Jon B. Alterman
On September 23, Israeli airstrikes killed almost 500 Lebanese in the country’s deadliest day of conflict since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Hezbollah has been shelling Israel since the day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and tensions have been escalating in the days since Israel targeted Hezbollah’s communication tools and several key commanders. In response, Hezbollah fired some of its deepest strikes into Israel since the start of the war, and its top leaders warned that this was “just the beginning.”
Q1: How do most Lebanese citizens feel about this recent escalation, and what are their opinions of Hezbollah more generally?
A1: It depends on who you are and where you are. There are a lot of Lebanese who resent the fact that Hezbollah has independence. It is an armed militia that is impervious to rule by the state. There are a lot of Lebanese, whether they’re in the north of the country or whether they’re Sunnis or Christians, who feel that Hezbollah is undermining the integrity of Lebanon. There are some Shi`a who feel that Hezbollah is a threat, but there are also Shi`a who feel that Hezbollah is a necessary defender of their rights, which have been historically marginalized in Lebanon. There are some Christian factions that are aligned with Hezbollah. The reality is that there are a lot of different Lebanese views. There’s also a lot of Lebanese hostility toward Israel, and there’s a fear that Lebanon is going to be dragged into conflict, not because of what most Lebanese want, but because that’s what Hezbollah wants and that’s what Hezbollah thinks Israel wants.
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