Hitting Another Chief of Staff Would Be Progress With Hezbollah

Nadene Goldfoot                                          

5. Chief of Staff of Hezbollah who was just assassinated was Haytham Ali Tabatabai was born in 1968,  in Bashoura, a neighbourhood in Beirut, to Lebanese parents although his father reportedly had Iranian roots. He grew up in southern Lebanon and reportedly joined Hezbollah in the 1980s when I was 45, so I've been writing about them for the past 46 years.  Thanksgiving was on the 23rd in 2023, and there was a significant lull in cross-border fighting during the week-long truce between Israel and Hamas that began on November 24, 2023. Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah largely paused during this time but resumed once the Gaza ceasefire expired on December 1, 2023.  Now Tabatabai is the fifth.  The U.S. had previously designated Tabatabai as a key military leader in 2016, with a reward for information on him. 

 The problem with Hezbollah is that it is a  Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary terrorist group.  Being Shia puts it in the pocket of Iran who are also Shia.  Other Muslims happen to follow the Sunni tradition and they conflict with each other with Hezbollah wanting to wipe out Israel.  

Lebanon's Civil War:  Fighting between Lebanese Christian militias and Palestinian insurgents, mainly from the Palestine Liberation Organization, began in 1975 and generated an alliance between the Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists. The conflict deepened as foreign powers, mainly Syria, Israel, and Iran, became involved and supported or fought alongside different factions.

Hezbollah emerged from the Lebanese Civil War,inflamed by the presence of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters and intervention by foreign powers like Syria and Israel. The conflict, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, pitted various factions—initially Christian groups against a Muslim-leftist alliance including the PLO—against each other, leading to the fragmentation of the country.  

  Hezbollah has confirmed the death of its military commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai, 57 years old,  in an Israeli strike that Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health says killed five people and wounded 28 [Handout/Hezbollah via EPA]

I wrote about the trials of getting the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists to disarm on November 9th of this year.   

The most significant recent update on Hezbollah is that Israel killed the group's de facto Chief of Staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, in an airstrike on a Beirut suburb on November 23, 2025, despite an ongoing ceasefire. This has raised fears of a major escalation in the conflict. 

UN claims  that Israel has violated the ceasefire daily, but the truth is that it's the terrorists who have been doing it.  Thus, Israel's decision tohit Tabatabai.  

"But since his death on Sunday, it has been revealed that Tabatabai held many senior positions within the armed political group during his tenure.

 3. Hassan Nasrallah, (31 August 1960 – 27 September 2024) was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 9/24/2024, serving 32 years.  

Hezbollah has had four main leaders (Secretary-Generals) since the position was established in 1989. 

4. The past leader was Naim Qassem, who was appointed in October 29, 2024 after the death of his predecessor, in 1991.  Following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah in September 2024, he was appointed acting secretary-general. A month later in October, Qassem was elected as secretary-general after Nasrallah's possible successor, Hashem Saffiedine was assassinated by Israeli strikes. 

Hashem Saffiedine:  (1964 – 3 October 2024) was a Lebanese Shia cleric who served as the head of Hezbollah's Executive Council from 2001 until his assassination in 2024 (for 23 years). He was 60 years old, assassinated before becoming Chief of Staff.  
  

1.  Subhi al-Tufayli (1989–1991): A co-founder of Hezbollah, al-Tufayli served as the group's first secretary-general. He later had a falling out with the organization's Iran-favored faction and was expelled in 1998.                                      

2. Abbas al-Musawi (1991–1992): Al-Musawi succeeded al-Tufayli and led the group until he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in February 1992. 

 In its official announcement, Hezbollah said Tabatabai had been part of the group since its founding in 1982 as a resistance movement against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. In the post-war period, Hezbollah grew to become Lebanon’s strongest political party and military force, serving in Lebanon’s parliament and having ministers in several governments."

Hezbollah has not fully "taken over" Lebanon's government in a formal sense but has established immense influence and de facto power, effectively becoming a "state within a state". This influence was gained through a combination of political participation, a powerful independent military wing, and an extensive social services network, all backed by Iran, of course.

Resource:

https://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2025/11/hezbollah-terrorists-in-mix-ignoring-to.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary-General_of_Hezbollah#:~:text=The%20secretary%2Dgeneral%20of%20Hezbollah,as%20deputy%20secretary%2Dgeneral%20under.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Civil_War

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/world/middleeast/israel-hezbollah-dahiya-airstrike.html#:~:text=The%20Israeli%20military%20assassinated%20a,cease%2Dfire%20in%20November%202024.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/24/who-was-haytham-ali-tabatabai-hezbollah-official-killed-by-israel

https://www.ajc.org/news/hezbollah-hamas-and-more-irans-terror-network-around-the-globe#:~:text=mounting%20Israeli%20pressure.-,Lebanon,used%20to%20manufacture%20powerful%20explosives.