Three questions to Leila Ghanem on the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah

Interview by Robin Delobel of Investigaction.net with Leila Ghanem. Translation of this guest commentary by John Catalinotto, Workers World managing editor.

September 30, 2024. Israel has been bombing Lebanon for over a week and on Friday evening [Sept. 27], killed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah. How is the population reacting? Union or division in the face of Israel’s bombardments? What are the possible consequences? We interviewed Leila Ghanem, an anthropologist living in Beirut. She is editor-in-chief of the magazine Bada’el, founder of the Tribunal of Conscience to judge Israeli war crimes in 2008 and coordinator of the Social Forum for Alternatives in the Middle East.

Robin Delobel: What is the feeling among the Lebanese population following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah?

Leila Ghanem: The assassination of the historic leader Hassan Nasrallah “Al-Sayyed” occurred in the midst of an incredible tumult of catastrophic events that befell the Hezbollah population with intense and simultaneous air strikes on South Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flooded into the capital in an apocalyptic atmosphere, 250,000 in the first four days.

This figure has tripled by the time I reply to you, and it’s hard to keep my wits about me, under the bombs that are just hitting a few kilometers from my home in the southern suburbs, with the deafening sounds of drones flying over the Lebanese capital day and night. I can also hear the echoes of prayers and recitals of the Koran being held all over West Beirut for the repose of Al-Sayyed’s soul.

The population has yet to react, still reeling from the terrible shock caused by the series of attacks that followed: the beeper operation that wounded 4,000 people, the walkie-talkies, the assassination of the leadership of the Aradwan command and the fateful day of September 23, which left 600 people dead in a single day. If stupor and stagnation are the order of the day, there are cracks among the leader’s admirers, calling on him to return, some asking him to come back and take them with him.

One elderly woman, complaining of sleeping on the sidewalk for lack of shelter, told us that the Sayyed “will certainly return like the Mahdi (the expected prophet of the Shiites) to continue the liberation of Palestine.” We replied, “and your situation madam?” And she answered that her condition “remains better compared to that of the Gazans.” Her comments are now being broadcast on social networks.

It’s a time for sadness and reflection, but the reaction will come, and in any case nothing will erase the charismatic leader from the minds of millions of people in Lebanon and in the Arab-Muslim world, indeed from the world over.

For the Shiite population, Nasrallah is a sacred figure comparable to Husayn Ibn Ali, the son of the dignitary Ali Bin-Abi-Taleb, philosopher and fourth Khalifa, assassinated at Karbala (680 CE) like his father Ali, murdered because he refused to allow the rising class of princes to legislate “private property” and control of public money.

Nasrallah came from a poor southern family and grew up in a working-class district of East Beirut, where he was a friend of the underprivileged and of just causes. He dedicated his life to Palestine. Now that he has been martyred, his words resonate even more powerfully. He will be more than an icon; he will be an identity anchored in people’s minds.

For the radical left that has remained loyal to the Bolshevik positions expressed at the Baku Congress for the Peoples of the East [September 1920], Nasrallah, as an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist fighter, is a Liberator, the equivalent of a Võ Nguyên Giáp, a Ché Guevara or a Hô Chi Minh. He is one of the latest weapons raised against imperialism. I hope he won’t be the last.

RD: Are Lebanese politicians united against Israel?

LG: No, the political class is not united against Israel. The civil war that broke out in Lebanon in 1975 and lasted almost two decades was aimed at disarming the Palestinians and driving them out of Lebanon. This led, after an Israeli-U,S, intervention in 1982, to the defeat of the progressive forces and the deportation of the Palestinian fighters and their leader Yasser Arafat to Tunis,

As with every defeat, this was followed by the massacre of the civilian population. This was the famous genocide of Sabra and Shatila, committed by the Lebanese Phalangists under Israeli protection. Béchir Gemayel, elected president under Israeli occupation, was assassinated for signing a peace treaty with the Zionist enemy. His brother Amin was deposed for the same reason.

The split in Lebanon’s political class is deeply rooted in history. It is rather structural, left as a legacy by the Sikes & Picot agreements that divided the Arab region between French and British imperialism at the end of the First World War. And then by the 1947 charter drawn up by France, which became Lebanon’s mandate after World War II, laying the foundations for a confessional system [divided by religious sect] based on economic gain.

The current rift in Lebanon is due to unprecedented economic and social pressure exerted by Western countries via financial institutions. It is undeniable that Lebanon is at the heart of the strategic battle being waged between the U.S. and Iran, which is engulfing several countries, including Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

International donors are now making their aid to Lebanon conditional on the disappearance or considerable weakening of Hezbollah. Lebanon is openly faced with two alternatives: Either disarm Hezbollah, or plunge into the darkness of economic bankruptcy accompanied by civil war (the fascist Lebanese Forces have a militia of 30,000 men armed and financed by the U.S. Embassy). This is a dilemma for a country (at least for a good majority of Lebanese citizens) that has experienced six Israeli wars in 25 years (1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2006).

Now in our seventh war, a large majority of Lebanese see Hezbollah as a resistance that liberated the country after 22 years of Israeli occupation, while a large proportion of the population believes that Hezbollah’s deterrent armament has prevented Israel’s repeated murderous attacks for 18 years. (The last legislative elections in Lebanon were held on two themes: 1. Do you support or oppose arming Hezbollah? and 2. the social question. Given the [close] results, it’s safe to say that the population is divided.)

