Hasan Nasrallah chose his own fate

By David Ignatius

Hasan Nasrallah wanted to live and die as a fighter, and he got his wish Friday, when Israeli bombs pulverized his underground lair in Beirut. Hezbollah will surely seek to avenge Nasrallah’s death, but he was the rare leader who was close to irreplaceable.

I met Nasrallah in October 2003 in a fortified bunker in the southern suburbs of Beirut, not far from where he died. For a man who ordered the deaths of so many Israelis and Lebanese, he was surprisingly soft-spoken. He was a charmer, not a shouter; his legitimacy came from his clerical study in Najaf, Iraq, and his riveting sermons, televised during Muharram and other religious holidays.

In a Lebanon where political leaders usually live the soft life, even as they plunder the people, Nasrallah was different. He told me proudly that his own son Hadi had died fighting Israel in 1997. “We didn’t send our children to London or Paris to university but to fight alongside other Lebanese,” he said.

Nasrallah was also unyielding. That’s why he was an inevitable Israeli target. He ordered rocket attacks against Israel starting Oct. 8, the day after Hamas’s barbaric massacre of Israeli civilians. He exercised a measure of restraint, refraining from large-scale attacks on Israeli cities. But he wouldn’t step away from the battle.

https://wapo.st/47IpMAc