

We shouldn’t have high expectations from Hassan Nassrallah’s sense of nationalism

The secretary General of Hezbollah is about to make a fiery speech to an expected gathering of half a million person. Read what he is expected to say here.(Arabic)
Meanwhile, I thought it would be helpful to publish this Hayya Bina piece, lest we forget where Hezbollah’s real loyalties lie. (Read Arabic version here)
The Sayyed, the general and a loaded gift!It generates frustration and anger in the hearts and minds of Lebanese citizens, and even of non-Lebanese, to recall the image of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, General Secretary of Hezbollah, bestowing upon Gen. Rustom Ghazale, the head of
Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, a parting gift of a rifle acquired by the “Resistance” during a raid on the Israeli Army.This moment was captured in a photo [1] taken during a farewell visit to Nasrallah made by Ghazale on the 20th of April, and was an exchange which marked the completion of the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and has taken an additional significance since Ghazale was named one of the key suspects in the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Even if we assume that Nasrallah, leader of the only Lebanese party possessing military and security apparatuses, was completely ignorant of the involvement of the Syrian military intelligence forces in the assassination of Rafic Hariri, we surely cannot suppose that he was less aware than the ordinary Lebanese citizen of the Syrian security forces’ involvement in criminal, political and moral crimes against hundreds, even thousands, of Lebanese men and women. Therefore, what conclusions should the Lebanese draw concerning Nasrallah’s bold act of “faithfulness” to Syria, the gifting of a rifle to one of the main figures responsible for these offences?
Detlev Mehlis gave us no doubt of Ghazale’s guilt, so what can Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah do to rectify this dreadful mistake? Will he apologize to the Lebanese citizens? Will he reclaim this gift and return it to its owners ― its Lebanese owners?
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.

Arab politicians and military/intelligence figures never apologize for anything.
Just to put this slightly into perspective - Hariri also did such a thing, but with Kanaan.
And Doha, I agree. It really is such a shame.
yes but Hariri did not do it after the car bombing of Nasrallah if you want to place things in proper, obvioulsy hypothetical context.
If Ghazale is found guilty, Nasrallah is going to regret that photo.
If Ghazale is found guilty, Nasrallah is not going to accept the charges and will keep defending Ghazale (even though he already might know that the Syrians are not completely innocent). Hopefully I am wrong.
If Ghazaleh is found guilty? And how is that going to come about?
Does anyone think that Ghazaleh is going to be dragged in front of some kind of court and be tried? Even if the international community finds the world to create such a court, he would probably “commit suicide” before he had a chance to appear in that court.
If Nasrallah continues like this, he should be expelled from the government and his illegal militia dealt with.
The big question about Hizballah and Nassrallah is how under control of Iran are they?
Is Hizballah even capable of operating under its own self interests or is it a complete stooge to Iranian foreign policy?
Instead of internal dialogue with Hizb. Maybe the lebanese government should have direct dialogue with Iran!?
Ramzi, ever heard about the concept of velayet e faqih?
Isnt that the term used for the government system in Iran?
The more things change the more they look the same.
Bachar is still in control via Emile,Amal and Samahtu.
The Squares whether we like it or not remain two.
On March 14 I was high.
Today I feel lousy.(I heard Samahtu speach)