These differences are not confessional, since Hezbollah has two major allies in Christian circles, former President Michel Aoun’s party and the Frangieh camp [Suleiman Frangieh was president of Lebanon, 1970-76]. These political parties, in addition to the head of the Druze of Mount Lebanon, have announced their mourning [for Nasrallah].

It should be pointed out that the entire Lebanese population welcomed the refugees from the South with open arms, solidarity was everywhere, and neighborhood committees were formed everywhere to help and house the displaced. It should be noted, however, that in Lebanon it is forbidden by law to refer to Israel without mentioning the Israeli enemy, and visiting Israel is considered treason punishable by imprisonment.

RD: What are the planned reactions to these attacks?

LG: Lebanon and Palestine are going through the most serious and decisive period in our history. This is a war of survival pitting our resistance and our peoples against the most barbaric enemy in history, supported, directed, armed, financed, propagandized and protected (legally and diplomatically) by the imperialist West, particularly the USA.

Since October 8, Washington has established an air bridge with Tel Aviv and delivered the most sophisticated weapons, including the F35 and the two-ton bombs used to assassinate the members and leader of Hezbollah. The U.S. has just announced this week that it has granted $9 billion to Israel for its war against the Lebanese resistance. The Lebanese and Palestinians are being killed by U.S. and European weapons and munitions. Some $45 billion is the amount of U.S. aid sent to Israel since October 8 to massacre Gazans, which means a million dollars paid by American taxpayers for each Gazan [officially] killed.

What is currently at stake in the Middle East is the future of humanity. Will the international order of the 21st century be based on the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians? Or on their protection? In short, on barbarism or civilization?

On the one hand, the logic of the Abraham Accords; on the other, that of the Axis of Resistance. In fact, the U.S.-Israeli strategy was not just to annihilate Gaza or to complete the 1948 war in Palestine. Netanyahu and his U.S. allies believe that eliminating resistance in the region paves the way for the submission of the region’s peoples to U.S. supremacy.

U.S. objective was to extend the war

It was clear that the U.S. objective, disguised by talk of a diplomatic path or a “two-state solution,” was merely a decoy to extend the war from Gaza to the West Bank and to unleash war against the Lebanese resistance when conditions on the ground were ripe.

In six months, the equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped on Gaza and 85 U.S. bombs (MARK 84, anti-reinforcements weighing 1 ton each) and BLU-109, weighing 2 tons each, to kill resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah. Before him, Major Ibrahim Akil, for whom [Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin] Netanyahu dedicated his assassination to his U.S. masters, who have been looking for him since 1983 for two military acts: the explosion at the American embassy in Beirut during a meeting of American spies in the Middle East and the attack on the Marine base that killed 246 soldiers.

Over and above the objectives announced by Israel and its Western allies, this war declared on the Lebanese resistance is aimed not only at restoring the 300,000 settlers in northern Israel to their colonies on the Lebanese border, nor at stopping support operations in Gaza; its objective is to liquidate Hezbollah, which is currently the largest national liberation movement on an international scale.

The Hezbollah movement proved its worth in 2000, when it drove the Israeli army out of southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation, and in 2006, when it inflicted a crushing defeat on the Zionist state. It was the first time after Vietnam that the simple commandos of a national liberation army won a war against a regular army armed to the teeth and assisted by the United States.

A battle for all humanity

The battle now being waged in Beirut and Gaza is a battle for all humanity. The stakes are similar to those of the Spanish Civil War [1936-39]. Netanyahu announced at the United Nations that he is leading the fight in the name of the civilized West against barbarism and terrorism.

The question today is: Can we stand our ground and rise again? The answer for us and for the people of Gaza is that we must, for this is a battle of life and death.

Amid the tumult of its leader’s death, Hezbollah reiterated its intention to continue the war against Israel in support of Gaza. Since yesterday, snippets of Nasrallah’s various speeches have been broadcast, in which he insists on the meaning of dying as a martyr. He explains that “dying for the homeland, or for the cause, for justice, for freedom, for Palestine, is a voluntary path for Hezbollah militants.”

The resistance has objectives that it continues to follow. The 100,000-strong army of commandos has not been shaken. Hezbollah’s commandos are experienced and courageous field men who have been training for 30 years and have already fought against the Israeli colonial army and Daesh [ISIS] mercenaries in Syria and Iraq. According to Al-Jazeera military analyst Fayez Al-Dwairi and others, Hezbollah has yet to use more than 10% of its weapons.

The same can be said of new Hezbollah leader Hisham Saffieddine, a close associate of Nasrallah, who has been active in the military, organizational and political arenas. For the time being, the party is reorganizing and has to deal with security issues. It has decided to go underground and has just published a text on the adoption of the line of a long-lasting popular war of liberation.

An Arab proverb says that, “The blow that doesn’t kill you strengthens you.” We are determined to fight, aware that the battle we are waging here in Lebanon is the battle of all humanity, for it is here that the capitalist predators, with their science and their most sophisticated and deadly weapons, are concentrated.