Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah
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The Rise And Fall Of Hassan Nasrallah
Sayed Hassan Nasrallah gets all the glory for leadership in the Hezbollah movement. Presently, he has contradicted his reputation of being a major influence for his many great achievements in the Arab world, due to his recent provocation with Israeli soldiers. His popularity dramatically decreased. Other key leaders, however, have inspired and mentored him throughout his early life, and can be credited for the rise of his ideas and his popularity among his peers. Currently, Nasrallah tops the US’s threat list for international terrorist, outranking Ousama Bin Laden.
Hassan Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960, in Bourj Hammoud, a small village east of Beirut. He was born into a Muslim Shiite family of ten children, and surprisingly, not into a very religious background- by Lebanese standards. In 1975, the 15-year Lebanese civil war began, forcing Nasrallah and his family to move to their ancestral home in Bassouriyeh, a town near the historical southern Lebanese village of Tyre. He continued his secondary education in the public school of Tyre, and joined the AMAL movement, a small party representing Shiites in Lebanon that was led by Musa Sadr, a well admired religious figure. Nasrallah began frequenting the city's main mosque. He ended up catching the attention of its most influential cleric, Muhammad al-Gharawi who was quickly impressed by the youngster's intelligence and interest in higher theological learning, Gharawi wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf to Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr, one of the leading clerics in the Shiite seminary (hawza) of Najaf in Iraq. Consequently, the following year, Nasrallah traveled there to begin his studies. He continued his studies on the Koranic divine sciences, until he was forced out of the country (along with thousands of other Shiites) by the Iraqi authorities in 1978.
It was in Iraq where he met his mentor, Abbas Al Mousawi, a Lebanese cleric from the eastern Bekaa Valley (presently known as a Hezbollah territory) in Lebanon. He formed a personal and long-term bond with Mousawi, who is responsible for shaping the base of the worldview Nasrallah holds today. Interestingly, Nasrallah’s worldview today contradicts what he viewed years ago under the influence of Mousawi. His current perception is closer to Musa Sadr’s view, seeing Lebanon as a legitimate entity in need of reform. This view strongly contrasted with Mousawi’s stubborn refusal to accept a Lebanese state, its borders and its current sharing of political power between religions. Thus, being under Mousawi’s wing, Nasrallah was planting the first seeds of a persistent radical Islamic believer. And so once he returned, Nasrallah began developing his true leadership skills by teaching at Mousawi’s religious institution in historical Baalbak.
Also, upon Nasrallah and Mousawi’s return, the AMAL movement’s leader, Sadr, disappeared ‘mysteriously’ on a trip to Libya. Thus, the leadership changed and became much more secular, backing the pro-Syrian presidency. Because Lebanese politics became so weak, Syria was a perfect shoulder to lean on, as it was much more powerful than Lebanon, providing security for many Muslims and subsequently intervened during the civil war anyway. As the civil war continued in Lebanon, Syrian involvement with Lebanese political issues deepened, which initiated fertile soil for further conflict, and so the AMAL movement shifted directions and alienated many religious Shiites. The backing of Syrian power sidelined what Sadr originally intended- social and political reform. Nonetheless, this situation provided a perfect setting for the radical Shiites who had just returned from Iraq. The Shiites began spreading militant ideas of activism, and simultaneously, Nasrallah’s teachings in Baalbak seduced many young Shiites to follow his lead.
Fast forwarding to June 1982, Nasrallah left AMAL with many of his followers during the heat of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In addition, Iran sent a few hundred men of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the Bekaa Valley so that they could train Shiites and help them organize a revolutionary movement, aimed at resisting the Israeli invasion. Consequently, they also had hopes to then overthrow the Christian shared government so that an Islamic state could be formed. It was during those several critical years that followed, that the militant Shiite group Hezbollah was formed, and when Nasrallah distinguished himself as a military commander. It was he who led his followers into fighting with the neo-Syrian AMAL, and drove them out of their offices in Beirut’s suburbs. But once Syria found out and intervened in the situation, Nasrallah, in protest of Syria’s move into Beirut, left for the religious institution of Qom, Iran, to continue his religious studies. He also believed, however, that proper religious credentials were as important as military expertise in taking on a bigger leadership role within Hezbollah. He absorbed as much Islamic wisdom from then religious cleric and Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini, who favoured Nasrallah for his charisma and self-motivated religious knowledge.
