"We Offer Our Blood. Our Soul To." Whom?

Hazem Saghieh     Al-Hayat     2003/08/14

Hezbollah succeeded in targeting its enemy. It was an over-success. Therefore, it missed the point politically. It missed it more than it should have.

The more it is on target in shooting, the more it is off target in politics. This is our current equation. It contradicts the equation of the past: each hit with fire is a hit in politics.

Hezbollah was not lucky in yet another thing. Something, which reveals the nature of the new period: it fired in the air, hoping to miss. It was on target on the ground.

The Syrians have become well aware of these rules. They try to work according to those rules. The Iranians might have begun to know them with the arrival of the Americans next door to them. However the problem is that if Hezbollah don't play with fire, what would they play with?

The truth is that the Party is starting to look weak and pathetic: it presented, to get back in the picture, the prisoners' card. The card didn't find any buyer. It fired in the air, hoping to miss. It was on target. Its regional sponsors are no longer excited about its operations. The international situation does not fit with its analysis of the Blue Line and Shebaa Farms. Even Kofi Anan and France disapprove. The Lebanese, after the liberation of the South, are fixated on the summer season and tourism. The Shiites, after the ousting of Saddam, are interested in Iraq. The Arabs and the Muslims have their own concerns. The "cause" is split between Palestine and Iraq.

The last operation will not decrease the merciless Sharonist butchering of the Palestinians. Hezbollah's role in helping Palestine became, a while ago, harmful to both. What is new, perhaps, is that Hezbollah, after this operation, has also lost its ability to help Syria. The Syrians may be in need of new priorities: a new behavior backing the cup of the American "Accountability Act" away from their lips. To concentrate on tourism in Bloudan no less than liberating the Golan. It is sure that Damascus is interested in the resumption of trade relations with "American" Baghdad. Some luring temptations: construction of a new oil pipeline and trans-national train operations.

However, since the Syrians became so, perhaps the latest military action pointed to something big: the beginning of the end of the Syrian military presence in Lebanon.

The remaining role of Hezbollah is to support the Lebanese regime. The other side of this mutuality: to receive the support of the Lebanese regime or half of it. The party and the regime (or half of it) both belong to the same shaky structure, and might not find, in a relatively short time, other than the Shebaa Farms as a foundation to their continuity.

In spite of this, we shall still hear fiery speeches from Hassan Nasrallah. We shall hear him threatening, menacing and sweating. And we shall hear voices chanting to him: "We offer our blood. Our soul."

However, the last "We offer our blood. Our soul to." we heard coming from Lebanon was for Melhem Zein, star of the "Superstar" TV program, who now has supporters attacking the television's building.