“Lebanon is a country of freedoms.” So it is. So it should be. Today, Hezbollah is its guarantor of freedoms, guaranteeing its status as a “country of freedoms.”
That is what the party’s secretary-general, in his own way, said during his last speech (or has he given one since then?).
The rhetoric is reminiscent of what “founding fathers” said about the country they founded.
There are at least two reservations about this statement, and they stem from two experiences. One that has left a deep, permanent presence in our lives; the other, we once underwent, and it left repercussions and taught us important lessons.
We, the majority of Lebanese, have been deprived of the freedom to decide the kind of country we want. That is not a detail. The sanctity of weapons and that of the cause are two heavy constraints weighing on our freedom and on freedom in principle. For Lebanon to genuinely be a country of freedoms, the popularity of these weapons and this resistance must be put to the test: if they obtain the majority, let it be, otherwise let it not.
On the other hand, we remember that at the beginning of the Syrian revolution, its peaceful sympathizers, who chanted, sang and lit candles, were beaten and terrorized as punishment for that sympathy. I have borne witness to some of those acts myself. Those who were in charge of “disciplining us” at that time are the exact same people who want Lebanon to be a “country of freedoms” today. They are the same parties loyal to Bashar al-Assad and sponsored by Hassan Nasrallah.
The fact is that the purest democratic intentions are not sufficient, amid such a staggering situation, to stop freedoms themselves from staggering. In other words, liberating these freedoms from the implications of the current political conflict and its inevitable regional alliances is impossible, especially since Hezbollah has tightened the knot tying Lebanon to foreign conflicts and their axes. When the state is absent, as is the case currently, the strongest will manage to reap the benefits of this staggered freedom.
But going back to Nasrallah’s speech, it is nonetheless remarkable for those who, within 24 hours- between mid-Wednesday and mid-Thursday- were able (according to newspapers and news websites) to do the following:
- “A large brawl erupted between pro-Hezbollah students and Future Movement supporters outside the Lebanese University’s upper gate against the backdrop of an exhibition to commemorate the memory of “martyrs of the Islamic resistance’s leadership” organized by the party. Pictures of Imad Mughniyeh, Ragheb Harb and Mustafa Badreddine were raised. Students at the university reported hearing gunshots during the fight, but it is not clear who had fired them. That happened before the army intervened…” In all likelihood, the perpetrators were Future Movement supporters living in the university’s vicinity!
- “Hezbollah shared a video that observers and party loyalists described as unofficial depicting a combat unit training in the snow in an unspecified area at an altitude of 1,370 meters, in what is the latest chapter of the visual confrontation with Israel (...) In the party’s video, fighters waving its flag in white rather than the traditional yellow are depicted fighting and sledding. Some of them are shown praying with a Quran, which drew the attention of the Israeli media, including “The Jerusalem Post,” which said that the party’s alpine unit replicates Israeli soldiers soldiers with their white uniforms camouflaging them in the snow.”
- Hassan Nasrallah, in this same speech about freedoms, declared that his party has the capacity to turn missiles into precision missiles and that many of them have already been transformed, meaning the party no longer needs to transfer these missiles from Iran. And addressing the Israelis, the secretary-general said that he has not stored these missiles in one place, threatening to launch an “Ansarya 2.0”- by which he means the party is preparing an ambush targeting any Israeli commando force that could come to Lebanon in search of these missiles or to target these sites. He also focused on the drones it has in its possession, drones it has begun manufacturing in Lebanon.
How do we understand someone with all this military might and who does not cease to “humiliate the Israelis”, demanding “freedoms”, unless Interior minister Bassam Mawlawi is stronger than the Jewish state and its army!
The party that has seized a share of freedom that allows for manufacturing missiles is probably leaving Bassam Mawlawi enough freedom to serve two functions: the first is concealing the actual nature of the regime and the other is giving Hezbollah something to complain about and a way to play the victim, a role that is dear to its heart. By doing so, we are put face to face before the following equation: either Mr. Mawlawi or the freedoms. It thus becomes pressing to ask the minister to loosen his tight grip on our necks. Isn’t dismantling his might a requisite for Lebanon remaining a “country of freedoms?”
Kick and scream is Hezbollah’s strategic axiom. The kicking is serious. The screaming is an obnoxious joke.
