Nasrallah’s Decline

The war in Syria will bring an end to the career of two prominent leaders in the Middle East. The first, that of President Bashar Assad, will end quickly, maybe even by sword or a lynching in the public square of Damascus. The second will be slower, but even now one can say that Hizbullah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has ended his role in history.

It could be that with Iranian support, the crafty Nasrallah will be able to remain in his position in an official capacity for a while longer, but he will never achieve his main goal of becoming a pan-Lebanese and pan-Arab leader. The man who was known as Israel’s primary strategic adversary buried his accomplishments with his own hands and brought the Shiite dream in Lebanon to an end.

And his accomplishments were many. Even before we did, Nasrallah understood the Israeli sensitivity to civilian life, the vulnerability of the home front and the disproportionate attitude towards the captives and the missing in action. He based his war doctrine on a long war of attrition coupled by a threatening balance of terror. Thanks to his understanding of Israel, he successfully drove the IDF out of Lebanon in 2000 and later declared victory in 2006.

Nasrallah inherited two hats from his predecessor, Sheikh Abbas Musawi. One was the Secretary General of the organization, the other was that of the representative of the Iranian spiritual ruler in Lebanon. Musawi focused on the second hat and tried to create an alternative, differentiated mechanism for the Shiites in Lebanon, one that would encompass all areas of life: education and culture, society, health, welfare, the economy and even building a military force.

Nasrallah skillfully danced at two weddings, receiving military and financial support from Iran and also becoming the leader of everyone. For example, he instructed his men not to settle scores with the South Lebanese Army and treated the Christians with respect and generosity. He made a tremendous effort to free Samir Kuntar, a Druze who didn’t act on his orders at all, from an Israeli prison.

For many years public opinion polls found that Nasrallah was the most popular Arab leader. He was a man who meant what he said, who wasn’t corrupt like the oil sultans and tyrants, and who defied Israel and could stand up to it. He became a symbol of the new politics in the Middle East, speaking equally to all, no whitewashing, no evasion, ready to admit mistakes, with a hint of humor and a dash of sarcasm, using every means of communication available in the Internet age.

And then came the war in Syria.

Nasrallah would certainly be happy to give up the past two years, in the course of which he came to the defense of his friend in Damascus-willingly or unwillingly so. If Nasrallah initially believed that Assad’s regime might yet be saved, he has since been disabused of that belief for some time. Nevertheless, he fully obeyed Tehran’s instructions and sent thousands of his best troops to help the Alawite regime.

Israel couldn’t have hoped for a greater miracle. The war has not only caused the strongest army facing it to crumble and seriously eroded Hizbullah’s operational strength, but it has rent Nasrallah’s image asunder entirely. The man who justified Hizbullah’s remaining an armed force in Lebanon in order to fight Israel is sending his troops to aid a bloodthirsty regime’s slaughter of Sunnis.

Nasrallah’s embarrassment at the death of his troops in Syria was so great that he has ordered that they be buried at night, with no ceremonies. From here, it’s a short path to entanglement in lies, whitewashing, political assassinations, official corruption and all the other so-familiar systems from the region’s old politics.

Nasrallah dreamed of taking over Lebanon and turning it into a religious state that was based on its Shiite majority, but that also cared for the welfare of all its citizens. Instead, he will finish his position as an Iranian puppet, a liar, a man who looks out only for the narrow interests of a small group that aids a bloodthirsty tyrant slaughtering his fellow people.