鈥榃ithout a shot鈥: How a local warlord aims to break Hezbollah鈥檚 hold
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| QASR, Lebanon
Al-Hajj Mohamed Ja鈥檃far looks more like an unassuming businessman than a powerful Lebanese Shiite tribal warlord hunting for an infusion of cash to challenge Hezbollah in his native Bekaa Valley.
Interviewed in Qasr 鈥 a village on the northeast edge of Lebanon overlooking farms, orchards, and Syrian battlefields 鈥 Mr. Ja鈥檃far is clean shaven and dressed in a dark blue windbreaker, dress trousers, and sensible shoes.
But from their homes in a region of Lebanon known more for smuggling and lethal tribal disputes he led 1,000 armed members of his Ja鈥檃far tribe into battle in Syria. His militia fought as a unit of Syria鈥檚 Russia-backed V Corps. With Russian air support, they helped oust Islamic State jihadists from Palmyra in 2016, and later fought in Deir Ezzor.
Why We Wrote This
Guns or butter? Hezbollah made its name fighting Israel and inspiring supporters. But in Lebanon鈥檚 Bekaa Valley, a local warlord says what the people need now are services and better lives.
All told, Mr. Ja鈥檃far lost 47 men in Syria, and says he 鈥渨on many awards鈥 from Russian commanders and kudos from President Vladimir Putin. Video footage on his phone shows him in Syria 鈥撀爓earing the same Everyman windbreaker 鈥 inspecting military hardware and meeting Russian commanders.
But since last year he has vowed to return to Lebanon to take on the political elite and improve lives in the long-neglected Bekaa Valley, where the Shiite militia Hezbollah has heavy influence, as well as its training bases.
Mr. Ja鈥檃far sees an opportunity in the nationwide protests that erupted on Oct. 17 and have targeted Lebanon鈥檚 chronic sectarian and corrupt ruling system 鈥撀tainting Hezbollah along the way. With foreign financial support, he says, he could 鈥渃hange the calculations鈥 of Bekaa residents, and turn them away from Hezbollah.
鈥淲e aren鈥檛 asking to fight Hezbollah head on; the whole country knows how [worthy of] respect they are,鈥 says Mr. Ja鈥檃far, fingering a pair of black prayer beads with silver overlay as cigars from a humidor are offered to guests.
鈥淏y receiving support, we can tell Hezbollah, 鈥榊ou are on your own. You want to liberate Palestine? Go ahead. We want better lives for our families,鈥欌 says Mr. Ja鈥檃far.
What the people need
He says 1,500 members of his tribe fight with Hezbollah for $600 per month, 鈥渂ut come back from Syria broke. They keep you poor.鈥 He says if he had the resources he could 鈥済uarantee鈥 that such Hezbollah fighters would cross to his side.
鈥淚f I get the resources, I can take the whole area not by fighting, but by giving [people] what they need. They don鈥檛 have schools. They don鈥檛 have food,鈥 says Mr. Ja鈥檃far. 鈥淚 will not go on the stand and badmouth Hezbollah, but [do it] through reforms. If that happens, Hezbollah will be finished in this area.鈥
Mr. Ja鈥檃far claims he could attract 10,000 fighters to his cause. The Bekaa clans they would come from 鈥撀爄ncluding his own 鈥撀爃ave long had a love-hate relationship with Hezbollah.
The Bekaa Valley produced many of the original fighters for Hezbollah when it was founded to fight Israel in 1982, though the Shiite militia鈥檚 primary recruiting pool has shifted to its strongholds in southern Lebanon, adjacent to the front with Israel, and in Beirut鈥檚 southern suburbs.
While his Dir al-Watan (Homeland Shield) militia fought alongside Hezbollah in Syria 鈥 with government troops, Iranian advisers, and Russian support 鈥 Mr. Ja鈥檃far says he was warned in 2017 by a Russian officer of a Hezbollah plot to assassinate him. Possibly, he suggests, because his stature had grown into a political threat.
