"Yes, long live tourism and long live commerce, but not at any price." I just listened to a taped audio speech by Hasan Nasrallah. It was carried live on all Arab media, including LBC-TV. It sounded as if he was improvising it, with an outline in front of him. Certainly, he and Hizbullah face a critical situation. I have been communicating (via phone and email) with friends and family in Lebanon. There are clear indications of rising anger at Hizbullah among some segments of the Lebanese population, fueled not only by the brutal and savage campaign by Israel on all of Lebanon but also by the propaganda of clients of US/Saudi Arabia: Hariri, Jumblat (and his little puppets who have spent a life-time perfecting servitude to Syrian mukhabarat), and the Saudi media. (Hariri and Jumblat amount now to little more than cheap tools of the House of Saud in Lebanon). Many people who were previously sympathetic if not to Hizbullah but for the notion of resistance have been in the last two days questioning the wisdom of Hizbullah attack on an Israeli military target. And the ability of Hizbullah, despite the obvious military superiority of Israel-in-occupation-of-Palestine, to cause harm and damage to Israel in response to Israel's savagery in Lebanon has been hitherto minimal, especially when measured by those who are on the receiving end of Israeli massive and indiscriminate bombings. People in the Arab world have grown cynical of promises of punishment of Israel, especially given the lousy record of Nasser and the Ba`th, not to mention the record of colonial puppets in the region against the Zionist state. This explains why Nasrallah announced on the air an attack by anti-ship missiles on an Israeli warship which has been bombing the hell out of the southern suburbs. The speech, if matched by a more effective retaliation on the part of Hizbullah given the enormous losses in life and materials in Lebanon, may have been quite effective. My mother, who has been quite critical of Hizbullah in the last two days and who opposed the operation given the high price exacted by Israeli terrorism, switched her position after listening to the speech, as did my brother in Miami. But it is too early to tell how the speech will affect Lebanese public opinion in general. With Arab public opinion, Nasrallah has a much easier task: to earn their support from afar as they--outside of Palestine--are watching form a distance of comfort Israeli terrorism in Lebanon and Palestine. And Arab media has been reporting manifestations of Arab public support for Hizbullah. The most important part of the speech in that regard is the last part in which Nasrallah responded to the statement by the House of Saud (see below). He mocked their record of dealing with Israel. Nasrallah is most effective in his rhetoric because he is least rhetorical: he, unlike other Arab and Islamic leaders, does not speak in cliches and the standard vulgar polemics of Arab officialdom. But Nasrallah has to address himself to his own party audience (which has always been more militant than him) and the larger Lebanese public. That is not going to be easy under the barrage of Israeli raids. And while the Lebanese Army's performance--if you want to call it that--should put to rest any plan that calls for a role for that lousy army in defending Lebanon, Hizbullah also has to be aware that its military performance will be used to evaluate the credibility of its own plan for the defense of Lebanon. But today, it was classic how the Israeli ambassador at the UN quoted Marwan Hamadah and Ilyas `Atallah by name. That will go down as classic fodder in the anti-Hariri propaganda in Lebanon. And for those who are engaged in opposition to Hariri media in Lebanon, I offer you this footnote. Back on April 11th, 1973, the same Marwan Hamadah, back when he was a "leftist", wrote an editorial in L'Orient-Le Jour. He said: "No, and I don't call for salvaging the myth that some are trying to promote to the effect that Lebanon can live outside of time. Yes, long live tourism and long live commerce, but not at any price." Yes, not at any price.