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2 Arab
revolts hand it to Hezbollah By
Chris Zambelis
As the surge of
revolutionary fervor that has taken the greater
Middle East by storm continues to spread, many
observers are grappling with the political
uncertainties the tumult has produced from Morocco
to the Persian Gulf and beyond.
The
popular uprisings that prompted the ouster of the
dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt and threaten
the panoply of authoritarian despots clinging to
power in other countries have already had a
profound effect on regional politics. Despite
their highly fluid nature, it is not too early to
assess the impact of these events on the position
of prominent actors such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The movement's place amid the unfolding
unrest bears special
relevance, considering the
open hostility that has characterized its
relations with the recently toppled Hosni Mubarak
regime and other governments threatened by the
wave of protest. The popularity Hezbollah enjoys
among a large segment of the very same people who
have taken to the streets to demand political
freedoms, rule of law, representative government
and economic opportunities adds another dynamic
worth closer examination.
Solidarity in
resistance Having weathered the massive
Israeli assault during the July 2006 war and
deftly outmaneuvering attempts by political
opponents to undermine its position and blame it
for the February 2005 assassination of Lebanese
prime minister Rafik Hariri, Hezbollah's stock as
a political party, social movement and
paramilitary force in Lebanese and regional
affairs continues to rise.
In
characteristic fashion, Hezbollah has not been coy
about articulating its positions on the uprisings
that have shaken the foundations of power in the
Middle East in various media outlets, particularly
its own Beirut-based al-Manar satellite television
network. [1]
Initially, however, Hezbollah
adopted a cautious approach to the opposition
activism that engulfed Tunisia and Egypt.
Hezbollah was concerned that a show of support for
the protests early on would tarnish their
legitimacy and lend credence to allegations
repeated by the embattled regimes that the
protesters were acting at the behest of hostile
foreign elements aiming to destabilize the region.
Hezbollah essentially opted to refrain
from issuing an endorsement of the protests until
the popular grassroots character of the rebellions
entered into the discourse of global media
coverage and analysis. Hezbollah's secretary
general Hassan Nasrallah encapsulated this point
in a statement broadcast during a February 7 event
in Beirut organized to support the opposition in
Egypt: "In case we announced solidarity earlier,
they would have said that the revolution was
motivated by Hezbollah or Hamas cells or even by
the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Then, this real,
original and patriotic movement would be accused
of serving a foreign agenda".
Hezbollah
has since expressed solidarity with what it sees
as the assertion of the true will of the Arab and
Muslim masses who strive for social, political,
and economic justice in the face of illegitimate
and corrupt autocracies that it claims are
beholden to the United States and Israel.
In this regard, Hezbollah has framed the
political activism taking place in the region
through a larger resistance narrative analogous to
the one it applies to its own circumstances, a
theme echoed by Nasrallah in remarks directed at
the Egyptian opposition: "Our belief says that
what you're doing is very great and one of the
very important turning points in the history of
this nation and region. Your move and victory will
change the whole face of our region to the
interest of its peoples in general and especially
Palestine."
The fall of the Mubarak
regime, a long-time enemy of the group, has had
special resonance for Hezbollah. In spite of its
Shi'ite character, Hezbollah is very popular in
predominantly Sunni Egypt for its resistance
against Israel and support for the Palestinian
cause, as demonstrated by the protests in Egypt
and the Sunni-led Arab world in support of
Hezbollah during the July 2006 war and the heroic
status Nasrallah has enjoyed since.
Amid
the chaos that accompanied Mubarak's ouster,
Hezbollah managed under murky circumstances to
free Muhammad Yusuf Mansour (aka Sami Shehab), a
member of the group serving time in an Egyptian
prison. Egyptian authorities convicted Mansour
along with a host of others on espionage, weapons,
and terrorism-related charges in 2010.
Egyptian authorities claimed, among other
things, that Mansour was planning attacks on
Egyptian soil. While Nasrallah acknowledged
Mansour's membership in Hezbollah, he denied that
his activities threatened Egypt; instead, Mansour
was leading an effort to support the Palestinians
in Gaza.
In a masterstroke of political
theater that has become a signature of Hezbollah,
Mansour appeared in person during the group's
annual February 16 commemoration of its deceased
leaders in the Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of
Beirut where Hezbollah enjoys tremendous support.
Speaking to jubilant crowds though a video
feed broadcast on a large screen television,
Nasrallah thanked Egyptians for freeing Mansour
and highlighted the fact that the Mubarak's
decision to step down on February 11 coincided
with the anniversary of the 1979 victory of the
Iranian revolution.
Expanding on his
observations of the events in Tunisia and Egypt,
Nasrallah's televised March 19 speech addressed
the wider unrest experienced in Libya, Bahrain,
and Yemen: "Our gathering today is to voice our
support for our Arab people and their revolutions
and sacrifices, especially in Tunisia, Egypt,
Bahrain, Libya and Yemen. The value of this
solidarity is moral, political, and ethical ... A
great victory was achieved in Egypt and Tunisia.
Libya entered civil war, and in Bahrain and Yemen
the regimes put their own peoples on the brink of
civil war."
Nasrallah singled out Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi over the disappearance of
Imam Musa Sadr, the Iranian-born founder of the
Afwaj al-Muqawama al-Lubnaniya (AMAL - Lebanese
Resistance Detachments) movement and a major
figure among Shi'ite in Lebanon and other parts of
the Middle East.
Sadr is credited with
helping galvanize Lebanon's Shi'ite community to
assert themselves in Lebanese politics and
society. Sadr went missing under mysterious
circumstances along with two others during a visit
to Tripoli in 1978 and is widely believed to have
been executed by Libya. However, some claim that
he is still being held in captivity, a view
repeated by Nasrallah amid the current conflict in
Libya: "We are looking forward to the day when
Sadr can be liberated from this dictatorial
tyrant."
Events in Bahrain, which hosts
the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, have also not been lost
on Hezbollah, especially the sectarian dynamics
underlying the unrest, where a US and Saudi-backed
Sunni monarchy led by King Hamad Ibn Issa
al-Khalifa rules over a majority Shi'ite
population that is largely underserved and faces
widespread discrimination in daily
life.
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