Was der Iran-Krieg für die „Achse des Widerstands“ bedeutet: Der Konflikt ist ein Schmelztiegel für schiitische Identität und Politik

[Excerpt from essay by Hamidreza Azizi, Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and author of the forthcoming book *The Axis of Resistance: Iran, Israel, and the Struggle for the Middle East.]*

The war is heightening the salience of Shiite identity across multiple arenas at once and, in doing so, reshaping how political and military actors assess both their interests and their risks. Groups that might otherwise have remained on the sidelines are becoming more likely to get involved in the strife, and those already fighting face growing pressure to escalate.

The consequence is a feedback loop: actions driven by fears of marginalization provoke responses that alarm more and more people, expanding the social base for Shiite mobilization. The “axis of resistance,” Iran’s network of nonstate allies and proxies across the region, has endured numerous setbacks since 2023. But ongoing U.S. and Israeli military actions may lead to its reconstitution, not through the orchestration of Tehran but rather as a result of the altogether more organic impetus of an embattled Shiite identity.

> These acts blur the distinction between Hezbollah and the population from which it draws support. They also raise the cost of restraint for Hezbollah. The group must keep up the fight against Israel lest it be perceived as having forsaken its mantle as the defender of the Shiite community.

I find this statement by the author, and most of what’s written, to be biased. Despite Hezbollah entering the conflict on its own volition, and having done that in multiple conflicts in the past, somehow the conclusion that’s drawn is that “Israel should do nothing” cause responding just makes the problem worse.

This viewpoint highly misjudges the extent the current Israeli population is willing to go to defend themselves, and presents no realistic solution to their concerns. There have been multiple attempts by the international community to resolve this issue, such has UN Resolution 1701, and despite that, people are still willing to point the finger at Israel’s “violations of international law” when the UN has failed to effectively uphold its own resolutions. If the international community won’t deal with the root cause of the issue, i.e. Hezbollah continuing to attack Israel as it desires despite there being a “peacekeeping” force there, then Israel is not surprisingly going to have to handle the problem unilaterally.