In the rituals of denial, the best way to evade defeat is to claim victory, to escape forward. One moves in the pursuit of victory from illusion to hallucination. This approach is a historical constant and its results are inevitable, as when the truth is revealed, peoples suffer from confusion, frustration and collapse after having sacrificed the best of their people and their wealth.

This is the reality of the "party" that is showering the Lebanese with narratives of victory. After its Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem announced the "great victory and the divine success" in his first appearance after reaching a ceasefire on 11/27/2024, Qassem himself comes again, announcing victory again on 1/26/2025, the date of the end of the 60-day deadline stipulated in the agreement, repeating in his speech dozens of times "We won, whether you like it or not, we won."

In the ceasefire agreement that the "party" negotiated through President Nabih Berri and was approved by its ministers in the meeting of Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government, it accepted the 60-day deadline imposed by Israel for withdrawal, with a US general chairing the implementation monitoring committee, the disengagement from Gaza, the abandon of its "unity of the fronts", and not addressing the issue of the "party's" prisoners held by Israel. It turned a blind eye to the side agreement between Washington and Tel Aviv providing Israel with guarantees and freedom of movement in Lebanon if it feels any danger posed by the "party". Despite all of that, "we won"...

Recently, Qassem returned with his "Strategic Patience” litany, to justify his silence throughout the 60-days period about Israel's insolent criminal evasion. However, the surprise was that this patience ran out, at least verbally after President Mikati announced Lebanon's approval to prolong the ceasefire until the 18th of February, after consulting the President of the Republic and the Speaker of the Parliament on the latest developments in the south, Qassem asserted: "We do not accept any justification to extend the truce even for a second or a day”.

After the "party" announced recently that it was supporting the State, it returned to the approach of "imposing the mini-state’s choices on the Nation". The return to this approach was also evident through invoking the "people's anger" card that it had previously used against the "UNIFIL" forces to send messages. While the army command called on the people on the eve of the end of the 60-day deadline "to wait before heading towards the southern border areas, due to the presence of mines and suspicious objects left behind by the Israeli enemy," stressing "the importance of citizens assuming responsibility and adhering to the directives of the army command and the instructions of the deployed military units, in order to preserve their safety," the "Al-Manar" channel, the mouthpiece of the "party," resorted at the forefront that evening, to what resembled a "religious assignment" that contradicted the army's directives. It included the following: “We will return tomorrow, raising our heads and fists (…) They will overcome the mines and suspicious objects left behind by the Zionist-American aggression, to thwart all its suspicious projects and plans. They will write in living flesh the beginning of the dawn of a new liberation (…).”

No one was expecting Sunday, January 26, to confirm the people of the south’s adherence to their land and their readiness to die for it, just as no one was waiting for the “party” to embark on the “adventure of support” on October 8 to confirm the extent of Israel’s barbarism and criminality. Therefore, the fall of 24 Lebanese and the wounding of 134 others was a waste of pure blood. The “party’s” claim that the people’s movement forced Israel to withdraw is incorrect because if that was true, Israel would have been outside the borders today and would have immediately released the Lebanese detainees it had. The “party’s” speech about the spontaneity of what happened is a blatant deception. It infiltrated the people’s fervor and their adherence to their land with its agenda and goals and created a stressful atmosphere using its bases in a blatant manner, as shown by the images transmitted from organizing the transport to the south with bus stations in place, to its use of the “religious assignment” with the testimony of one of its female cadres who was injured by Israeli fire. The party refused to extend the ceasefire until 2/18/2025. Will it translate its verbal position into action?! Or will it just hide behind the people's movement, so that the bloody bill rises daily until that date without succeeding in bringing it down?!

Reviving the approach of "imposing the mini-state option on the State" appeared in the positions of one of the party's leaders who tried to revive the three-way equation "army - people - resistance" and seek to impose it again in any official statement. However, the “party” realizes deep down that this is impossible, be it because of the widespread rejection of it by the Lebanese parties or because it constitutes an obstacle to any government's efforts to rebuild Lebanon since it is also rejected by the donor countries.

The approach of "imposing the mini-state option on the State" was also reflected in the motorcycle marches of the "party's" environment that started raising sectarian slogans such as "Shiites, Shiites, Shiites" and practicing provocative actions such as firing bullets and entering safe areas not loyal to the party from Ain al-Remmaneh and Furn al-Chebbak to Gemmayzeh, Achrafieh, Nahr al-Mot, Maghdouché and Saqiat al-Janzeer, where they were confronted and a number of motorcycles were confiscated. The repercussions of this shameful and abhorrent scene, in provoking the regions, parties and sects outside the "party's" environment, are not to its credit.

Several messages can be understood from the movement in the south, as if the "party" is saying: "No matter how many international decisions you impose and talk about imposing my withdrawal from south of the Litani, I am holding the land." As for the motorcycle movement, it replicated the "black shirts" threat on the eve of forming the government and confirming that the "party" is still able to play the "land card." But the wisdom of the President of the Republic and the army leadership are trying to minimize the impact of this behavior, whether in the south where they absorbed the people's enthusiasm and anger or in the mainland where the army announced the arrest of some of those who participated in the provocative marches despite the repetition of the motorcycles’ scene the next day in Ruwaisat and Zaitariyeh in the Metn coast.

The extension of the ceasefire and consequently the delay of the full Israeli withdrawal until 2/18/2025 is in effect and the "party" will not be able to overthrow it. Will it then again appear announcing a new victory?!

This is called “a ritual of denial and escape forward”.