put an end to its hegemony and, consequently, to the Pasdaran's grip on our country *! The same scenario applies in Iran: no matter how much combined Israeli-American strikes pulverize Ali Larijani, his close guard and his repressive forces, only a citizen uprising can overthrow the tyranny of wilayat al-faqih. Astute observers will eventually admit it: there will be no resolution to the Persian tragedy, no solution to the Iranian crisis without a confrontation between compatriots, that is to say, without civil conflict.

So it is up to the peoples to assert their right to life!

Deliverance!

In our battered country, neither the Lebanese army, nor a good offices mission, nor civil war, nor Israeli bombings, nor the landing of Arab, Turkish or Western troops are able to sideline the “divine party.” It is because the latter reigns over minds that its bastion is impregnable and that its physical relocation would not be enough to eradicate it. Torn from its ancestral land, thrown onto the roads, parked in makeshift camps, its “nurturing environment” that served as its matrix remains attached, loyal, faithful, and committed to it. A despairing observation when only the Twelver community is empowered to invalidate the Hezb and get us out of the impasse in which we are struggling.

Is there a Twelver culpability?

But if Lebanon is bogged down, its institutions blocked, and its population victimized, would we therefore blame all Shiites? Let's admit that the Party of God, now a regional actor, had flattered their feelings of pride and a taste for bravado and risk. But in doing so, it would lead them into the dangers of widespread escalation and delusions of power.

Some exasperated minds would not hesitate to hold all Twelvers politically, if not criminally, responsible for the successive catastrophes befalling us. After all, Shiite voters have re-elected, from one legislature to the next, the same representatives to the National Assembly, just as they have approved the policies these representatives advocated at the suggestion of their Iranian mentors.

In this sense, our compatriots in the South, the Beqaa, and the suburbs did what they should not have done. And what's more, by remaining passive, they did not do what they had to do: what we expected of them as Lebanese who have the exclusive interests of our country at heart. On two occasions, namely October 8, 2023, and March 2, 2026, they could not curb the Hezb that stubbornly pursued the path of confrontation with Israel! But were they able to prevent these utterly fateful decisions, to name but a few? It will long be argued that the senseless excesses of the “divine party” were the work of a small group, not the fruit of a specific culture or the logical outcome of a religious ideology that binds a community.

Call for Mutiny and Incitement to “intifada”

At this precise moment, a ground incursion is believed to be imminent. Rather than letting the Israelis relentlessly pursue the Hezb and evacuate the population from South Lebanon, the Shiite ecosystem could take the initiative that would ensure its own deliverance. An immense outcry from the displaced, numbering a million people, can lead the over-armed militia that has taken Lebanon hostage to abandon its heroic illusions and picaresque ventures. And primarily, to disassociate itself from its Iranian masters. West Beirut had indeed “renounced” Yasser Arafat during its siege by the Israelis in 1982. The PLO had promised to turn our capital into a new Stalingrad. The intervention of Saëb Salam, speaking on behalf of the outraged population, put our Palestinian guests in their place: they were embarked on French ships bound for Tunisia.

That said, it is certainly not the waltz of hesitation, in which Nabih Berry engages, that will put an end to the self-immolation that continues before our eyes. Only an insurrection, only a grassroots movement, only demonstrations and sit-ins can force the hand of those who unduly monopolize power.

It is up to the Shiites to wrest the weapons from the Hezb ! It is up to them to take risks for freedom, theirs and ours!

* And as a reminder, the Christians rallied to state legitimacy in 1988-9, effectively rejecting the militias' stranglehold on the East zone!