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Source: https://english.alarabiya.net/views/2026/09/07/after-ali-altahir
After the Fall of Hizbullah's Ali al-Tahir Stronghold
(Al Arabiya) Makram Rabah - The fall of Hizbullah's Ali al-Tahir stronghold shows that Hizbullah has learned how to dig deeper without learning how to think smarter. For Hizbullah, a destroyed village can become evidence of steadfastness, a dead commander proof of sacrifice, and a lost hill the opening chapter of another legend. Reality is never allowed to invalidate the project. It is simply edited until defeat can be presented as endurance. Ali al-Tahir exposes the bankruptcy of this thinking. Underground fortifications may delay an advancing army but they cannot repair an organization's intelligence failures, replace a coherent strategy or change the balance of power. A tunnel is not useful to a society whose homes, institutions and economy are being consumed by its supposed protection. Hizbullah preferred to see the position stormed and ultimately taken by the Israeli army rather than hand it over to the Lebanese Army. The Lebanese Army is not viewed as the natural custodian of Lebanese territory but as a competitor to Hizbullah's armed autonomy. The Lebanese state remains the institution Hizbullah cannot afford to allow to succeed. The people living above the tunnel become an inconvenience to be managed, then an audience to be instructed in the virtues of sacrifice. The central deception of Hizbullah's relationship with its public was the promise that Iranian power would protect them. The reality is the reverse: Lebanon is expected to bleed so that Iran retains something with which to bargain.