Caption: Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah(L) shakes hands with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt (R) during a meeting of Lebanese rival politicians at the parliament in downtown Beirut, May 16, 2006. REUTERS/Hassan Ibrahim/Pool
LONDON, ENGLAND — As the prospect of a massive missile and ground between Hezbollah in Lebanon and the State of Israel intensifies, Walid Jumblatt is a name you need to know.
Jumblatt is the most prominent and influential Druze political figure in Lebanon.
He was once considered a moderate in Beirut politics, a proud Lebanese loyalist who was resistant to Iranian and Syrian efforts to take over Lebanese sovereignty.
Increasingly, however, Jumblatt’s statements and actions strongly suggest that he has shifted to a pro-Iran and pro-Hezbollah position.
Some officials in Western intelligence believe that Jumblatt has decided to welcome Tehran’s influence in Lebanon – even support it – rather than resist it.
True, Jumblatt has played footsie with Hezbollah from time to time over the years, as it suited his interests.
But his support for the Iranian-backed terror group has become more obvious since war broke out with Israel last October.
First, after Hezbollah started firing missiles, rockets, and mortars at Israel on October 8th, Jumblatt urged the Israeli Druze community not to support Israel in the escalating war with Hezbollah, either as soldiers or civilians.
Next, Jumblatt announced in January that he is willing to support Suleiman Frangieh to be Lebanon’s next president, even though Frangieh is Hezbollah’s chosen candidate.
“I have no problem electing Suleiman Frangieh,” Jumblatt said. “I know that this may not be the position of some members of [other Lebanese political parties]. But it’s my position.”
Frangieh is the grandson of a previous Lebanese president by the same name who served in the 1970s.
Frangieh, 58, is not only a passionate supporter of Hezbollah – he’s also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime and is known to be “a childhood friend” and “close ally” of Syrian’s bloodthirsty dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
By supporting Frangieh, therefore, Jumblatt is now supporting a presidential candidate who could effectively give Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah full political control over Lebanon.
Why, then, is the American government working closely with Jumblatt?
Why did Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s Mideast envoy, meet with Jumblatt on March 4th of this year?
And why is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) channeling millions of American taxpayer dollars through Jumblatt and his allies?
These, too, are very serious issues, ones that I’ll get to in a moment.
CONTEXT: WHO ARE THE DRUZE IN LEBANON AND WHY IS JUMBLATT SO IMPORTANT?
First, some context.
Who are the Druze in Lebanon, how many are there, and why is Walid Jumblatt a significant player in Lebanese politics?
The Druze are a super-secretive sect of Shia Islam, numbering about 250,000 people in Lebanon.
Druze tend to be very loyal to the political leadership of the country where they are living. For example, Israeli Druze are highly loyal citizens who even serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, sometimes in elite units.
In Lebanon, the Druze represent only about 4.5% of the population, living mostly in southern Lebanon, in the Chuf mountains range, near Mount Hermon, and near the Israeli border.
Yet while a small minority, the Druze worked closely with Maronite Christians to help establish the modern state of Lebanon in 1943 and have proven themselves very loyal to the Lebanese society and government since then.
The son of Kamal Jumblatt — the late charismatic political godfather of the Lebanese Druze — Walid Jumblatt was born on August 7, 1949.
Now 75 years old, Walid for decades served as the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), following in his father’s footsteps, and was widely considered a moderate political figure in Lebanese politics.
The Druze people have loved him.
Other religious and ethnic groups have respected him.
Having not only survived but successfully navigated decades of tensions and troubles in Lebanese society— from the civil war of the 1970s, to the Israeli invasion in 1982, to the rise of Hezbollah in the 90s, to 2006 war with Israel, to the Syrian civil war which began in 2011 and created a huge refugee flow into Lebanon, and the disastrous port explosion in Beirut in 2020, to name just a few — Walid Jumblatt has emerged as an elder statesman whose views, and support, are widely sought.
Last year, he relinquished formal control of his Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) to his son, Taymour.
But he remains a highly influential voice, and in Lebanon’s perpetual state of political paralysis — the country is fraught with ethnic, religious and political divisions and has been without a president since Michel Aoun’s term ended last October — Jumblatt has the potential to be a kingmaker.
EVIDENCE THAT JUMBLATT HAS SHIFTED TOWARD HEZBOLLAH
This is precisely why Jumblatt’s increasingly warm and close relations with Hezbollah — the Shiite terrorist organization funded, armed, directed, and supported by Iran — are raising growing concerns among those who want Lebanon to be safe, prosperous, and free of Iranian interference or control.
On Aug. 11, 2022, for example, Jumblatt met with Wafiq Safa, a senior Hezbollah official in charge of strengthening the Shiite organization’s control over Lebanese politics, and Hossein Khalil, top aide and close confidante to Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
Since December 2023, sources tell ALL ARAB NEWS, Jumblatt has met twice with Wafiq Safa.
Safa himself is under U.S. sanctions due to his efforts to widen Hezbollah control in Lebanon and advance Hezbollah interests at the expense of the interests of the sovereign state of Lebanon.
Various Western and Sunni Arab intelligence officials see these meetings as growing evidence that Jumblatt has fully abandoned his moderate past and is becoming a Hezbollah partisan.
JUMBLATT FOLLOWS HEZBOLLAH’S LEAD IN ENDORSING A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TO LEAD LEBANON
In March 2023, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, endorsed Suleiman Frangieh to become Lebanon’s next president.
“The natural candidate whom Hezbollah backs in the presidential election and who meets our qualifications is Suleiman Franjieh,” Nasrallah said in a televised address.
At that time, various Mideast analysts said they were watching to see if Jumblatt would follow Nasrallah’s lead.
