When Allies Become Adversaries: The Dangerous Dance of Lebanese Politics and Armed Resistance
The alleged assassination of a Lebanese Christian politician by Hezbollah exposes the lethal contradictions within Lebanon’s fractured political landscape, where yesterday’s allies in resistance against Israel have become today’s mortal enemies.
A Death That Speaks Volumes
The killing of 70-year-old Elias Al-Hasrouni, a senior official in the Lebanese Forces party, represents more than just another casualty in Lebanon’s long history of political violence. According to Israeli military intelligence, Hezbollah’s elite Unit 121 executed the politician in Bint Jbeil, a southern Lebanese town that has long served as a flashpoint between competing visions of Lebanese sovereignty. While Hezbollah maintains Al-Hasrouni died in a road accident, the IDF’s public attribution of the killing to the Shia militia’s assassination unit adds another layer of complexity to Lebanon’s already Byzantine political dynamics.
The Lebanese Forces, a predominantly Christian political party with roots in the country’s civil war, has increasingly positioned itself as one of Hezbollah’s most vocal domestic critics. This opposition has intensified since the 2019 popular uprising and Lebanon’s subsequent economic collapse, with the Lebanese Forces arguing that Hezbollah’s armed status and Iranian backing have made Lebanon a pariah state, deterring foreign investment and enabling systemic corruption.
The Weaponization of Intelligence
The IDF’s decision to publicly attribute this killing raises important questions about the role of foreign intelligence services in shaping Lebanese domestic narratives. Israel, which has been locked in periodic conflict with Hezbollah since the group’s formation in the 1980s, clearly has an interest in highlighting divisions within Lebanese society. By positioning itself as a source of truth about internal Lebanese violence, Israel seeks to demonstrate that Hezbollah poses as much of a threat to Lebanese citizens as it does to Israeli security.
Yet this intelligence disclosure also serves Hezbollah’s opponents within Lebanon, who have long argued that the group operates as a state within a state, accountable to no one but Tehran. The alleged use of Unit 121—reportedly responsible for surveillance and elimination of threats to Hezbollah’s interests—against a Lebanese politician rather than foreign adversaries would seem to validate these concerns about the militarization of domestic politics.
Lebanon at a Crossroads
This incident occurs against the backdrop of Lebanon’s ongoing political paralysis, with the country lacking a president for over two years and its government operating in a caretaker capacity. The assassination allegation threatens to further polarize an already divided society, where sectarian tensions have been exacerbated by economic collapse and the memory of the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion, which many Lebanese blame on their political elite’s negligence.
The international community, particularly France and the United States, has repeatedly called for Lebanese political reform and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of all militias. However, Hezbollah’s military capabilities and political influence have only grown stronger, creating what some analysts describe as a “resistance economy” that benefits from the country’s isolation while ordinary Lebanese suffer from hyperinflation and collapsing public services.
As Lebanon approaches another crossroads, with regional tensions escalating and domestic frustrations mounting, the death of Al-Hasrouni—whether assassination or accident—symbolizes the deadly impasse at the heart of the Lebanese state. Can a country survive when its most powerful military force views domestic political opposition as an existential threat worthy of elimination?
