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roachboy · 08-02-2006, 08:49 AM

it may not appear to be necessary for many americans, but i would imagine that having some idea of what hezbollah is might help in shaping discussions of it, even this very strange one, which seems to originate in the usual line of pr/war marketing that is all too prevalent these days.

it would be good to be able to distinguish war marketing from other information factors, dont you think?

the following presents an interesting snapshot of hezbollah and of the unintended consequences of this new bush-approved fiasco

Quote:

Shockwaves from Lebanon

Leader
Wednesday August 2, 2006
The Guardian

Though the lethal effects of the latest Middle East war have so far been confined to Lebanon and northern parts of Israel, there are few who imagine it is really a self-contained conflict. Behind the scenes, there are bigger issues concerning Hizbullah's sponsors - Iran and Syria - and wider questions about American and Israeli strategies throughout the region. So long as the fighting remains confined within a small theatre there is at least hope of a relatively swift end to it. But there are ominous signs.

At present, neither Israel nor Syria is actively seeking a military confrontation. "There is no plan to initiate a war with Syria," the Israeli defence minister, Amir Peretz, insisted yesterday. Slightly more ambivalently, the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad addressed his troops on Monday, urging "caution, vigilance, preparation and readiness". The Syrian army is reportedly on its highest level of alert and all leave has been cancelled but, far from massing troops and tanks on the border, it has opted for dispositions that are patently defensive.

At the same time, though, President Assad is hoping to capitalise on his relationship with Hizbullah and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Posters widely circulated in Damascus show the president side by side with Nasrallah. The expectation is that any military outcome in Lebanon which fails to destroy Hizbullah totally will be perceived by the Arab masses as a victory - a victory in which Syria hopes to share at minimal cost to itself. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes have been probing Syria's airspace. Yesterday, Israel's hawkish justice minister, Haim Ramon, stepped up the rhetoric with a claim - which others dispute - that Syria is "daily sending trucks full of weapons" to Hizbullah. This may be nothing more than shadow boxing but the risks are high: a small slip-up, a misinterpreted signal from one side or the other could take the war down a new and even more disastrous course.

Another disconcerting issue, with even more unpredictable consequences, is the transformation of Hizbullah - at least in the eyes of the Arab public - from an essentially local and specifically Shia movement into a more generalised symbol of resistance and hope. The US may make no distinction between Hizbullah and al-Qaida, but that is not how rapidly growing numbers of Arabs view it. Yesterday in Los Angeles, Tony Blair spoke of "an arc of extremism stretching across the Middle East" but if that is meant to include Hizbullah, it misses the point. He described a struggle between "reactionary Islam and moderate, mainstream Islam" but it is hard to see where Hizbullah sits in that. The appeal of al-Qaida has always been limited - specifically to those who share its narrow religious viewpoint. Hizbullah, on the other hand, is a mass grassroots movement and the main representative of the Lebanese Shia, who are the largest religious group in the country. Whatever they think of Shia Islam, Arab Sunnis and even Christians can be heard now declaring their respect - if not actual support - for Hizbullah as a resistance movement. In contrast to the old-style Arab leaders - corrupt and often blustering but acquiescent in the face of US power - Nasrallah is seen as free from corruption and as a man who does what he says he will do. The reality may be different, but it is the perceptions that count. He is an inspirational figure whom some are already likening to Gamal Abdul Nasser, the Egyptian leader who thumbed his nose at the British empire in the 1950s.

None of this is to endorse Nasrallah or what he stands for but the world must recognise the strength of his appeal, and the reasons for it. By focusing too narrowly on Hizbullah's guerrilla war with Israel the world risks losing sight of the broader picture - of American-Israeli policies which are reshaping the Middle East in ways that their creators neither desired nor intended.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...835274,00.html