❊ Hezbollah’s STL Strategy Is Backfiring

Hezbollah is committing a grave error by focusing too much on the STL. It is making people want it even more.

While I’m not a big fan of Hezbollah, I understand perfectly well that they don’t do anything in vain. Their actions are pre-meditated, tactical, and in the service of well planned long term strategies. They play chess, and they play it very well.

But lately something appears to be off in this picture. The party’s strategists have a plan that is clearly not working, and yet they seem clueless about its ineffectiveness. They try harder and harder with no apparent success.

They keep telling us how bad the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is, how dangerous it will be and how they are going to destroy it. They furrow their brows, raise their tone along with their index fingers. They try to look confident and they gather impressive crowds on Ashura. But all this is not having the desired effect. The threats are not weakening the resolve of their opponents. In fact, the opposite is happening.

The more the supporters of the STL listen to Hezbollah’s tirades, the more they are convinced that the STL is on to something. After an original success with planting doubt in people’s minds, something in the other direction is now taking place. Hezbollah’s thunderous protests are coming off as unreasonable and unwarranted, even bordering on comical.

March 14’s stated position has always been a reasonable one: If the STL’s indictment is political and not based on solid proof, all the Lebanese, starting with the P.M will denounce it. But the Hezb insists on killing the indictment before even coming out. They are investing a lot of political capital on discrediting the institution itself, calling it Israeli and American without a shred of proof.

The rest of the Lebanese are looking at that and saying: What’s up with these people and why are they so hysterical about this? Why in hell are they threatening us every day? I’m sticking with this thing because I want to see what the prosecutors have to say that is scaring Hezbollah so much.

Because of its actions, Hezbollah is now facing a bigger enemy than justice: Curiosity.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion and article posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.