A Hezbollah flier during the 2006 Lebanon War. Photo: Wikipedia.

A former Hezbollah operative who is active on social media wrote on Twitter that the newly appointed “chief of staff” of the Shiite terrorist organization considers Israel a strategic ally, the Hebrew news site nrg reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the retired operative tweeted that Mustafa Mughniyeh “told his inner circle to admit the truth: that Israel is a partner in the war against the Sunni enemy, which is why we are not fighting it [Israel] at the moment.” Mughniyeh also reportedly reminded Hezbollah commanders that “the only force who saved the Shiites from Palestinian occupation in southern Lebanon in 1982 was Israel.”

Responding to these assertions, military historian and Brig. Gen. (Res) Dr. Daniel Asher told nrg that there is truth to them. “During the period prior to the First War in Lebanon, those bullying the Shiite minority in southern Lebanon were the Palestinians living there,” he said.

Indeed, said Asher, “They established a state within a state and were very powerful, particularly in the coastal region. When [former defense minister Ariel] (Arik) Sharon went to war [in Lebanon], he created a partnership with Amine Gemayel’s Christian Phalange militia and the Shiite movement, which saw the war as an opportunity to liberate [themselves] from the Palestinians.”

He continued: “Even during the period when Israel remained in Lebanon, there were moderate Shiites cooperating with it. It was only when Hezbollah was established, as a reaction to the inferior status of the Shiites, that they wanted to take advantage of the war against the Jews and the IDF in order to increase Shiite dominance in Lebanon.”

Mustafa Mughniyeh is the son of Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a possible joint CIA-Mossad strike in Syria in 2008; the brother of Jihad Mughniyeh, killed in an Israeli raid last year; and the nephew of Mustafa Badreddine, assassinated in Syria last week. It is Bedreddine whom Mughniyeh is succeeding.