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Why Hizbullah Will Go Down Fighting
(Telegraph-UK) Paul Nuki - All over Lebanon there are villages where Hizbullah's patronage, guns and narrative of "resistance" continue to hold sway. It is the same in Dahiyeh, the group's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Yet Hizbullah does not represent all of Lebanon. Shia Muslims make up a third of the six million population and most have nothing to do with the group. Its decision to enter the war explicitly on behalf of its spiritual and financial backers in Tehran has exacerbated sectarian divides. Julien Barnes-Darcy, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, says Hizbullah is no longer fighting from a position of strength, but from the realization that its existence is threatened. "You've got Israel squeezing from the outside [and] a strong segment of the population within Lebanon who see both a need and potentially an opportunity to finally cut Hizbullah down to size." "Hizbullah's situation, in a sense, mirrors Iran's wider position. For both of them, this is seen through an existential lens. It's seen as a moment of truth, and if they are unable to put up a meaningful fight, then others are going to go for the jugular and look to finally get rid of them." Nicholas Blanford, who has documented Hizbullah's rise to become the world's most powerful non-state army, said, "The guys doing the fighting, I don't think they care one way or the other about the Iranians. They see this as part of their jihadi struggle against the Israelis. They've gone into this battle highly motivated. They've been itching to get back into the scrap with the Israelis." But "I hear this a lot from Shias who have had to evacuate Dahiyeh or come from the south. You know, they are saying, 'this is ridiculous. We're already suffering now. They've just made things even worse. Enough! We've had it with Hizbullah'."