Is Hezbollah in Trouble?
An article, Hezbollah’s Desperate Recruiting in the Bekaa, appearing earlier this month in an internet magazine, NOW, that bills itself as “the online source for news, features, analysis and much more, covering Lebanon, the Lebanese diaspora and the Middle East,” raises the question of whether Hezbollah has dug itself into a hole that it can’t get out of.
The terrorist organization has increasingly taken on the duties of a regular army in defending the failing Assad regime in Syria. The Syrian army, by many accounts, is collapsing. Reports indicate even its Alawite recruitment base is demoralized. This means the Hezbollah has to step in and provide the manpower.
As the article indicates, Hezbollah has no choice but to take on the expanded role demanded of them by the situation. Although, the terrorist group has demonstrated its effectiveness as a fighting force, it is not a national army and will have difficulty conscripting and training sufficient replacements should it begin to suffer the rate of losses experienced by regular armies attempting to hold onto a large territory that includes major cities.
The article claims that Hezbollah has even begun to expand its recruitment outreach to the Lebanese Christian community, who share their fear of the Sunni Jihadis. But even within the Shiite community in Lebanon, there is resistance to joining the fight. Hezbollah is the most forceful, but not the only, political organization within the Lebanese Shiite community.
The war in Syria appears to be heading toward a new phase. If Hezbollah cannot shore up the Assad regime, it may require the direct intervention of ground forces from Iran.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Mahmoud Abbas’ Diatribe Threatening Israel Included Bogus Canaanite Claim
September 10, 2019
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent anti-Israel diatribe that aired on PA TV was monitored and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Excerpt: "I say to [Israel]: Every stone you have built on our land [...]
CNN Calls House’s Unifying Anti-BDS Vote ‘Divisive’
July 24, 2019
Yesterday, in an overwhelming vote of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives voted 398 to 17 to adopt a resolution opposing the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) campaign. Yet, CNN's headline casts the unifying vote [...]
NY Times Cites Poll, Hides Palestinian Support for Violence
July 9, 2019
The New York Times has struggled to accurately describe polls this year. In January, editor Jonathan Weisman misrepresented Pew polling data to describe a nonexistent surge in Israeli support for the United States under President [...]
CNN’s Zakaria Indulges Palestinian Propagandist Hanan Ashrawi
June 9, 2019
Fareed Zakaria’s weekly Cable News Network (CNN) program (grandiosely named “Global Public Square”) June 9 broadcast included a discussion of the current U.S. Middle East peace plan with guests Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Authority official) and [...]
In Robert Bernstein Obit, AFP Inappropriately References His Judaism
May 29, 2019
Robert Bernstein (Courtesy the New Press) In its obituary yesterday for American publisher Robert Bernstein, Agence France Presse inserted an inappropriate reference to the Human Rights Watch founder who later turned on the organization due [...]