At the end of the decade, after Khomeini’s death, Nasrallah became chief of Hezbollah’s Central Military Command. During that period, Hezbollah’s leadership was fractured, and needed solidity. The Taif Accord of 1989 had split Hezbollah’s beliefs in two- one section (led by Mousawi) that accepted the Accord, meaning the abandonment of making Lebanon an Islamic theocracy and accepting Syrian regime; and the second section, (led by Nasrallah) which motioned for the opposite- still holding on to their fundamentalist ideologies for the future of Lebanon. At some point, the Hezbollah Headquarters in Tehran, Iran, wanted to kick Nasrallah out of the game. But the attempt failed because the following year, the Headquarters agreed to replace Hezbollah Secretary General Sobhi Tufaili with Mousawi, who had closer ties to Syria, and was able to win Syrian approval for the return of Nasrallah, who then moderated his political views. The next year, Hezbollah founded Al Manar (Arabic for ‘The Beacon’) Television, a small terrestrial station funded by Iran.
Nasrallah’s close ties with Mousawi proved tremendously helpful when the time came. Mousawi was assassinated in an Israeli helicopter assault in 1992, and Nasrallah was appointed to replace him (also with the insistence of Khomeini) at age 32, even though he lacked the religious credentials of his predecessors as well as not being within the correct line of succession, which indicated that Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem should have been leader instead. This event led to Nasrallah’s next top priority as new leader of Hezbollah: seek revenge for Mousawi’s death. The Israeli Embassy in Buenos Airies, Argentina, was bombed and officials were killed. From then on, the fight between Israel and Hezbollah only became more serious and dangerous.
Nasrallah first gained international acclaim for his successful leadership and activism in Hezbollah-led military campaigns and guerrilla attacks on the IDF that resulted in the ousting of all Israeli troops in southern Lebanon in 2000. He was seen as the only man who had the ability to defeat Israel on the battlefield and end its 22-year occupation. Nasrallah has been quoted saying “there is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel”.
Nasrallah was a man of God, gun and government, a cross between Ayatollah Khomeini and Ghe Guevara. He was an Islamic populist as well as a charismatic guerilla tactician. He made vast promises such as always preaching that his demonstrations are peaceful when violent riots erupted every time, telling his followers that removing Israel from the map is attainable with persistent action, as well as promoting the act of martyrdom for one’s religion (being an act of honor) and that the martyr would be rewarded in heaven. Nasrallah’s militant leadership style is infamous for his constant use of rhetoric, as rhetorician Herbert W. Simons points out (of militant leaders), to provoke, express and utilize as an instrument and act of force. Simons continues to describe how militants threaten, harass, cajole, disrupt, intimidate and coerce. No words can better describe Nasrallah’s tactics for mass seduction. Hostility, for instance, is expressed in dress, manners, dialect, gestures, in-group slogans and ceremonies. The target of sit-ins, sleep-ins and other confrontational activities are employed to participate in a drama of self-exposure. Basically, most of their pressure tactics are not to punish directly, but rather are ways of “body rhetoric” to dramatize issues and delegitimize the established order.
His belief in political Jihad and preaching radical Islamic power is the engine of Hezbollah’s most gruesome attacks. He has recently said during the mass protests against Western backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora “Didn’t the prime minister of Lebanon work to cut off the supply lines? . . . Those are the ones responsible for the [July] war, not the resistance,” . Nasrallah is trying to show his people that because the Prime Minister is backed by the US and UK, and the US backs Israel, then the military blockade (blocking supplies to the country) that happened in July 2006 is traced back to Siniora, and his close ties with the West. Nasrallah is feared by the anti-Syrian movement for persisting without end, or at least until total chaos erupts, possibly resulting in another civil war. “Our people do not give up, do not get tired. We will not go out of the streets before we achieve our objective in Lebanon. . . We will show that those who are betting on our surrender are having an illusion.” Says the militant leader, vowing to continue mass demonstrations until Fouad Siniora resigns at the least. Being unpredictable, Nasrallah may either talk of peace or violence, but the end results never follow what he may say. Thus, his life is bound to be a series of sharp rises and falls. Moreover, Nasrallah’s managerial skills and innovative military ideas helped him get away with his Israeli assaults and managed to convince the Iranian Headquarters to give him more authority in who he wants to hire as commanders for his operations. He pioneered political interest within the group (as AMAL did earlier) and motivated the organization to become more secular after winning 8 seats of 128 in the 1992 Parliamentary elections. In 1996, Hezbollah secured 7 seats. After the ended Israeli occupation in 2000, they secured 12 seats. At the moment, he is considered Lebanon’s best-known politician. The wrap he wears around his head indicates his link to the Prophet Mohammad and Ayatollah Khomeini, which he proudly promotes as his trademark. He is a powerful orator and may impact a large crowd with his use of words. He is after all, the most controversial but shrewd leader in the Arab world.
Nasrallah has framed Hezbollah’s recent efforts of mass demonstrations as the same military idiom it did in the past- action for change, victory after political jihad. He continues to promise “just as I promised you victory in the past, I promise you victory once again” and uses imagery such as new slogans that read “As with victory, change is coming, coming, coming” to illustrate Hezbollah’s continuation of its battle against Israel and military struggle to show how significant it is strategically. It is an important psychological fight for Hezbollah’s acknowledged and recognized existence as a major influential force in Lebanon.
