In recent days, social media in Lebanon has been flooded with videos featuring unusually blunt criticism of Hezbollah following its decision to join Iran in fighting Israel.

“God willing, Naim Qassem, may you not find shelter during the month of Ramadan. You are not a resistance movement — you are Iran’s arsenal in Lebanon,” a Lebanese Shiite man said in a video circulating in recent days, referring to the Shiite terror group’s leader.

Another Shiite resident of southern Lebanon filmed himself mocking Hezbollah’s slogans of “strength and honor.”

“What is Hezbollah doing? This is the winning of the war you’ve talked about?” he asked. “If not for the [IDF] warnings to evacuate our homes, we would have died under our houses.”

Sharp criticism of Hezbollah in Lebanon is nothing new. The Iranian proxy has been a major focus of discontent in the past, including large protests in Beirut in 2019. But the anger being directed at the terror group now is coming not from its normal critics but from those who have largely backed it until now.

The widespread unhappiness with Hezbollah is being felt not only on the street but in the halls of power, raising the prospect that the group may be weakened politically. However, it remains a major armed presence, and it’s unclear whether political leaders will be willing to risk civil war to move against the group in any major way, experts say.

Since its establishment in the 1980s, Hezbollah has relied on the Shiite community in Lebanon for political and military backing, and is an entrenched presence in many southern Lebanon villages, especially among Shiites, according to Israel.

Moran Levanoni, an expert on Lebanon and Hezbollah at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told The Times of Israel that the criticism from within the Shiite community is unprecedented.

He noted that shortly after war broke out with Israel and the United States attacking Iran on February 28, tribes in Lebanon’s Hermel and Baalbek regions — “Hezbollah’s very own heartland” — published letters publicly calling for Lebanon “not to be caught in outside interests and for Lebanon to not be dragged into war.”

Nonetheless, Hezbollah began attacking Israel a short time later, sparking a major Israeli air campaign in southern Lebanon and suburbs of Beirut and plunging Lebanon back into a war not of its making.

A continuing decline in public opinion

Jonathan Elkhoury, a Lebanese Christian who has lived in Israel since 2001, has been watching from afar as Hezbollah has steadily lost popularity in Lebanon over the last several years.

Elkhoury came to Israel as a child as part of the relocation of the South Lebanon Army, which fought alongside the Israel Defense Forces during the military’s lengthy occupation of southern Lebanon and was granted refuge when Israeli troops left Lebanon in 2000.

According to him, both that withdrawal and the 2006 Second Lebanon War were portrayed as victories for Hezbollah, helping the Iranian proxy group gain support among the Lebanese public.

But over the last decade, economic crises that have gripped Lebanon have sparked widespread criticism of the group, which was seen as selling out the country for Iranian interests.

“In 2019 we saw the first sign of people speaking publicly (in Lebanon) against the organization. The economic protests over Lebanon’s collapsing economy cast Hezbollah as responsible for the country’s deterioration,” said Khoury, who maintains contacts with Lebanese residents through social media.

Another significant turning point, he said, was Hezbollah’s decision to start attacking Israel alongside Hamas on October 8, 2023.

“That’s when protests began — both on........

© The Times of Israel