Hey, did you know that the “resistance’s” goal is to help “preserve sovereignty, independence, and freedom, and the liberation of all occupied territories?”

Hezbollah’s No 2, Sheikh Naim Kassem has given us a glimpse of how Hezbollah will be fighting for its relevance in the coming period. In a lecture to Arab university professors from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya, Mr. Kassem laid down his case for the “resistance”. For all those who really want to get into the heads of Hezbollah, this is a must read.

Basically, their case boils down to 3 points:

• Diplomacy is good, but without resistance it is futile

• Resistance is a “project” that makes Lebanon stronger and defends it against the “permanent Israeli threat”
• The resistance and the state complement each other to achieve the highest goals of “maintaining independence and preserving our country

While I can see some of Hezbollah’s points (like for example the fact that Israel would never give anything back to Lebanon if it weren’t for Hezbollah’s hard edge), Hezbollah’s ideological “charm offensive” makes three dangerous assumptions:

• The first is that the rest of the Lebanese will simply trust Hezbollah with all their guns and rockets and their opaque, foreign-funded structure, without any form of accountability.

• The second is that Lebanon, as declared by Sayyed Nassrallah, can create a “third model”, a fudge between Dubai and Gaza, that can be both economically prosperous and violently militant.
• The third is a firm believe that Israel will somehow “eventually disappear”; a state of denial that is unfortunately shared by millions of Arabs.

Hezbollah sees this speech as their way of being flexible and friendly with the rest of the Lebanese. That is very worrying.