Details of America's Failed Strategy to Eliminate Hezbollah in Lebanon

The US National Security Council has put a comprehensive plan on its agenda, claiming to seek the elimination of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Given conditions in Lebanese society, its failure is already evident.

According to Ambassador Arjan, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar published the document of the American National Security Council, which was presented to the Donald Trump administration under the title "How to get rid of Hezbollah" and reviewed the details of this plan. This plan emphasizes the transition of America to the policy of "maximum pressure" on the resistance community through economic sanctions and deprivation of services along with the policy based on providing "economic and social incentives" through the Lebanese government.

The compilers of this document consider the attempt to "sever the link between Hezbollah and its supporters" as the main factor for entering into this plan, and in this regard, they propose a series of measures, the most important of which are: giving priority to the residents of the south in reconstruction, payment of compensations, and provision of services; Returning bank deposits and creating job opportunities. The United States believes that these measures can gradually reduce the dependence of the Shiite community on Hezbollah's social service network.

This document also calls for avoiding "discourse of punishment and humiliation" against Hezbollah's supporters while isolating its military and security core. The American strategy is based on the illusion that the base of resistance has been worn out by wars and crises, and if the government is really able to rebuild, pay compensation and provide services, it may reconsider its positions and political options.

America has already used similar models in various countries including Japan, Germany and Northern Ireland, and it wants to use it in Lebanon, regardless of the differences between the societies of these countries. At the same time, this document admits the limitations of comparing Lebanon with other countries and admits that the difference in political, social and historical structures of these countries makes it impossible to recreate and copy the experiences of Germany, Japan and Northern Ireland regarding Lebanon.

However, in the proposed actions, the practical manifestation of this acknowledgment is not seen and the document editors return to presenting the same "old versions".

The concept mentioned in this document is "Indianization" and "Palestinization" of Lebanon, which "Mounir al-Aksh", a Palestinian thinker, also discussed in his analysis of the American colonial experience. The basis of this policy was erasing the cultural and historical identity of the community such as Indians and rebuilding their collective memory in order to turn colonialism into a model and create a sense of shame from the original identity. In this model, cultural heritage is preserved only as "folklore" and without relation to the historical and political rights of its owners. In the sense of producing a person who accepts colonialism as a final reality and no longer pursues the struggle to reclaim his national rights and historical identity.

In this approach, it is no longer necessary for Palestinians to completely abandon their national identity, but the goal is to gradually rearrange their priorities; In such a way that maintaining economic and social stability and guaranteeing the conditions of daily life is more important for them than demanding national rights or continuing the struggle.

The factors behind the failure of the American plan in Lebanon

What is raised in the American document is not a new issue; Rather, it is largely aligned with the ideas and approaches that were previously proposed by researchers and Zionist officials to weaken Hezbollah and reduce its connection with its social environment. But the calculations of the Lebanese and Palestinian society revealed the limitations of this plan; Because the improvement of some economic conditions never led to the end of the resistance in the Palestinian society.

A study published by the Institute for Internal Security Studies of the Zionist regime in 2009 emphasized that the expansion of economic cooperation and the achievement of growth in the West Bank did not necessarily lead to a change in the fundamental beliefs of the Palestinians and their view on the issue of struggle.

In a book published in 2007, Zionist researcher Danny Berkovich proposes policies to weaken the "rooted popular power of resistance" and in this context, he focuses on two axes: the first axis is to strengthen the institutions of the Lebanese government through regional and international support so that the government can gradually expand its presence and impose restrictions on Hezbollah. The second axis is to weaken the social bond between the party and its followers by reducing the party's economic power and weakening the support and service networks that help stabilize the party's presence in society.

After about two decades, this approach has been raised again in a study published in June 2026 by Jeffrey Willman, a former US diplomat at the Brookings Institution. He reproduced the same logic and believes that weakening the political and social base of Hezbollah requires proving the ability of the Lebanese government to provide services, job opportunities and security, in a way that goes beyond what Hezbollah offers.

Historical experiences, however, raise serious questions about the accuracy of this approach. The past experiences of Palestine and Lebanon have shown that national belonging is not just an "economic benefit" and the relationship between societies and their ideals cannot be summed up in the equations of income and services.

In this way, the approaches inspired by the experiences of Germany, Japan and Northern Ireland in Palestine and Lebanon are contradictory to its historical, social and political realities and structures, and changing living conditions and providing economic alternatives does not necessarily mean changing political awareness and giving up choices that have been formed during decades of struggle and historical experience.