Micky SoloMan

🧵 Ever wondered how Hezbollah rose to dominate Lebanon 🇱🇧, built a vast criminal empire, and how Israel is now systematically dismantling its terror infrastructure? This thread 🧵 dives deep into the history to deliver clear, factual insights into the past and the ongoing conflicts shaping the region. Beirut was once considered the Paris of the Middle East. Lebanon had a thriving Christian population and a vibrant, cosmopolitan society. That slowly changed as Hezbollah gradually altered the demography through its rise, alliances, and growing influence in Shia areas. Hezbollah (“Party of God”) was founded in 1982 during Lebanon’s brutal 15-year civil war and Israel’s invasion to push out PLO fighters. The Islamic Republic of Iran's Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) provided funding, training, and ideology, turning a loose Shia militia into Iran’s key proxy. It quickly gained fame for guerrilla attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2000 was spun as a Hezbollah “victory,” skyrocketing its popularity. The 2006 war with Israel further cemented its image as the only group to “defeat” Israel militarily. Hezbollah became a state within a state. It built vast social networks - schools, clinics, and welfare - in Shia areas, winning genuine grassroots support. Exempted from the 1989 Taif Accords disarmament as the “resistance,” it entered politics in 1992, joined cabinets from 2005, and won veto power. By the 2010s–2020s, its armed wing dwarfed Lebanon’s army, controlling southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut while rearming in violation of UN Resolution 1701. Hezbollah’s criminal empire turned it into a transnational terror group. It ran massive drug-trafficking networks: cocaine from Latin America through cartels and the Tri-Border Area, hashish and captagon from the Bekaa Valley and Syria, plus money laundering, arms smuggling, and human/sex trafficking rings that exploited Syrian refugees. These operations generated hundreds of millions annually, funding its military wing across five continents. This criminal stranglehold, combined with political veto power, Syrian war entanglement, and Iranian alignment, brought Lebanon to a complete halt. Once a regional banking and tourism hub, the country collapsed into hyperinflation, bank runs, over 80% poverty, mass emigration, and total infrastructure breakdown by 2019. Hezbollah also has a long history of terror operations targeting Jews and Christians. It carried out the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing and the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, killing over 100 civilians, mostly Jewish. In Lebanon it clashed violently with Christian communities during the civil war, using assassinations and attacks that deepened sectarian divisions. Hezbollah was deeply implicated in the October 7, 2023 attacks, coordinating with Hamas, publicly praising the massacre, and immediately opening a second front with thousands of rockets that killed Israeli civilians and displaced entire northern communities.

"Greetings from Dubai. I wanted to take a brief moment to connect and share a clear and accurate update on the evolving circumstances here. There's been a lot of global media coverage about Dubai and the wider region, and while news cycles can sometimes amplify scenarios and uncertainty, we felt it was important to share the reality of the situation directly from us on the ground. Here in our city, the safety of all residents and visitors is and always will be our top priority. Federal and local authorities are taking extensive measures to keep our population safe and informed. Our city has strong, well-established systems for managing global disruption and close coordination between government and industry partners to ensure residents and visitors are supported. Dubai is safe and stable. Daily life continues with public services, infrastructure, and tourism facilities fully operational. Hotels, restaurants, retail, and transportation actors are open. While there have been some flight disruptions, operations have been scaling back up, spearheaded by Emirates and Flydubai. We are confident in a sound and full recovery. Dubai is home to close to 200 nationalities living, working, and coming together as a community, even more so during this period. Our historic model of openness has shaped our resilience and will continue to attract first-time and repeat visitors from around the world, families looking to relocate here, and businesses seeking to set up shop in the city. We thank everyone who has expressed support for Dubai, and we encourage you to follow only trusted official media as well as the federal and local authorities. We do this to avoid the spread of disinformation and subsequent panic movements that can create undue risk for all. To our residents and partners, thank you. To our future visitors, we look forward to welcoming you very soon." "تحياتي من دبي. أود التواصل معكم لأنقل لكم آخر المعلومات بكل دقة ووضوح حول الأوضاع الراهنة في دبي. حيث تم تداول الكثير من الأخبار في وسائل الإعلام العالمية عن دبي والمنطقة ككل، وبما أن الأخبار قد تبالغ وتضخم الأحداث أحياناً، ولهذا فإنها تخلق حالة من عدم اليقين، وعليه رأينا أنه من المهم أن نشارككم حقيقة الوضع مباشرة من قلب دبي. نؤكد أن سلامة جميع المواطنين والمقيمين والزوار ستظل أولوية قصوى لنا ولن تتغير. كما تبذل السلطات الاتحادية والمحلية جهوداً مكثفة وتتخذ إجراءات مناسبة لضمان أمن السكان وسلامتهم وإبقائهم على اطلاع مستمر بما يحدث. تمتلك دبي أنظمة قوية ومجهزة للتعامل مع أي اضطرابات عالمية، من خلال تنسيق جهودها بين الجهات الحكومية وشركائها في مختلف القطاعات، بما يضمن توفير الدعم والاستقرار لكل من مواطنيها وزوارها. كما نؤكد أن دبي ما زالت مدينة آمنة ومستقرة، وتسير فيها الحياة اليومية بشكل طبيعي مع استمرار عمل الخدمات العامة والبنية التحتية والمنشآت السياحية بكفاءة. وتواصل الفنادق والمطاعم وقطاع التجزئة ووسائل النقل عملها بكامل طاقتها وهي متاحة للجميع. وعلى الرغم من حدوث بعض الاضطرابات في حركة الطيران، إلا أنها الآن تشهد عودة تدريجية قوية تقودها شركتا طيران الإمارات وفلاي دبي، ونحن على يقين تام من التعافي والعودة الكاملة. تحتضن دبي ما يقارب 200 جنسية يعملون ويتعايشون فيها معاً كمجتمع واحد، ويزداد هذا الترابط في مثل هذه الفترة. لقد ساهم نموذجنا التاريخي القائم على الانفتاح في ترسيخ مرونتنا، وسوف نستمر في جذب المزيد من الزوار من مختلف أنحاء العالم، سواء من زوار المدينة لأول مرة أو الذين اعتادوا على زيارتها باستمرار، بالإضافة إلى العائلات الراغبة في الانتقال إلى المدينة، وإلى الشركات التي تتطلع لتأسيس أعمالها فيها. نشكر كل من أبدى دعمه لدبي، ونحثكم على متابعة الأخبار والتطورات من المصادر الموثوقة فقط من وسائل الإعلام الرسمية والجهات الاتحادية والمحلية، حفاظاً على وضوح الصورة وتجنباً للشائعات والمعلومات المضللة التي قد تثير قلقاً لا داعي له لدى الجميع. إلى سكان دبي وشركائنا الكرام، شكراً لكم، وإلى ضيوفنا في المستقبل، نتطلع إلى استقبالكم في دبي قريباً." هل تحتاج إلى مساعدة في أي شيء آخر؟

United States to investigate American Influencers taking foreign money.