When Syria withdrew from 29 years of occupation of Lebanon in early 2005 (due to the Cedar Revolution), the following parliamentary elections granted Hezbollah as many as two cabinet seats and a total of 14 out of 128 parliamentary seats. At this point, Nasrallah joined ventures with AMAL leader Nabih Berri (the movement also won parliamentary seats) to work together and represent Shiites in Lebanon, mostly in the south. Both groups and about 1 million people in support of Syria rallied in Beirut on March 8, 2005 against American and United Nations intervention (primarily against UN Resolution 1559) that want to dismantle and disarm Hezbollah. Nasrallah protested that Lebanon needs Hezbollah’s military capabilities to defend the nation from its ‘ultimate enemy’, Israel. The controversy of being against Syrian intervention all these years as well as the AMAL movement and then suddenly deciding to work for Syrian intervention, was primarily because Nasrallah shifted Hezbollah’s main goal to keep their group armed and focus on destroying Israel, as well as the fact that Syria had very close ties to Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor. At the other end, Syria also ended up having the same objectives due to numerous years of Israeli and Syrian battles resulting in Israeli occupied Syrian territories. Nasrallah presently also let go of trying to make Lebanon an Islamic theocracy in order to primarily focus on defending Lebanon from the “Zionist terrorist entity”.
With Nasrallah’s ascension to Hezbollah leadership, he was able to transform the militant group from a secretive guerrilla force despised by non-Shiites, to a major social and political force in Lebanon. He managed to make Al Manar Television a satellite channel in 2000, now available for everyone to see. He primarily wanted to target his market in the pan Arab world, launching what he refers to as a “psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy”
By the summer of 2006, however, Israel destroyed Al Manar’s Headquarters in Lebanon as well as Nasrallah’s home and office in attempts to kill him and his intended propaganda. The 2006 Lebanon-Israeli war ended with Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon on August 14th, leaving Hezbollah to celebrate and claim Nasrallah was victorious again in kicking Israel out. This time though, Nasrallah was not as popular as he once was. Lebanon has seen and endured his extremist ideologies in action, and half of the nation blames Nasrallah for the destruction of nearly $15 billion worth of damage and 1, 500 civilian deaths. This was mainly due to Nasrallah’s famed warfare tactics of Hezbollah men launching Katyucha rockets from civilian villages dressed as veiled women, leading Israel to strike back, killing innocent people. The entire time, Nasrallah was in hiding while the country was burning. Again, his popularity has declined tremendously. He was quoted as saying that he would have never waged this small-intended battle with Israel if he knew it would bring this much destruction, but at the same time, critics raged that through all televised speeches during the ‘July war’, Nasrallah would not give up, directly calling an all-out war against Israel.
The rise and fall of Hassan Nasrallah is a typical example of most militant leaders with such radical thoughts and ideologies. Such charismatic political leaders can rely too much on the momentum of a situation, sometimes forgetting how their enemy may actually react. Even though Nasrallah has devoted much time in studying how his enemy thinks (by reading various memoirs of Israeli political leaders), he became clouded by his hatred when the time came to carefully plan his next steps. He did not properly follow the law of knowing one’s enemy better than one’s ally in order to carry out his promise of defeating them one day. Another problem such leaders encounter is that of promises that tend to be unrealistic, but still help in motivating the movement’s psychological approach in trying to achieve their desired results. Nonetheless, they become disillusioned and disenchanted sooner or later, attracting more external criticism to the movement’s actions and goals.
However, Nasrallah was able to push Hezbollah further than it was ever imagined to reach. Starting out by being a small, secret militia, Hezbollah grew to be feared, attaining international notoriety. As well as having a good political standing in Lebanon’s parliament, it has also reached the ability to make legitimate, political decisions in helping their interests. Al Manar’s television station only reiterated Nasrallah’s leadership as a strong religious figure and military tactical genius. He managed to internationalize his fame and even market his own image- by having key chains, wallets, t-shirts, flags and posters sold in many countries either promoting or parodying his cause. He believed strongly in creating the illusion of power for his group and himself, and ridiculed the enemy regularly on Hezbollah’s Al Manar station and in interviews. Nasrallah believed in a divine victory- that of God over its enemy. He saw himself as a man of destiny and religious influence. Overall, Nasrallah is a leader that even if killed, would still be regarded as a man who made a significant difference in the political and religious sphere.
Disclaimer
The above essay was written by Hassiba Freiha and merely states opinions by a college student. However, if you feel strong about responding to the opinions stated, please write to articles@directorym.com and express your concerns.
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