It is certainly no surprise that in the Western press Hezbollah is shouldering the blame for the recent violence in Beirut. Despite the portrayal of events by the Western media, I urge readers to look at the full context of the violence in order to understand the origins.

There has been a debate inside of Lebanon for several months whether or not Hezbollah should be allowed to have their own telecommunications network. The debated network would geographically connect separated Hezbollah members throughout Lebanon. It is not a secret in the region that Hezbollah owed much of their success in the summer war of 2006 against Israeli forces to a portion of their telecom network, namely their land line, which allowed their rebel forces to communicate despite the jamming of their wireless communications by Israeli forces.

The legality of Hezbollah’s telecom system was being debated in the Lebanese government while just outside of government headquarters Hezbollah was leading a sit-in protest against the Western backed Lebanese government. This month (May) the sit-in had reached its 16^th month. At one point in the negotiations the Lebanese government offered to overlook the Hezbollah telecommunications network if the sit-in were to end. This indicates that the Western backed government found the sit-in to be more threatening than the telecom network. Hezbollah refused to end the sit-in and on Monday night after hours of debate within the Lebanese government, government officials announced that Hezbollah’s telecom network was illegal and would need to be shut down.

Despite this announcement on Monday night, it was not until Wednesday that the first substantial violence broke out in Beirut. The violence was born out of a peaceful protest by opposition sympathizers to demand an increase in the Lebanese minimum wage. The violence was between protesters and government backed forces sent to contain the demonstrations.

The initial violence was followed up on Thursday with a speech by Hezbollah’s leadership, namely Hassan Nasrallah. It was in that speech that Nasrallah called attention to the importance of Hezbollah’s telecom network as a defense weapon against a possible Israeli invasion, and therefore because of the importance of the Lebanese government’s target, the retaliation by Hezbollah militias would be equally severe.

The next day (Friday) following Nasrallah’s speech violence escalated and opposition forces (Hezbollah) shut down a state run television station and burned a building that housed a state owned newspaper. It was while carrying out these actions and while more generally displaying their strength that they encountered armed supporters of the Lebanese government. It was in these encounters that many of the approximately 15 deaths occurred via fire fights.

Opposition fighters are now taking up positions throughout Western Beirut and refusing to back down until talks are held between opposition groups and the current Lebanese government. Hezbollah is demanding that the government reverse its decision regarding the legality of their telecom network.

Many are viewing the current violence and tensions in Beirut as a proxy conflict between the West (namely the U.S./Israel) and Iran/Syria, however, it is more likely that the unrest is being stirred up by the U.S. and Israel to destabilize Lebanon and bring to an end the 16 months of civil disobedience being carried out by Hezbollah in order to apply pressure to the current Lebanese government. The U.S. and Israel want an angle into the talks that would broker an agreement between the current Lebanese government and opposition forces, which include not only Hezbollah but also Christian opposition groups within Lebanon.

Opposition forces were expected to simply accept the dismantling of their communications network and leave themselves vulnerable to the very real possibility of an Israeli, U.S. backed, offensive under the pre-text of receiving military support from Iran and Syria. Opposition forces have shown that they will not take this lying down and intend to fight for their tools of protection and defense.

Shaun Booth can be contacted by writing to boothshaun@gmail.com