Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah went back on Tuesday night to doing what he’s always done best: threatening Israel and attempting to divert the conversation in Lebanon toward the back-burner confrontation with the Jewish state. After quite a few problematic, difficult years involving endless criticism from the Lebanese population at large, and particularly its Shiite community, over Hezbollah’s involvement in the civil war in Syria, for one night, at least, the sheikh was smiling again.

Nasrallah delivered his combative speech on the anniversary of his predecessor Abbas Musawi’s 1992 assassination in an Israeli helicopter strike on his convoy. After Musawi’s death Nasrallah, then only 33 years old, was appointed Hezbollah’s new secretary general. He quickly put his rhetorical abilities to use, especially when it came to Israel.

But ever since March 2011, and with Hezbollah’s ongoing entanglement in the bloody Syrian civil war, Nasrallah is no longer considered a rising star and his status as an admired leader in the Arab world has suffered considerably. His efforts to assist Bashar Assad’s embattled regime in Syria have made him a deeply hated figure among many Sunnis in the Middle East. His status as the “shield of Lebanon” — built up during the 2006 war with Israel and even beforehand, when the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 — has eroded, in light of Hezbollah’s fierce battles on the side of a despot who has committed countless crimes against humanity.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel.