8

If there was one thing Kidron knew, it was that everything had changed.

In the years since the end of the Second Lebanon War, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the founder and spiritual leader of the most dangerous terror organization on the planet, had died of a massive coronary.

The funeral had been a sight to behold. More than two hundred thousand Hezbollah soldiers, draped in the movement’s yellow flags and scarves, jammed the streets of Beirut, openly weeping, beating their chests, some slashing themselves until they were drenched in blood, all trying to catch a glimpse of the casket. After a thirty-day period of mourning throughout Lebanon, Iran, and much of Iraq, Nasrallah’s replacement had been hand-chosen and announced by Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Sheikh Ja’far ibn al-Hussaini had been only thirty-eight years old at the time. The man was not merely a Shia radical, Kidron knew. He was a lunatic, a follower of what the Mossad had dubbed “apocalyptic Islam.” He had earned his doctorate in Islamic jurisprudence from the very seminary in Qom where Iran’s Grand Ayatollah had once taught, the same religious training center from which Iran’s president, Yadollah Afshar, had graduated. It was there that al-Hussaini had heard both men speak and began to get to know them. It was there he had written a bizarre dissertation titled “The Strategic Implications for Hezbollah of the Coming of the Hidden Imam.”

Kidron had seen a copy of the 383-page tome that had been stolen from the seminary’s archives by Mossad operatives. He had read it cover to cover four times in Arabic. In exhausting detail, and replete with citations from ancient and obscure Islamic poets and theologians, al-Hussaini had laid out a vision more chilling than anything Kidron had ever encountered before.

He had memorized the opening paragraph while preparing a detailed summary and analysis of the entire work for Mossad and IDF commanders.

The divine prophets were clear: the Hidden Imam will emerge from occultation in the End of Days, summon his army, and lead the forces of Islam to ultimate victory. The Lebanese people and the Party of God share a pivotal role with the whole of the Shia world in preparing the ground. However, time is fleeting. As such, the leadership in Beirut must urgently and diligently plan and prepare for this great event. There is no time to rest.

Al-Hussaini had spent the remainder of the dissertation laying out seven foundational principles. Kidron had highlighted the key points in his report.

1. The last days of human history have arrived.
2. The arrival and appearance of the Hidden Iman, also known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam, is imminent.
3. When Imam al-Mahdi appears, he will in short order conquer and rule the entire earth.
4. The prophet Jesus will also return to earth as the Hidden Imam’s lieutenant.
5. The prophet Jesus will require all Jews, Christians, and other “infidels” to convert to Islam or be executed at once.
6. The arrival of the Mahdi and the full establishment of the global Caliphate can be hastened if Muslims work to annihilate the Little Satan—Israel—and the Great Satan, the United States of America.
7. The people of Lebanon are to play a prophetic role in the establishment of the Caliphate. Therefore, the people must be prepared and must have in place the necessary weapons and alliances. The rewards for the faithful will be great. But for any who prove lazy and slothful, the fires of eternal judgment await.

Kidron, an atheist, found it astonishing that anyone could believe such nonsense, much less that someone who did could be appointed the head of anything, least of all Iran’s most important paramilitary force.

Yet the more Kidron had studied al-Hussaini’s life and thinking, the more worried he had become. The husband of three wives and the father of nine children, al-Hussaini was reportedly the most beloved of the Supreme Leader’s myriad nephews. He wasn’t Hezbollah’s founder. He had, however, become its inheritor. He was far more loyal to the ayatollah than Nasrallah had been. He was also far more headstrong and rash than Nasrallah had been.

That, Kidron knew, was what made the man so unpredictable . . . and so dangerous.