What has President Joseph Aoun done to provoke Hezbollah to mobilize all its media personnel and rally its audience against the presidency?

In the objectives of President Aoun's stances, which aim to achieve Lebanon's sovereignty by restricting weapons to the Lebanese state's control—a stance he has adhered to since his election as president: ending the war, the return of displaced persons and prisoners, and the reconstruction of destroyed areas.

Are there any other methods, employed by others who have tried wars and entangled the country and its people in them, to achieve these goals?

The Lebanese have tried for a long time, in vain, even President Aoun himself spent a whole year trying to accommodate the party and convince it of the need to rely on the state, starting with the exclusivity of weapons in its hands.

But the party settled for South Litani, after losing the war and being forced to withdraw from frontline villages, and accepting the agreements signed with the blessing of its partner in the duo, President Nabih Berri.

As for the demand for the Lebanese state to deter aggression, it cannot be realized as long as the goal of exclusive weaponry has not been achieved, especially since Israel is interpreting the results of the war it launched against Lebanon in general and the party in particular.

The pressing question now: Have weapons become more important than the Lebanese, especially the southerners? While the southerners' reliance on resistance in the absence of the state had proven effective for decades, the results of the last war overturned that equation, and Hezbollah's weapons no longer benefit the southerners. Otherwise, how does the party explain its failure since 2024 to impose deterrence against Israel?

In light of this, the President cannot remain a spectator. But it's certain that the first steps the international community focuses on is the monopoly of weapons in the hands of the Lebanese state while seeking to enhance the capabilities of the Lebanese army, as evidenced by the upcoming conference in Paris early next month.

If Lebanon is unable to confront and deter Israel except with speeches and "blustering," and if Tel Aviv, supported by the United States, uses Hezbollah’s weapons as a pretext, what options does Lebanon have? Speaker of the House Nabih Berri’s recipe for national unity is the only way, echoing the historic stance of Imam Musa al-Sadr: "The peace of Lebanon is the best form of war with Israel."

So, does Hezbollah achieve Lebanon's internal peace?

What happened in the past hours of the party organizing the most violent media attack on President Aoun and the presidency affected all Lebanese, who are now repeating: Why is the party fleeing its crisis with its environment, led by southerners eager to return to their homes and villages, by creating internal crises, sometimes with the President, others with the Prime Minister, and always with the Lebanese components? Why does the party place its environment against all other Lebanese?

The actions of the party undermine all the efforts made by Imam al-Sadr, Imam Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din, Speaker Nabih Berri, and others to make the Shiites a national bridge among the components, a factor of cohesion not division, rejecting the isolation of others, as the party practices the policy of isolating its environment from the rest of the country's components.

The actions of Hezbollah indicate that it is floundering, without providing answers to the questions of the Lebanese about the path and destiny. Voices within the Shiite environment have begun to gradually rise, demanding that it either declares its inability to defend them or repels Israeli attacks. The Iranian waiting list cannot be watched while placing Lebanese Shiites as the first line of defense for a dying axis.

The answer cannot be avoided through the high-pitched speech of the party’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, nor by organizing media campaigns against the presidency, the government, or any politician who does not see Hezbollah’s actions as serving Lebanon’s interest. It is a waste of time that the Lebanese pay for, especially the southerners, whose losses the party has compounded, and thwarted all of Berri’s achievements over forty years, in backup strikes that have brought disasters.