Middle East assassinations raise specter of yet more chaos

Editor's note: Mohamed El-Bendary, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a Cairo-based freelance writer and independent researcher. His commentaries have appeared in major international media outlets. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

From July 20 to July 30, I visited Lebanon and mingled with its people whom I found very sociable and enjoy a great sense of humor, despite the economic and political crisis their country has been plunged into since 2019. I stayed for a week in a flat in one of Beirut's southern suburbs, named Al-Ouzai, to get a glimpse of how life is there. Residents of these southern suburbs (collectively known by the Arabic word "suburb," Dahiyeh) live in demolished blocks, much of which are scars of past wars.

Hezbollah, which has military and political influence, maintains a strong hold in Dahiyeh in which there is no government-enacted rule of law and where close to a million people of diverse identities (including Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians) live in dire circumstances.

Residents of the predominantly Shiite Dahiyeh in Lebanon face many challenges such as poverty and maintaining security. Though some cautioned me that the area could be dangerous, I – like many of its people – found living in Dahiyeh to be safe for the simple reason that Hezbollah members actively and persistently maintain its security, as well due to the sense of community entrenched in it. It is also worth mentioning that Hezbollah has successfully established educational, health and media institutions in Dahiyeh.

While Dahiyeh is sunk into unwavering poverty, downtown Beirut – which is located just a few minutes' drive from Dahiyeh – is full of high-rises and fancy cars that make us feel while walking there that we are in a rich European city. This social divide is placing a burden on the country's economy.

On July 30, Israel struck Dahiyeh and killed senior Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shokor – a man whom it blames for the rocket attack that killed 12 people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights three days earlier. Hezbollah will, undoubtedly, avenge the attack by launching retaliation strikes; after all, there has been near-daily, tit-for-tat attacks on the Israeli-Lebanese border since last October.

Wednesday's assassination of Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh further raises the stakes in the escalating tension in the region; it, regrettably, throws the Middle East into a dangerous new phase. For there are strong ties between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Hamas which Iran often promote as "Axis of Resistance."

The death of Haniyeh – together with the July 31 killing of two Al Jazeera journalists in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip and the release of a UN report documenting that Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since October 7 faced torture and mistreatment – are further raising anger in the Arab world, with Egyptians calling on their government to sever ties with the hardline government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ordinary Lebanese fear a breakout of an all-out regional war which would throw their country's embattled economy into further decline. Yet, they remain resolute in their support of the Palestinian cause and often denounce the Israelis as "treacherous" people.

While having lunch with Jack Shaheen, the popular Arab-American academic who fought negative stereotypes of Arabs in the Western media, in a restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1998, I asked him whether Hezbollah would be able to survive Israeli bombing in the future. Shaheen stressed to me then that Israel will never be able to "obliterate" Hezbollah because the group is an "idea" and a "belief" that shall always survive no matter how powerful Israel becomes.

Pondering Shaheen's words today, I find the U.S.'s continued blessing of Israeli retaliatory action against Arab resistance groups as foolish.

We can't change the present in Lebanon until we understand the past. Lebanese want reform and a stable system of government, but they don't want U.S. involvement in their country's affairs because they view that as a step towards making concessions. Until a solution to the Palestinian cause is reached based on international agreements already signed, Lebanese and the people of the Middle East will continue to witness conflict.

There is an urgent need for a diplomatic solution because a full-scale war will benefit no one. The focus should be on reaching a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, for Hezbollah has often stated that it will stop firing at Israel when that is achieved.

Unless and until the Palestinians have a homeland and Syria regains ownership of the Golan Heights, we shall continue to see more lives lost. Once a just and durable Arab-Israeli peace deal is reached, the Lebanese people can then rebuild their country with the establishment of a strong government, construction of factories that can produce and export, and restoration of their agricultural system.

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