On Feb. 16, 1992, a decade into the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, Israel assassinated Abbas al-Musawi, Hezbollah’s co-founder and Secretary-General. At the time, Israeli media praised the army’s decisive action, predicting that “the age of tussling with Hezbollah on its home turf, the Buffer Zone, is over,” and that al-Musawi’s death would mark the beginning of “a new era.”
Such predictions were proven hollow: al-Musawi was replaced by Hassan Nasrallah, a much more effective and charismatic leader, and Hezbollah grew so powerful that they successfully forced the Israelis out of south Lebanon by 2000. …..more
