The man killed then was Abbas al-Musawi, the secretary general of Hezbollah. Then, as now, Israeli analysts speculated that Musawi's death might lead to the end of Hezbollah, which was founded after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The opposite would turn out to be true. Musawi was succeeded by his 31-year-old protege, Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for three decades until his own assassination by Israel last Friday.
Nasrallah's killing, in a subterranean Hezbollah headquarters in a southern suburb of Beirut, has inevitably focused attention on two questions: whether Israel's long-term policy of assassinations is effective, and what the killing of senior Hezbollah commanders means for the group.
The issue of the efficacy of assassinations is a moot point, even within the Israeli security and political establishment.
Israel has also killed senior members of Hamas in the past, including key founders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, both in 2004, neither of which delivered it long-term strategic advantage when it came to Gaza.
Denne historien er fra October 04, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra October 04, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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The Saudi football World Cup is an act of violence and disdain
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Votes of confidence
From India to Venezuela and Senegal to the US, more people voted this year than ever before, with over 80 elections across the world. With rising authoritarianism and citizen-led resistance revealing its vulnerabilities and resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges, has democracy reached its breaking or turning point?
