The assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah transcends the immediate confrontation between Israel and its Islamist enemies. Nasrallah was both a leader and a symbol of Iran’s bid for hegemony in the Arab world. His fighters advanced Iran’s cause in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and beyond the region – into Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
Israeli pundits discussed last night the possibility of deterioration into all-out war
As is known but rarely stated by western diplomats and officials, Nasrallah was the most powerful man in Lebanon and its de facto ruler. He led a military force and a political structure that dwarfed the ailing official state and managed a successful insurgency against Israel from 1992 to 2000 and an inconclusive war in 2006. After the defeat of the pro-western Lebanese nationalists in 2008, the official government and its cabinets were incapable of challenging Hezbollah.
In his public statements, Nasrallah exemplified the conflation of opposition to Israel and theological hostility to Jews, which characterises the rhetoric of Tehran’s proxies in the region.
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