Thursday, December 21, 2006

"It's the economic inequality that has haunted Lebanese Shiites for decades. It's a poor and working-class people's revolt." Muhammad here offers a perspective that you don't see in the US media--the Nation magazine allows one token good article on the Middle East per year. But there are many other layers to the protests. There is also a revolt by middle class Christians who are resentful of certain political and economic policies of the government. And Hizbullah--contrary to what the article said--did not champion the poor or the downtrodden in its ideology. Hizbullah in fact made a bargain in the mid-1990s with Rafiq Hariri: that it would continue its resistance activities in South Lebanon in return for its silence at Rafiq Hariri's monstrous economic policies. That was a huge mistake. To this day, socio-economic justice is not prominent in Hizbullah's platform.