Three decades have passed since Hassan Nasrallah came into power as the general secretary of Hezbollah, shortly after the elimination of Abbas al-Musawi. Over the years there have been several attempts to outline his personality, all of which clearly missed the true story behind this infamous terrorist, and in some cases even disproportionally praised him.
Nasrallah is highly invested in proving himself as the protector of Lebanon, yet his steps are predictable. He strives for complete and sole control, while taking advantage of Lebanon’s resources, sacrificing their citizens. These, combined with his struggle to confront uncertainty, turn him into the destructor of Lebanon.
Following, we will elaborate on who Hassan Nasrallah really is, what is going on behind the curtains, and how he brings about the destruction and devastation of Lebanon.
His real character:
Over the years he has been described mainly as a cunning, sadist murderer, who would never pass on an opportunity to harm his declared enemies and their allies. He is paranoid on the one hand, and seeking publicity on the other. He tends to megalomania while acting socially indifferent and although Nasrallah is highly pragmatic, he is obsessively control-oriented, shows extreme anxiety while facing uncertainty or stress and accordingly will prefer to react in templates and patterns.
Obsessive with control
Centralism and complete control are the most prominent characteristics of Nasrallah. He is keen to control every little aspect of his organization at any given time. This is why he is involved in any feature, any angle. A real control freak.
This need for close control creates the basis for clear-cut equations, allowing him a feeling of immediate superiority in almost any situation. For example, in case the Israeli Air Force attack the house of a Hezbollah activist in South Lebanon, the reaction will be the launch of a very certain missile model aimed at a very certain predetermined location. Such an equation turns the response to automatic, almost a reflex, avoiding any dilemma of whether to react or hold back.
As such, the equation produces simple patterns. Patterns generate a feeling of confidence for him. On the other hand, in an environment of uncertainty, Nasrallah is not functioning well, he gets stressed and when he is stressed, he makes mistakes.
The incident that led to the assassination of his best friend, Fuad Shukr, is an excellent example. The mere elimination of Shukr, unexpected as it was, generated a new equation, to which Nasrallah has not found the solution. He is slow to make up his mind, about how to react, considering that Israel might respond harshly to this. In the end, his reaction was predictable and therefore almost negligible, which adds to the growing pressure, as millions of people are waiting for Nasrallah to speak up.
Reliability
For years now, Nasrallah has been nurturing a narrative of him being reliable and sound well renowned for his word being his bond. Once Nasrallah is caught lying, it hurts his self-confidence. Shortly after Israel eliminated a senior commander in the Radwan unit, he gave the order to launch a massive missile attack against Israel, which killed and injured dozens of Druze children in the village of Majd El-Shams. Nasrallah suffered severely not only from the accusations concerning the attack itself but also from his denial of Hezbollah’s involvement, as he was immediately called for his bluff. He bragged about the organization’s response to the elimination of Fuad Shukr by hitting a high-quality military target in central Israel while presenting a hit to a chicken coop as proof. This caused ridicule in Lebanon and the entire Arab world.
His word is no longer his bond. His honor was disgraced worldwide, including in the Arab world. This whole situation rattled him acutely.
Nasrallah – lonely at the top
Yet another layer in Nasrallah’s obsessive need for control over his subordinates is that he keeps all authority to himself. There are only very few people in the organization that he trusts. He makes most of the decisions by himself, and should he want a second opinion, he would address his benefactors in Tehran rather than the members of his own organization in Lebanon.
The few people he trusts have grown within the organization from its very beginning, but never will he trust someone who can threaten him or even be able to take his position. Most of them are operational figures or deal in finance, as most of their activity is outside Lebanon, which makes him feel safe.
He has almost no direct connection to the leading echelon of the organization and anyhow, he does not consult them. Ever since the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, Nasrallah has not appointed a successor who has the stature or magnitude to head the operational apparatus of Hezbollah. The only reason being, that he didn’t want to provide anyone with the means to threaten his position. He has several military advisors in different positions, some of which are no longer among the living, like Fuad Shukr, but when it comes to respect and true friendship, there is no one even close to Mughniyah. Even when he ordered the assassination of Mustafa Badr El-Din, he did that in view of his need to rule. El-Din grew in strength and importance and became popular and rebellious. Thus, he became a threat to Nasrallah in his position as the eternal and “holy” leader of Hezbollah, so he gave the order. Even then, he was caught lying, as he denied any involvement of the organization in the assassination, a lie that shook up Hezbollah for a longer period of time.
Drug abuse
Nasrallah has been taking drugs against anxiety and depression for years now. Apart from the little time he spends with his family, he has almost no physical interaction with other people, as he feels threatened for his life. He became paranoid and very focused on compartmentation, secretive with anyone in his inner circle. His paranoia and the fear for his life have an impact not only on his day-to-day life but also on his capability to think clearly and to make crucial strategic decisions. Moreover, the elimination of Fuad Shukr, who was so close to him, made clear to him, that even his closest circles eventually can be broken. Feelings of grief, disappointment, and rage filled him and he felt helpless. The next day one of his personal security detachment was seen leaving one of his bunker tunnels with a serious wound to his head.
Deranged
Fuad Shukr was a really close friend and his death broke Nasrallah emotionally. Shukr is not the only one, one of his personal guards was also assassinated (while he served in another significant position) – Yasser Nimmer Karnabash (Abu Fadel). If we add to that Mughniyah, Soleimani, Hijazi, and Zahedi, all of which were his companions over the years, including some Hezbollah members and friends close to him, like Abu Taleb, Wissam al-Tawil, Saleh Arouri and in some way Ismael Haniyeh, they all had an impact on his already weak emotional status.
