Hizbullah’s armoury is growing
▻https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21726109-israel-fears-increasing-strength-party-god-hizbullahs-armoury
This new political landscape is nowhere more apparent than in the Lebanese border village of Ras Baalbek. Jihadists from Syria infiltrated the Christian enclave in 2014. The local economy suffered as the limestone quarries and hunting lodges closed and the orchards withered. Hizbullah seized the opportunity, sending weapons, night-vision goggles and advisers to help the Christians form a militia to keep the jihadists at bay.
“Israel caricatures Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation,” says Rifaat Nasrallah, the Christian militia’s leader (and no relation of Hassan). “But the #resistance is not some external force that comes to terrorise us. They are part of our society. They attend our weddings and funerals. They take care of me and I take care of them.” Alliances forged in the furnace of Syria’s war may be hard to break.