Hezbollah and Returning the Favor
Hassan Haydar Al-Hayat - 02/11/06//
Hezbollah has been fighting Israel since its inception in the mid-1980s. Hezbollah fought Israel until the former drove the latter out of Lebanon in 2000. It continued fighting; arguing that the withdrawal was not complete and that it must restore the Shebaa Farms and the Kfarshouba Hills and release Lebanese prisoners, including perhaps prisoners of other nationalities from Israeli prisons. It also fought Israel last July and is still retaining two prisoners and wants to exchange them. It still argues that the battle with Israel is open and it must keep its arms, which are the only deterrent from targeting Lebanon.
Hezbollah is not concerned whether the Shebaa Farms or Kfarshouba Hills are Lebanese or Syrian, or that Damascus does not want to officially recognize they are Lebanese. It sees a natural alliance between the enemies of Israel and, thus, considers Syria, from which its arms come, in this way. Therefore, it does not matter if the party restores a territory to its ally, as long as it can settle this matter between them later. When it restores land from Israel, it returns the favor to Damascus, which has been sponsoring it. Syria, in fact, is serving the image of Hezbollah as a regional power that has a big following from the 'Atlantic to the Gulf', as well as its own opinion about what is happening around the world, whether in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and Vietnam.
Syria turned Hezbollah into a platform to address Israel and the US, and made itself a gate for everything related to Hezbollah, including what comes from its other ally, Iran, which is anxious to replace the Arabs in the defense of their first cause - Jerusalem. Of course, returning the favor to Syria comes at the right time, especially as the International Tribunal in late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination is imminent. However, the Tribunal is only opposed by the allies of Damascus.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah appeared on the screen of his party's channel, reiterating words that are prevailing in Damascus and Tehran about a US project aiming to dominate the region and that this project is facing failure in Kabul and Baghdad, Gaza and Beirut. In each of these capitals, there is a strong force collaborating with the US and taking orders from it and implementing its wishes, contrary to the will of their resisting peoples. The government of Lebanon is not excluded in this regard, as it had sought with Israel, before the eruption of the recent war, to bring multinational forces to Lebanon under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter to disarm Hezbollah. It also threatened, during the war, to prolong the war unless Hezbollah complies with conditions, including disarmament.
In other words, the ruling regime in Lebanon made the conspiracy of the last war with the Americans and the Israelis, or at least participated in its implementation, to reach a settlement for deploying a non-UN force in all of Lebanon, particularly on the borders with Syria. However, in light of Hezbollah's steadfastness, it had to acquiesce in strengthening the international force in South Lebanon, provided it is confined to that region only. It is now trying to change the task assigned to the force.
This implies, at most, an accusation of 'treason' to the ruling regime in Beirut. It also means that what applies to the Israelis and the Americans necessarily applies to those seeking to achieve their own goals in Lebanon, and perhaps in the region, because the 'conspiracy' of Fouad Siniora's government targets Syria, too. Whoever fought Israel will not hesitate to fight its 'agents'. More obviously, Hezbollah will not hesitate to use its arsenal in the face of the 'henchmen' of the US in the government.
Is not this what the Taliban is doing with Karzai's government and the heirs of al-Zarqawi with al-Maliki's government? Why should Hezbollah be an exception?
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