The attempts of unit 910 to perform retaliation terror attacks meant as revenge for the assassination of his friends were all thwarted, up until now. Within the organization voices came loud, claiming that the cause of this failure lies in His being irrational and demanding from field operatives to act impulsively, without the needed planning, leaving traces like amateurs, just to get even.
His need for appreciation
Nasrallah feels superior and almighty and needs to be praised and cheered. His word is his bond and that is why he makes long speeches which are phrased meticulously. Nasrallah uses the patterns of equations for a longer period of time when it comes to addressing Israel, when he said that there will be a response, there always was. This made him a figure true to his word, never bluffing. This is very important to him to be seen this way. This is why today he is furious, stating that there will be a response, but there is none, when all of his decisions are failures, one after the other, and eventually lead to the loss of capabilities of the organization. His moves are easily called beforehand, and the fact that many of his colleagues are gone has left him lonely at the top. He is frightened for his legacy. He doesn’t care at all about what might happen to the people of Lebanon if an all-out war were to break out.
High-ranking officers in the IRGC are demanding a strong retaliation aimed at Israel, and they understand that the hesitation and doubt are coming not only from the Majles in Tehran but also from Nasrallah himself. The question arises, whether it is time to substitute him, a subject that has been discussed unofficially in the IRGC high command.
As part of his need to be praised, he enjoyed toying with and annoying his “Zionist enemy” and reigning fear and terror over the citizens of Israel, using scary videos showing off the military capabilities of Hezbollah, generating the feeling of “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.
The essence of Hezbollah:
Nasrallah usually says that Hezbollah will fulfill its destiny as the protector of Lebanon and it is its duty to guard Lebanon and its people against the attacks of Israel.
Let’s start with the basics: Hezbollah was founded by Iran to serve Iran when the time comes, according to Iran’s interests against Israel. Anything else being said is just not true.
Nowadays Hezbollah is handling itself independently, channeling large amounts of money from its businesses into terror and crime, but there is no doubt that Iran is the main source of armament and funds, the source of the strength and resolve of the organization when facing Israel.
Destroying Lebanon
Nasrallah literally destroys Lebanon. This state was called the “Switzerland of the Middle East“ only 50-60 years ago, but since 1975 it has been degrading into ruins. Starting with Palestinian terror, Lebanon’s degradation only increased, especially after the rise of Nasrallah to head Hezbollah in 1992, in several aspects.
Following are the main events that brought about the devastation of Lebanon as the outcome of Nasrallah’s decisions:
- The murder of prime minister Rafiq El Hariri.
- The war of 2006.
- The fighting in Syria, siding with Iran and Assad.
- Weakening of the local economy and accelerating the Iranian grasp on it.
- Inviting Iranian military presence.
- The blast in the port of Beirut and intimidating the investigating team.
- Oppressing the freedom of journalism – the killing of journalists and influencers like Lokman Salim.
- More drug-related activities.
- Threatening the gas production agreements.
- Threatening the forming of a government not to their liking.
- Taking over government institutions and causing their degradation.
- Channeling governmental resources to serve the Organizational needs.
- Tricking innocent civilians into handing over their savings to Hezbollah.
- Sacrifice of civilians by building military facilities within civilian population hubs, including weapons and ammunition warehouses, some of which are in schools, hospitals, sports centers, and the like.
The consequence for Lebanon
The Lebanese say almost unanimously that the state has been kidnapped by Hezbollah and handed over as a present to Iran. Lebanon today suffers a shortage of food, gasoline, medication, and many more essentials. There are many dark-outs as electricity fails all the time in large parts of the country and the same goes for the water supply.
There are more than 110 thousand people dislocated from the South of Lebanon, 30 % of which are children. More than 90% of the Lebanese population want the fighting to end immediately.
According to the official numbers, the unemployment rate has reached 50% and the inflation is over 40%. Tens of thousands are fleeing the country or in stages of organizing to flee, because they know that the state of things will deteriorate even more when an all-out war starts.
The ports and airports have turned into Hezbollah-owned bases. Arms of sorts are kept on site and anything that happens there is approved by Hezbollah.
Conclusion
Nasrallah crushes the state of Lebanon and hands it over to the Iranian regime, all the while maintaining and strengthening Hezbollah, his friends, and his allies. Shiite civilians have always been with him and always will be, so should some of them be sacrificed, it would not bother him at all. Nasrallah invited Iran into Lebanon and has turned Lebanon into the main arm of the so-called Iranian war machine. This arm may have a will of its own, but essentially it is connected to the Iranian body with its head in Tehran, namely Khamenei.
Khamenei makes his decisions, and in fact, this decides the fate of Lebanon, by instructing Nasrallah. Nasrallah admires him and would never go against him. Nasrallah sees himself as a spiritual leader, a thoroughbred Shiite, and only one rank under Khamenei. Thus, he fully understands the sacrifice Iran demands from its creation, and he respects it. Accordingly, he will not hesitate to drag Lebanon into an all-out war that might bring on the complete destruction, knowing that his undoing can save Iran from Israeli aggression. The honors he might gain with this heroic step will be shared only with the greats of history and to him, this is just out of this world.
Maybe Nasrallah will gain postmortem the highest honors provided by the religious leadership in Iran, but he will undoubtedly live, and die, in infamy as the devastator of Lebanon.