Hezbollah’s actions have earned it the hatred of millions across the Middle East.
The reactionary group has never had majority support in Lebanon, and many still fear violent reprisals if they speak out against Hezbollah. Israel’s victories are an aid to working people looking to get the boot of Hezbollah, Hamas and Tehran off their necks. More are speaking out.
At the urging of the Iranian rulers, Hassan Nasrallah sent 7,000 Hezbollah thugs to Syria to crush the 2011 popular uprising against Bashar al-Assad and prop up his dictatorship. More than 300,000 civilians died in the course of the 10-year-long war, many at the hands of Hezbollah.
Thousands of Syrians in Idlib, Azaz and other cities still under the control of Assad’s bourgeois opponents celebrated the death of Nasrallah, marching through the streets and passing out sweets. There was also a large action in Daraa, which is still under Assad’s control.
Hezbollah is widely reviled in Iran by working people and oppressed nationalities. When hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Iran in 2022 after the death of Zhina Amini, following her arrest by the hated “morality police,” Nasrallah claimed the protests were “provocations” orchestrated by Washington and Saudi Arabia.
The attempts by the Iranian regime to whip up support for its war moves are not going well. Mehdi Chamran, the head of Tehran’s city council, complained to the press Oct. 1 that there are people satisfied with the blows Hezbollah is suffering in Lebanon. He called for these people to “be drowned in the sea like the Pharaoh.”
The Progressive Students Organization at the University of Isfahan Oct. 1 noted the widespread opposition to Hezbollah. The “wartime atmosphere, which should have caused people to temporarily step back from their demands and protests over the miserable economic conditions, has had no effect,” it wrote. Instead they “have maintained their protests and strikes” with over 30 labor actions in the three days after Nasrallah’s death.
Oil workers have been holding weekly protests for months. And the Coordinating Council of Nurses’ Protests announced Oct. 2 plans for nationwide actions Oct. 6. “We will no longer allow our future to be toyed with,” the group said, “reducing us to slavery.”
On Sept. 30 Netanyahu released a video with Farsi subtitles directed to the people of Iran.
“Every day you see a regime that subjugates you, makes fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza. Yet every day that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war,” he said.
“I know you don’t support the rapists and murderers of Hamas and Hezbollah, but your leaders do.”
“When Iran is finally free,” he said, “everything will be different.”