Hard Times for Hezbollah

Weekly Standard ^ | Feb 2, 2015 | Lee Smith

[nuconvert]

Is Iran’s Lebanese client losing its grip?

Last week Hezbollah buried one of its princes, Jihad Mughniyeh, the 22-year-old son of the late Imad Mughniyeh, a legendary Hezbollah commander implicated in such infamous operations as the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. The assassination of the elder Mughniyeh in Damascus in 2008, typically attributed to Israel, is regarded as one of the organization’s most traumatic blows. However, some in the Shiite community here say that Israel’s January 18 strike on a three-car convoy in the Golan Heights near the Syrian town of Quneitra—which killed the younger Mughniyeh and five other Hezbollah operatives, along with as many as six Iranians—is evidence of a dangerous crisis for Hezbollah.

The throngs attending the younger Mughniyeh’s funeral on January 19 yelled “Death to America” only once. “I counted,” says Lokman Slim, an anti-Hezbollah Shiite activist. “And they said ‘Death to Israel’ only a few times. Then they went to more religious slogans.”

[NicknamedBob]

... yelled “Death to America” only once.

America enjoying "the little death" under 0bama.

[BlackVeil]

the actual war Hezbollah is fighting across the border in Syria. The organization portrays its combat there as a defensive war to prevent the Sunni extremist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS that are battling Assad from entering Lebanon and targeting the Shiites. ... pitched battles between Hezbollah and Sunni fighters on the Syrian border in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley are proof that the threat of Sunni violence is genuine ...

One of the ironies of Middle East politics is that Hezbollah is also protecting the Christian communities in Lebanon and Syria, while the traditional protectors - nations such as France - are lining up with radical Islamist militias in Syria.

[SunkenCiv]

• Video shows Hezbollah Brigades convoy transporting American M1 tank
• Exclusive: Obama Cuts Off Syrian Rebels' Cash
• Syrian army tears through the south to sweep Iran and Hizballah up to Israel's Golan doorstep