Lebanon and Israel have two big features in common: They are really small in geography and incredibly diverse in population — religiously diverse, ethnically diverse, politically diverse, linguistically diverse, educationally diverse.
Over the last two decades, though, Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Shiite militia, Hezbollah, whose name means “the party of God,” trashed that principle.
It used its superiority in arms and warfighters, and the backing of Iran, to impose its authority on all the other Lebanese parties and sects.
This was all done while trying to neuter the Supreme Court’s ability to stop any of it.
This sort of resource/power grab is unprecedented in Israeli politics, and it is all the more galling when you consider that it is being done, in part, by ultra-Orthodox parties whose members pay the least amount of taxes and serve the least in the military.
Persons:
“, ”, — “
Organizations:
of God, West Bank
Locations:
Lebanon, Israel, Iran, Oslo