Reading into Nassrallah’s Speech

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Some observations into Sayyed Hassan Nassrallah’s speech.

Pointing the finger… (Photo credit: Reuters)

1- He was trying to pacify those I would call “wavering Sunnis”, impressionable Muslims — Lebanese or Arabs — who are not completely sold on the ideas of March 14 and still regard America as Lebanon’s #1 enemy.

2- He was targeting Mr. Walid Jumblat, a Druze, instead of Mr. Seniora, to attempt to avoid the Sunni backlash that scuttled his previous plans to topple the government. I think it’s a bit late for that.

3- He tried to evoke Hezbollah’s mythical image: “If we wanted to stage a coup, the entire government would wake up one day in Prison before they even realize it”. Of course, that’s not true, but it can be helpful for his supporters’ morale.

4- There was a high undertone of us-versus-them in his speech, and he never made an effort to defend his non-shia allies. That confirms the theory that the Shiaas are headed in an isolationist direction.

5- (From Lebanese-forces.com) There was no mention whatsoever in Mr. Nassrallah’s speech of the airport’s container cameras which started this entire kerkfuffle.

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Discussion

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Keep telling yourself that Mustapha!

Posted by anonymous | May 8, 2008, 3:44 pm
My first comment is: He mentioned that the French person who was kidnapped and questioned for 5 hours was “at the alley “zaroob” to my house”. Wondering where is he hiding? Is his end near?
My other comment is: I was in Lebanon at the beginnning of the civil war in 1975 and I have noticed how it got escalated but this time it is really fast! Bu the isue this time it is Shia vs. the rest of Lebanon.

Posted by ghassan | May 8, 2008, 4:27 pm
Bye Bye Lebanon, courtesy of his holiness Mr. Nasrallah. I hope this serves as a wakeup call to MPs in Aoun’s bloc to come to parliament and vote on Monday. If there is no President elected on Monday then this is surely the beginning of a new civil war.

Posted by MM | May 8, 2008, 4:35 pm
Mustapha,

Nasrallah mentioned the camera in the airport and said that this was a silly excuse for firing Choukair. He called the whole airport spying fiasco a silly matter (7ijje beykha).

Posted by Doha | May 8, 2008, 4:48 pm
Oh Mus, you missed the gem in his speech when this thug declared “I am the state”. All other analysis are simply mute…

Posted by Jay | May 8, 2008, 5:33 pm
Hassan is obviously influenced by the recent opinion poll
among Arabs, that showed big support for him and HZB.
.

Posted by Amir in Tel Aviv | May 8, 2008, 5:50 pm
Indeed Jay,

There really is no dialoguing with this guy. There really is no point in having a state or a government or an army, period.

This is the existential threat that HA poses to Lebanon that many who’ve been taken in by false promises and “Resistance” (my ass) have failed to grasp.

And so much for not turning the Resistance weapons against Lebanese huh? This is why it was never a good idea for any one group to have weapons (let alone all of them)…”We need them to fight Israel” my ass!

Posted by Bad Vilbel | May 8, 2008, 5:55 pm
BV,

Check this from LebaneseForces.com
??? ?? ????? ???? ???????? ?????? ???? ??????? ?????? ??
????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??????!

That’s right, Nasa is not out to create his own baby Bell (name it NasaBell maybe ;) it’s all about the missiles. This subterranean rodent want to live in a state of perpetual resistance. One would think given his belief in “72 virgins awaiting him in paradise”, he should be first in line for martyrdom, rather than hiding under some rock?!

Posted by Jay | May 8, 2008, 6:11 pm
I wrote a couple of posts on Hizballah. If you have the time, you’re welcome to check them.

I may be too optimistic, but there is still a chance things will calm down. Question is, for how long?

Good job Mustapha!

http://lebanon.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/05/08/hizballah-vs-state/
http://lebanon.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/05/06/you-hit-me-we-hit-you/

Posted by M | May 9, 2008, 12:57 am
It’s all a bunch of hogwash. Nasrallah receives his “divine” advice (i,e marching orders) from the mullahs in Teheran. I have a feeling he is escalating things just enough to send a message to the government as follows: “This network thing along with our weapons is much bigger than you think and you, Saniora and M14 just can’t touch it or see what we can do and worse.” However, it isn’t in his interest to start a civil war with the sunnis, it wont serve his party’s interests.

Posted by Andre | May 9, 2008, 1:06 am
hey Mustapha,
Aren’t you going to acknowledge Nasrallah’s gracious willingness not to arrest Siniora? You realize he could do it in a heartbeat right?

Posted by anonymous | May 9, 2008, 2:03 am

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.