A Bad Week For Hezbollah
First their beepers exploded, and they switched to walkie-talkies. Then those exploded, and their senior leaders met in person. And then they exploded. All in all, this has been a terrible week for Hezbollah, and the saddest thing about it is it was all unnecessary. Hezbollah is another organization that has long outlived its purpose.
How We Got Here
A brief recap of the history may be helpful here. After the PLO was forced out of Jordan in 1970, they decamped to Lebanon, from which they launched attacks on Israel. In response, Israel launched a major invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which forced out the PLO (Western nations provided the PLO safe passage to Tunisia from Beirut). But Israel's occupation of Lebanon sparked the emergence of Hezbollah.
In 2000, when Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah could have declared "mission accomplished", and disbanded, but organizations rarely do this. Instead, they launched rocket attacks on Israel, until Israel finally invaded again in 2006. This was exactly what Hezbollah wanted, and they inflicted significant casualties on the IDF.
Flash forward to last October, when Hamas launched its infamous raid on Israel, leading to the current war in Gaza. Hezbollah decided to launch major rocket attacks on Israel in sympathy with Hamas.
And now Hezbollah has had probably their worst week ever. In response, one Arab observer, Amjad Taha of the UAE, had this to say.
A Triumph For The Middle East Over Radicalism
You dared to strike at a smart and courageous nation on October 7th—committing genocide, kidnapping their children, and violating their women.
You thought they would fall, but they rose again, returning after 11 months to correct what had only momentarily slipped—their intelligence.
Now, they will send you back 1,000 years, to a time without technology, where a ringtone feels like a death knell and a beep is a nightmare. You will be haunted by your own shadow, too afraid to use any technology, cut off from the advanced world.
And they will defeat you—not with bullets or tanks, but through the unbreakable will of brave, intelligent people. Over a simple cup of coffee, with one decisive click, they will seal your fate, and the fate of anyone who dares harm their children.
This is a nation the world respects. Lebanon—#Hezbollah's pager attacks and today's V82 strike are not merely military victories; they represent a triumph for the Middle East over radicalism—a victory not only for #Israel but for all who stand against terror.
Why Not Make Peace?
Taha's post was controversial coming from an Arab, but consider. If you are a Palestinian nationalist who wants Israel out of the West Bank, there is at least some logic to your continued conflict with Israel. But if you are Hezbollah, whose reason for being was to drive Israel out of Lebanon--which you achieved 24 years ago--why not make peace?
Some of the most talented business leaders in the world have been of Lebanese ancestry (albeit, usually Christian Lebanese)--why not live in your beautiful country and work on making it more prosperous, instead of launching rockets randomly at your southern neighbor?
Fortunately, Our iPhones Aren't Blowing Up
One of the ironies of Hezbollah's debacle, is that they started using beepers because they were afraid of Israel surveilling their smart phones. You may be comforted to know that the Portfolio Armor iPhone App doesn't link any data to you, so Israel won't be able to track you with it, no matter how much you criticize them in the comments below this post.
So consider downloading it, if you haven't already, so you can protect your current investments and get ideas for new ones. Despite a weak patch of performance that started in February, Portfolio Armor's top ten names are still averaging 6-month returns of 19.65%, versus SPY's average 6-month return of 12.62% over the same time frame.
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