Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”
Elias Hasrouni was a leading figure among the Christians in Lebanon, the leader of the Central Council of the Lebanese Forces, who became widely known for his fierce and eloquent attacks on the terror group Hezbollah. This, of course, would never do; Hezbollah had to silence him, and in August 2023, they poisoned him, and then placed his body in a car that was then crashed, making it appear that he had died in a car crash. In killing Hasrouni, Hezbollah not only rid itself of an articulate enemy, but also provided a warning to the Lebanese government: Don’t try to disarm us, nor try to destroy our weapons stockpiles, or shut down our military outposts, because if you don’t do as we say… well, look what happened in August 2023 to Elias Hasrouni.
More on the latest information, confirmed by the IDF, about Hezbollah’s murder of a Lebanese Christian leader can be found here: “Exposing Hezbollah: IDF claims terror group murdered prominent Christian-Lebanese critic,” Jerusalem Post, November 14, 2025:
Christian Lebanese politician, Elias Hasrouni, was assassinated by the Hezbollah terror group he opposed, the IDF confirmed on Friday.
Known for his staunch criticism of the terror group, Hasrouni worked as the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Forces central council in Bint Jbeil when he was killed in an ambush last year.
The 72-year-old was assassinated by Hezbollah’s Unit 121 in August 2023, according to the IDF, despite the terror group’s rumoring that he had perished in a car accident.
The terror group was said to have ambushed Hasrouni on a road near his home in Ain Ebel in southern Lebanon, where they abducted him. After kidnapping the elderly politician, the IDF claimed the terrorists broke his ribs and poisoned him.
Another member of the Christian Lebanese Forces party was abducted and murdered last year. Pascal Sleiman was kidnapped and killed in the Byblos District of northern Lebanon in April last year. The Lebanese Army announced that they had arrested most of the members of a Syrian gang that they had found were behind Sleiman’s kidnapping and murder….
While a “Syrian gang” of Alawites, who were allies of Hezbollah, may well have murdered Pascal Sleiman, it is also possible that Hezbollah’s Unit 121 carried out the killing, and the Lebanese Army didn’t want to point the finger at Hezbollah, because not only would that infuriate the vindictive terror group, but had it blamed Hezbollah, Lebanese Christians would have pressured the Lebanese Army to go after Hezbollah, something that in 2023, the army was unwilling to do.
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, was a billionaire who had made his fortune as a contractor in Saudi Arabia, and had close ties to the Saudis, as their man in Beirut. Naturally, as an arch-Sunni, the Shi’a of Hezbollah hated him. On February 14, 2005, as his motorcade was driving through Beirut, the car he was traveling in passed a truck parked on the side of the road. A suicide bomber blew up that vehicle, killing Hariri and 21 others.
Hezbollah killed Pascal Sleiman in April 2023 and Elias Hasrouni in August 2023. Since then, the Lebanese National Army has not arrested or disarmed a single Hezbollah member, except for a few individuals who were accused of crimes having nothing to do with being members of Hezbollah. Since February the president of Lebanon has been Joseph Aoun, a Christian who detests Hezbollah, but also would like to stay alive. That is why, despite considerable pressure from Washington, and hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from the Americans, President Aoun is still proceeding very cautiously against the terror group that has had Lebanon in thrall for nearly two decades.