“One thing to watch,” noted a March 2023 report by the Carnegie Endowment of Peace, based in Washington [using different spellings of Jumblatt and Frangieh], “is whether the bloc controlled by the Druze leader Walid Joumblatt will endorse Franjieh. Without Joumblatt’s backing, Franjieh’s chances will be negligible, and a recent initiative by Joumblatt involving the presidency may have been aimed at getting that point across. At the same time, it is widely understood that Saudi Arabia opposes Franjieh’s election, seeing him as a Hezbollah ally, and it is far from certain that Joumblatt would risk damaging his relations with the kingdom by ordering his parliamentarians to vote for him.”
Ten months later, Jumblatt made his move, publicly backing Frangieh.
The National – an English-language news outlet based in the United Arab Emirates – has described Jumblatt as “a weathervane of Lebanese politics.”
They and other Mideast reporters and analysts noted that Jumblatt’s endorsement of Frangieh almost a year after Hezbollah’s endorsement was highly significant because it was a reversal of Jumblatt’s past position, because all of the Christian political parties in Lebanon strongly oppose Frangieh, and because the Saudis and other moderate Arab states oppose Frangieh.
Lebanese law states that Lebanon’s presidency is supposed to be held by a Maronite Christian, not by a Shia Muslim, much less an ally of a Shia Muslim terrorist organization.
Technically, Frangieh is a Maronite Christian.
But the fact that he is so openly supportive of Hezbollah — and Hezbollah is so eager to have him become president — makes Frangieh suspect to most Lebanese Christians and to anyone who fears Hezbollah formally gaining political control of the country.
Hezbollah believes that Jumblatt’s support will likely pave the way for Frangieh to become the republic’s president.
After all, if Jumblatt tells his son — whose party has eight seats in parliament — to back Hezbollah’s candidate for president, this will almost certainly ensure Hezbollah’s ability to take over Lebanon completely.
MORE SIGNS THAT JUMBLATT HAS BECOME AN ALLY OF HEZBOLLAH
Jumblatt’s ties with Hezbollah have strengthened even more over the past few weeks.
Their rapprochement accelerated on the day that Hezbollah forces attacked the Israeli Druze town of Majdal Shams.
As you’ll recall, a rocket launched by the Shia terrorist organization landed in the middle of a football field in the Druze town in northern Israel.
Twelve Druze children and teenagers were killed instantly — and 36 others were injured — while their parents and friends looked on in horror.
The cries of despair of parents who were searching for their children will not be forgotten anytime soon by the residents of the Israeli Druze town.
Druze from neighboring countries have joined their outrage, mainly in Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s leadership understood immediately that the rocket launched at the soccer field was a serious strategic mistake, as it could cause the Druze in Lebanon to turn against the terror organization.
That’s why Hezbollah initially claimed that it did not launch the rocket.
But once Hezbollah leaders understood that nobody believed them, they secretly approached Jumblatt, the head of the Lebanese Druze community.
Rather than being infuriated by Hezbollah’s brazen murder of Druze children — even if in Israel — Jumblatt instead agreed to Hezbollah’s request to calm the situation.
While Jumblatt’s constituents expected him to openly and fiercely condemn the murder of so many Druze children, they instead witnessed Jumblatt’s silence for many hours.
Eventually, he posted a mild response on X (formerly Twitter) criticizing attacks on civilians.
But to many observers, it was now increasingly clear that Jumblatt had switched sides and become a devout ally of Hezbollah, not the leader of the Lebanese Druze community.
WHY, THEN, IS THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HELPING WALID JUMBLATT?
Given all these facts, several serious questions must be asked.
Why is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) helping Jumblatt by investing American taxpayer dollars into projects in Druze towns and villages that look to Jumblatt and his son for political leadership?
Why is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) helping Jumblatt by investing American taxpayer dollars into projects in Druze towns and villages that look to Jumblatt and his son for political leadership?
Why are U.S. officials discussing with Jumblatt projects supported by USAID in the Chouf area, when Jumblatt is aligning himself so closely with a terrorist organization?
A USAID report in 2019 states clearly and unequivocally that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.
The report criticizes Hezbollah for “siphoning off” precious and urgently needed Lebanese financial resources for itself “from the central government and local municipalities under its control.”
“Hezbollah, deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, has created a deep state [in Lebanon] under the nominal one, eroding the government’s autonomy,” the report stated on page five.
“It has established veto power over national government decision making while siphoning off resources from the central government and local municipalities under its control. Having secured with its allies the largest share of votes in the May parliamentary election, Hezbollah successfully demanded not only that the prime minister (PM) accept a pro-Syrian Sunni in the cabinet but that it also names the minister of health, who presides over the fourth-largest ministerial budget.”
If Walid Jumblatt has decided to back Hezbollah, why are American officials — on behalf of American taxpayers — not adjusting to the changing realities in the Middle East?
WHY ARE US OFFICIALS CONTINUING TO TREAT JUMBLATT AS AN ALLY?
There are other questions that must be asked, as well.
Maybe such meetings were appropriate while Jumblatt was considered a relatively moderate figure in Lebanese politics and ostensibly a friend, perhaps even an ally, of the United States.
But hasn’t that time passed?
Isn’t Walid Jumblatt now demonstrating that he is not a friend of the American people or of regional peace, security, and stability?
Isn’t Jumblatt demonstrating that he is aligning himself with Hezbollah, an organization that the U.S. government has formally declared a terrorist organization?
Maybe Walid Jumblatt was once a moderate ally of Washington, but he certainly doesn’t seem that way anymore.
When will Washington wake up and adjust to the rapidly changing realities of a war-torn and dangerous region?
Joel C. Rosenberg
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of All Arab News. He is a New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical who lives in Jerusalem.