Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: Self-Deception and Deception of Others with Illusory Victories from Ahmed Said and Al-Sahhaf to Hezbollah’s Media Relations Official Muhammad Afif
Elias Bejjani: Self-Deception and Deception of Others with Illusory Victories from Ahmed Said and Al-Sahhaf to Hezbollah’s Media Relations Official Muhammad Afif Elias Bejjani/November 12/ 2024
The greatest catastrophe afflicting Arab nations lies in the decline of the culture and standards of victory and defeat standards among their leaders, intellectuals, political elites, and clerics. These figures live in a world of myths and legends, forcing these deceptive believes onto their people, where ignorance and a complete detachment from reality prevail, along with a fondness for living in fantasies, hallucinations, and daydreams.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel in the mid-1940s, sickening hallucinations, delusions and illusions have dominated the minds of many Arab leaders—be they civilian, military, or religious—who have willfully failed to understand that the world is changing and the days of sword and shield wars are gone, and victory and defeat can no longer be defined by mere wishes, desires, or dreams that do not align with real power dynamics and capacities.
This rotten, insular, and diseased mentality has led to an accumulation of continuous, ongoing chapters of losses, defeats, disasters, and catastrophes, which are misleadingly portrayed as victories.
In the 1967 war, the Arabs suffered a crushing defeat under President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had previously threatened to “throw Israel into the sea”, and boasted of possessing great destructive power and capabilities, only to end up defeated. During that war, which ended in Egypt’s resounding defeat, the broadcaster Ahmed Said, contrary to all realities on the ground, was announcing news of victory, deceiving the Egyptian people.
Similarly, the Iraqi Al-Sahhaf under Saddam Hussein’s rule, propagated lies, claiming victory over the “American invaders” while the Iraqi army was disintegrating and suffering enormous losses as American tanks entered Saddam’s palace.
Today, in Lebanon, after the years of defeats of Abdel Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Arafat, and Gaddafi, history repeats itself with Muhammad Afif, Hezbollah’s media official, who promotes defeats as if they were victories.
In a press conference yesterday, Afif shamelessly and arrogantly claimed that Hezbollah is the victor, asserting that Israel failed to occupy even a single village in southern Lebanon. According to his deceitful logic, this means Israel failed to achieve its goals. Afif conveniently ignored the immense destruction inflicted by Israel’s army on Shiite towns and cities in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, as well as the displacement, casualties, injuries, and living hardships endured by over a million Lebanese, most of whom belong to the Shiite community, who is badly suffering in all domains due to Hezbollah’s delusions and Iran’s ambitions and schemes.
It is truly sad that the deceitful approach adopted by leaders like Abdel Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Iran’s ruling mullahs, and Hezbollah serves only to deceive the Arab people, obscure the truth, and claim imaginary victories that conceal disasters and defeats.
In conclusion, Hezbollah, the terrorist and jihadi organization wholly subordinate to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is defeated, broken, and has lost the war it waged against the State of Israel. Thus, it must accept this reality, surrender, and hand over its weapons, ammunition, and all its military equipment to the Lebanese Army, the sole legitimate authority mandated to protect Lebanon and its citizens.
