A Public Divorce

There are signs that the Lebanese Government and Hezbollah are beginning to disengage.

When Aljazeera’s website covered the Rome conference yesterday, it ignored the presence of the Lebanese Prime Minister and headlined: “The Rome Conference began without the representation of either Hezbollah or Israel”. In other words, Hezbollah and the Lebanese Government are becoming publicly independent bodies.

The Prime Minister asked in Rome for the world to help Lebanon take control of its borders (code language for disarming Hezbollah); that public position was unheard of before this war began. A coy Mohammad Raad (a Hezbollah MP) retorted on TV this morning that Mr. Seniora was speaking his “personal opinion”. It is unclear what will become of the “bargaining chip” (the two Israeli soldiers) that Hezbollah had supposedly handed the Government.

Hezbollah’s supporters are waging an aggressive campaign to discredit other Lebanese as Zionist and American stooges.

Why? Because while the Lebanese are not “rising against Hezbollah,” they are clearly engaged in a conspiracy of silence. Politicians are denouncing Israeli aggression against innocent civilians, against the Army, and against our infrastructure. But no mainstream politician or writer has so far publicly denounced the bombing of Hezbollah’s weaponry.

There is even talk of Nassrallah feeling stabbed in the back. Some are saying, sarcastically, that the Sunnis are as angry with Israel over the bombing of Hezbollah, as the Shiaas were angry at Syria over Hariri’s killing.

It is unclear how events will unfold in the coming days, but the divorce between Hezbollah and the rest of the Lebanese means that depending on the outcome of this war, Hezbollah will either become much stronger and bully the Lebanese government, or much weaker as an unarmed political party.