Friday, December 23, 2005

Hasan Nasrallah on Al-Manar TV. Well, you know that we can't watch Al-Manar TV in the US anymore. It used to be offered by Globecast satellite service (which I get), but Al-Manar has been banned. I rarely watch the service of Globecast, because they mostly offer official Arab stations. I mean, how interested are you in knowing whether King `Abdullah visited this mosque or that mosque? Do you know that there are now 200 Arab TV stations? And nothing to watch as Bruce Springsteen once sang. But the interview with Nasrallah was carried live on New TV (a private Lebanese station). The political naivete and blunders of Hizbullah continue unabated since Hariri's assassination. I don't understand what their calculations are. They are yet to provide the Lebanese people with an argument--one argument--regarding their weapons, and with an explanation for their current relationship with Syria. Jumblat and the Hariri gang are of course eager to use that issue (of weapons of Hizbullah and of Palestinians) in order to please the US/Israel axis (known in Lebanon as "international legitimacy". But Hizbullah can't continue with their vague formulations especially given the rising Sunni antipathy to Hizbullah, if not to Shi`ites altogether (and sectarian animosities in Lebanon are always reciprocated), and the past history of Israel's allies in Lebanon, like Lebanese Forces. How naive is it for Nasrallah to state that he was impressed with Samir Ja`ja`'s words on Israel in the interview with Al-Mustaqbal TV last week in which he grudgingly agreed--not volunteered--that Israel is an enemy of Lebanon? And what do those words of Ja`ja` mean, when he has lied repeatedly in court about his responsibility for various assassinations and car bombs? And did not Bashir Gemayyel deny having links with Israel when Sharon was waiting for him at a restaurant in Junyah on the same day? And I can't believe how well the Hariri Inc are deceiving Hizbullah, but Hizbullah and Amal are willing victims of that deception. Of course, one has to analyze Lebanese politics in terms of sectarian calculations and all those groups and organizations are sectarian, in their agendas, and in the composition of their political organization, with the exception of the ineffective Lebanese Communist Party. It is almost certain the ministers of Amal-Hizbullah will return to the cabinet to be deceived yet again, in order that the US-Saudi plan for Lebanon prevails. Hizbullah still thinks that they are being smart, or outsmarting Hariri Inc, but the reverse is true. In today's appearance by Nasrallah, he appeared defensive, and went out of his way to appease his Lebanese critics. He even refused to respond to Jumblat's latest salvos against Hizbullah. Amal-Hizbullah: the best "rivals" that Hariri Inc can hope for. What bothers me about Lebanon these days, among 10,000 other things, is that no group and no party is willing to stand up to the arrogance and corruption of Hariri Inc. That will ensure that Lebanon will continue its slide.