[News] The funeral that sealed Hezbollah’s unbreakable covenant

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 The funeral that sealed Hezbollah’s unbreakable covenant

Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut became a powerful testament to the
enduring spirit of resistance, as millions gathered to honor his memory
amidst the wreckage left by the Israeli aggression in south Lebanon and the
southern suburbs of Beirut. Despite the destruction and constant threats,
the resolute defiance of the people made it clear: the resistance remains
steadfast.

Pepe Escobar <https://thecradle.co/authors/pepe-escobar>

FEB 25, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/the-funeral-that-sealed-hezbollahs-unbreakable-covenant
Photo Credit: The Cradle

BEIRUT - It’s about 1:30 pm on Sunday, 23 February. Inside Beirut's vast
Sports City Stadium, at least 100,000 people clad in black and draped in
yellow resistance flags pay their respects as the caskets of the late
Hezbollah secretary-generals Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine begin
to make a slow turn around the arena.
A photo of Beirut's Sports City Stadium during Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem
Safieddine's funeral ceremony.

Suddenly a triangular formation of Israeli F-15 and F-35 fighter jets
pierce the skies, buzzing the stadium as low as aeronautically possible. In
any other nation, on such a somber occasion, this would have been an aerial
tribute for the ceremony taking place on the ground.

But this is Lebanon – a nation under pressure by the usual suspects, whose
national army is prohibited from purchasing high-tech jet fighters and any
meaningful air defenses. So the Israeli aerial show was, predictably, yet
another provocation – one which, incidentally, instantly turned against the
perpetrators.

The whole stadium – plus the more than a million Lebanese congregating
around it – outroared the agent provocateurs, in a cacophony of insults and
deprecatory remarks.

Mockery prevailed, rather than rage. What are you gonna do? Bomb all of us
at the same time – as you did with Sayyed Nasrallah on 27 September 2024?
We’re here, and we’re ready. Bring it on, cowards.

“Death to Israel,” they chanted, a sea of fists pumping the air. “Labayka
ya Nasrallah” (“at your service, oh Nasrallah”), they roared in unison.

The handlers obviously did not get the message, because the pathetic
Hasbara air show got a replay less than an hour later, met with even louder
cries of derision and defiance.

Incidentally, Lebanese engineers confirm that when the Israeli Air Force
dropped dozens of synchronized bombs on Hezbollah’s underground command HQ
in Dahiye, the southern Beirut suburb, to assassinate the resistance
leader, this could only have been accomplished with US high-tech
intel/satellite know-how.

The gathered human intel that facilitated this massive hit could only have
been collected by boots on the ground - in this case, many believe, an
array of Syrian refugees ferociously anti-Hezbollah.

Israeli intel may boast of – potentially – infiltrating some nodes of
Hezbollah’s nearly iron-clad internal discipline as well as possessing all
the American high-tech gear it needs to stage everything from childish
provocations to Hell from Above. But when it comes to the nitty gritty –
actual battle – the Israeli occupation army is actually a bunch of wimps.


*Masters of Destruction *

And that brings us to the senseless devastation inflicted by Israel on
south Lebanon with its failed “invasion.” Occupation troops tried
desperately for 66 days to penetrate deep into the south, but were unable
to progress more than a few kilometers across the border, before
immediately retreating back to their safe zones.

This daily pattern of loss infuriated Israeli leaders, who made up for this
deficiency by launching disproportionate and indiscriminate air attacks
across Lebanon. The numbers vary, but at least 4,800 Lebanese were killed
in battles and missile attacks across the south, the majority civilians.

With no tangible gains and massive Israeli troop demoralization on the
Lebanese border, Tel Aviv literally begged Washington to strike a ceasefire
deal with Hezbollah.

That inevitably opened the terrain for the true and tested specialty of a
cowardly army: Revenge.

Nothing prepares anyone to witness the remains of the insane destruction
perpetrated by the Israelis in selected south Lebanon latitudes – from
Maroun al-Ras to Odaisseh – most of this carnage wreaked *after* the
ceasefire agreement was struck.

Maroun al-Ras is on the top of a hill, strategically overlooking Palestine
in the deep background. It’s now a classic case of how Israel totally
destroys a village in order *not* to save it.

Maroun al-Ras, part of the union of municipalities of Qalaa, harbored
roughly 600 residential units, with around 2,500 to 3,000 residents. During
the ceasefire, the Israelis – who lacked the competence to occupy it during
the war – came back and destroyed everything, from booby-trapping homes to
bulldozing roads and uprooting trees.

Walking around the wasteland of Maroun al-Ras is the epitome of Desolation
Row: a sort of microcosm of Gaza, equally unlivable. Yet the resistance is
everywhere – from Hezbollah flags and countless pictures of local martyrs
duly honored to the first bulldozers starting to remove piles of detritus.

A photo showing the destruction in south Lebanon's Maroun al-Ras.

Odaisseh, smack at the Palestine border, is an equally horrifying case.
Once again, the Israeli army failed to capture the town after two months of
fierce fighting with Hezbollah. Once again, the ceasefire was used for a
Revenge Operation. Odaisseh, today, stands literally razed to the ground.

In all these cases, there was absolutely not a single peep from NATOstan
media and not a single forceful condemnation, not to mention action, by the
United Nations.

Unlike Maroun al-Ras, where you see occupied Palestine from afar, at the
top of the hill (in the foreground, it’s actually stolen Lebanese land),
the limits of Odaisseh are right in front of an occupying/invading power
checkpoint. A group of Israeli occupiers pointed their guns at us during
our visit.  <https://x.com/s_m_marandi/status/1893274017542365429>But the
most significant bunch were those who peered behind a wall in fear.
A photo showing the destruction in south Lebanon's Odaisseh.

Tel Aviv, predictably, continues to violate the ceasefire it begged for:
its troops remain as invaders in five hilltop positions
<https://thecradle.co/articles/why-israel-occupies-five-lebanese-hills> in
south Lebanon, and its air force persists in conducting air strikes across
the country.

Seen as pieces in a mosaic, the aerial provocation on Sunday, coupled with
the senseless destruction of villages in south Lebanon, depict what, at
best, should be construed as a Revenge Killing Machine posing as a
nation-state.

Yet the resistance, now embodied by the memory and example of Sayyed
Nasrallah, simply will not be intimidated. It’s no accident that he is and
will continue to be revered all across the Arab world, the lands of Islam,
and the Global Majority.

So what if the president and premier of Lebanon did not attend the funeral
ceremony on Sunday? These are mere puppets. What matters is what was sealed
by this extraordinarily moving funeral ceremony: “We are the covenant.” The
resistance’s rallying cry simply won’t be erased.

In his last speech, on 19 September 2024, the day after the Israeli terror
attack on Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies, and only eight days before
his assassination by 85 one-ton American bombs, Nasrallah all but laid out
the inevitable future:

“The hour of reckoning will come, but we alone will determine its nature,
its scale, its location, and its execution – within the tightest circle
possible. For we are at the heart of the most precise, the most sensitive,
the most profound, and the most decisive battle.”
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