Already, the militia leader is wanted by the Lebanese government for a blood feud that started with the killing of his son at a Lebanese Army intelligence checkpoint in 2016. He reportedly orchestrated a revenge killing of the perpetrator near Damascus.
But strategically, Mr. Ja鈥檃far sees Hezbollah as overstretched beyond Syria in Iraq and Yemen, and therefore vulnerable at home.
Hezbollah 鈥済ot too big鈥
鈥淣ow Hezbollah is hanging by a thread, anyone can come along鈥 to challenge them, he says. 鈥淭he Russians told me, 鈥業f anything goes wrong in Lebanon, then Hezbollah will take over the country.鈥 But the Russians are not studying the tribes.
鈥淗ezbollah can be brought down without a shot, if you bring factories and resources and what people want,鈥 asserts Mr. Ja鈥檃far. 鈥淭he bigger they are, the harder they fall. They don鈥檛 care about people. They got too big, and they are corrupt. ... They eat the whole loaf and give you a crumb, that is their tactic. We want to change that.鈥
And there is much to change, in a region renowned for smuggling of all kinds, and lawlessness.
鈥淔or a while now, there鈥檚 been resentment about the fact that particular area feels marginalized, both in terms of development and economy, and that is why these grumblings come about,鈥 says Aymenn al-Tamimi, a Ph.D. researcher at Swansea University in Wales, who has interviewed Mr. Ja鈥檃far several times.
In those interviews, Mr. Ja鈥檃far has said his forces 鈥渁re available for the Syrian command.鈥 Every time he mentions Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he uses the phrase 鈥渕ay God protect him.鈥 In 2018, he told Mr. Tamimi that the Syrian government was 鈥渧ictorious over global imperialism 鈥撀爐hat is, America 鈥撀燼nd more than 80 countries,鈥 funded by Persian Gulf states.
Yet now he says he is looking for foreign support and wouldn鈥檛 rule out Gulf or even British cash.
鈥淭hey want to set up their own party to represent their interests, not ideologically breaking from the resistance axis as a whole but trying to better represent the interests of that area,鈥 says Mr. Tamimi, noting that state services are poor and that electricity came no more than six hours at a time during his visits.
鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 going to happen immediately, because setting up a political party in Lebanon requires money, and it鈥檚 difficult for new names to break in,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he problem is you can talk big like that, but you need far more resources to set up your own party and challenge Amal and Hezbollah.鈥
A weakened narrative
Still, Hezbollah has been one of the targets of Lebanese protesters who view them as part of a sectarian ruling elite that has done little to prevent the suffering of their fellow citizens. The raison d鈥櫭猼re for Hezbollah鈥檚 founding 鈥撀爀nding Israeli occupation and defending Lebanon 鈥撀爃as receded since the last Hezbollah-Israeli war in 2006.
鈥淚t鈥檚 becoming harder and harder for Hezbollah to sustain the resistance narrative ... when years pass and there鈥檚 no conflict with Israel,鈥 says Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of 鈥淲arriors of God: Inside Hezbollah鈥檚 Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel.鈥
鈥淭his is particularly true in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, which are geographically distant from the front with Israel,鈥 says Mr. Blanford, who has interviewed Mr. Ja鈥檃far several times. 鈥淭hese areas were never really occupied anyway. In the Bekaa there are very tribal dynamics, where the tribes come first. So Hezbollah has always had trouble trying to placate the tribes.鈥
And that trouble will continue, if Mr. Ja鈥檃far has his way 鈥撀燼nd can find any money. He says his ambitions reach beyond the forested hillsides of the western Bekaa into the rest of Lebanon, to remove 鈥渢hese politicians who made it, upon the blood of the people.鈥
鈥淭hey brainwashed these people and use sectarian issues,鈥 says Mr. Ja鈥檃far about Lebanon鈥檚 competing ruling elites, echoing the sentiment of many protesters. 鈥淚f they have a problem among themselves, the Lebanese people pay dearly. When they become friends, the people again suffer.鈥