Artículos

The text that follows is long, but it forms a whole that would be artificial to divide. We hope the reader will forgive us. Born of the high-school protests in France, it takes these events as the starting point for a broader reflection on society, the world, political life and the future of generations to come. It does not claim to offer definitive answers but seeks, above all and with humility, to raise questions, prompt further inquiry and encourage reflection. “You who build the altars now to sacrifice your children, you must not do it any more.” In 1969, among the songs on his second album, Songs from a Room , Canadian poet Leonard Cohen offered the world Story of Isaac , a song inspired by the biblical account of Isaac, whom Abraham prepares to sacrifice in obedience to the divine will.

If some political and media voices within the camp that once prided itself on calling itself the “axis of defiance” are unconcerned by the destruction of yet more villages as they brandish irresponsible, demagogic slogans, other voices on the opposite side are no less reckless in their hasty calls for peace and normalization. Indifferent to the occupation of more than sixty villages in southern Lebanon, they rush toward any ill-considered initiative simply to condemn the irresponsible conduct that dragged Lebanon into war! Between irresponsible defiance and surrender at any cost, the country falls prey to hollow demagogic posturing. One side is prepared to bring about further destruction under slogans that the latest war has rendered obsolete. The other is prepared to retell history, from the civil war to the present, through the prism of right and wrong, and use that interpretation to promote an impossible peace and a normalization whose time has not come.

This series of articles offers a better understanding of the current situation in light of the past, steering clear of impassioned, ideological or romantic narratives that overlook realities and leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. The nineteen previous installments revisited the events surrounding Hezbollah’s rise to power, from the Taif Agreement to the Baabda Declaration and its massive military intervention in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. President Michel Sleiman, setting aside the March 8 camp’s repudiation of the Baabda Declaration, asked members of the National Dialogue Committee to prepare a draft text for a national defense policy, with the long-term aim of establishing a state monopoly on the use of arms.

Explosives seized from a car that Hezbollah proudly claims as its own, a Lebanese ambassador targeted for “contact with the enemy” even though her government had asked her to open talks with Israel… These were among the reasons that prompted the United States to intervene directly over the weekend to express its dissatisfaction and press Lebanon to act. After Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah’s remarks on Thursday, in which he not only openly acknowledged responsibility for and ownership of the explosives—seized more than ten days earlier from a car traveling from the Bekaa Valley to Beirut—but also demanded their return to his party, several voices spoke out to highlight the absurdity of the situation.

It is striking that, amid the attacks launched by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia from Yemeni territory, so many people fail to mention Iran or what the “Islamic Republic” is doing on the ground. The apparent aim is to obscure who is responsible, as though there could be such a thing as the Houthis without Iran’s “Revolutionary Guards”… or as though the point were to ignore Yemen’s transformation into a “theatre of Iranian influence”, much as Lebanon was before 2023. Tehran has made no secret, particularly since it took control of Sanaa on September 21, 2014, of the fact that it had come to control four Arab capitals: Sanaa, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. Tehran still controls Sanaa and Baghdad today. It has lost Damascus for good, but is fighting to maintain its foothold in Beirut by terrorizing the Lebanese. Hezbollah uses its weapons, including the explosives it employed in the recent past to carry out assassinations. These range from the attempted assassination of Marwan Hamadeh to the assassination of Lokman Slim, including the killings of Rafik Hariri and his companions, Samir Kassir, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Wissam al-Hassan and other honorable Lebanese…

Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah party acknowledged Thursday, through its lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, that the half-ton shipment of explosives seized last week by Lebanese authorities belonged to it, saying the explosives were intended for the “resistance” against Israel… Fadlallah added that Hezbollah had demanded “the immediate release of those detained” and “the return of the vehicle and its contents,” because these were “capabilities” the party uses against Israel. While such an admission is rare in itself, it also represents a fresh challenge to the Lebanese state, which is mobilizing its forces to end the presence of armed organizations beyond its control. In the name of “resistance” to Israel, Hezbollah has dragged the country into several destructive wars with Israel and opposes the authorities' decision to disarm it.