https://old.reddit.com/r/AskMiddleEast/comments/1fllizi/middle_eastern_opinion_on_hezbollah/
Arabs long for the crusades and explosions like cows long for the hammer and sheep for the sickle
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There's actually some fairly good takes in their by reddit standards at least but a little bit zoomerish and lacking historical context.
They were very popular in 2000 when they had just driven out the Israelis. This was a really big deal. The occupation was universally hated by everyone in the country so there was gratitude for ending it. For the Arab world as a whole, this was the first time that finally someone won an unequivocal victory over Israel. There wasn't cease-fires and compromises and begging the Americans to help. It was a clear-cut military victory where the Israelis and their proxy militia fled in a rout. Somehow this fraction of this little country achieved something that Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc. could never do. They won without giving up their territory or selling out the Palestinians.
That sentiment started changing pretty quickly for two main reasons. The most obvious was their loyalty to Syria. When Rafiq el-Hariri got blown up it probably wasn't Hezbollah who actually did it, but everyone knew that when push comes to shove they're on the side of the people who did it. Not a good look when you're supposed to be defending the country from foreign aggressors. Years of more assassinations follow. Again, Hezbollah probably isn't doing them but they're not exactly complaining about it. This alienates basically everyone who isn't Shi'a.
Then the Syrian Civil War happens. Assad is doing way worse stuff to Arabs than the Israelis ever did, but Hezbollah are still their besties. This is a bit complicated because they did win support in some circles (like among many Lebanese Christians) for fighting against ISIS who were seen as a bigger threat. But it destroyed their reputation as being the relatively moral faction that hadn't done lots of huge massacres during the Lebanese Civil War like every other faction did. Now they were just as dirty as everyone else. You might support them for the moment against a common enemy but you didn't respect them. It especially destroyed their reputation all over the rest of the Arab world.
The second thing is a bit more subtle but maybe as important in the long run. Everyone was happy when they drove out the Israelis. Then what? That was supposed to be the entire purpose of their organization existing. Everyone else disarmed at the end of the Civil War with the exception of Hezbollah, which was explicitly to fight the occupation. Okay, mission accomplished. So why didn't they just declare victory and give their weapons up to the Lebanese Army and go home? They had this pathetic excuse that they still have to get back Shebaa Farms but that was just an insult to everyone's intelligence. In 2006 they beat the Israelis again, and their supporters say look, we won another clear-cut military victory. But most of the people in the country weren't impressed because it was Hezbollah being r-slurred that started the war and the only effect it had on them was that the Israelis blew the shit out of the whole country. They're not doing a great job of protecting Lebanon. In fact they're the ones responsible for the wars now. And they're working for Iran and Syria so who are the foreign occupiers now?
As the years go by, more and more you see people asking wtf their purpose is. They're trying to coast on their reputation from 2000 but there's a whole generation of people who weren't even born in 2000 and don't want their whole lives to be about that. All they know is these guys are running around with guns, controlling big areas of the country, telling you where you're allowed to go and where you're not, and starting wars where you just end up getting hurt for no gain. The last straw is the 2020 Beirut port explosion. Again, this is not something that Hezbollah is directly responsible for. But everyone knows that Hezbollah is propping up this incredibly incompetent and corrupt government because if the government was effective it would disarm them. As long as Hezbollah exists, they're going to maintain the status quo and block any attempt to fix things.
So that's where we were on October 6. Zionist r-slurs (like you
@911roofer) like to imagine that everyone in Lebanon is a Hezbo-loving terrorist who deserves to die because you masturbate to Old Testament fantasies of genociding the Amalekites, but they're on really thin ice right now. That's why they've shown such extreme restraint throughout this war. They know the population is already on the verge of a mass uprising against them so they're trying to fight back a little to show they're not too weak while not provoking the Israelis into actually hitting them hard. The same thing is going on with Iran, where the regime knows the population hates them and is on the verge of a revolution. And they're terrified because they did a revolution before. They remember what they did to the old regime. They know it's going to happen to them. (Especially after the Mahsa Amini thing, you do not want to face mob justice after that.) If you tards could ever for once just act in your self-interests you'd realize that you've basically won already. But I guess you'd rather just have some perpetual low-level war because you don't know any other way to live.
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Only the arabs can save themselves. But they can't.
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And who's gonna save you from being locked in this forever?
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No one. They are doomed. As are all who reject Christ's light.
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