❊ Has The Future Movement Surrendered The Propaganda War?

By choosing to stay silent on the matter of Sayyed Nasrallah’s presentation, Lebanon’s Future Movement risks coming across as weak and confused

Like I said before, Sayyed Nasrallah’s entire presentation was to win hearts and minds in the Arab world. And one can argue, to various degrees, that he had some success.

Now of course, when you win something, you win it from someone else. That “someone else”, in this fight for Sunni Arab public opinion is Hariri’s Future Movement (Almustaqbal).

Hariri’s Future Movement was instrumental in winning sympathy from the Arab world. They had mobilized their media, allies and figureheads to convince everyone that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are the bad guys in Lebanon. And yet, despite all of this, they are now sitting idly as Hezbollah wages a ferocious PR campaign to tarnish the credibility of the very institution in which they seek justice and salvation, the United Nation’s special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).

As Sayyed Nasrallah laid out his case, Future TV was the only station in Lebanon that did not broadcast it live. For a station which is only about news, this is scandalous.

Perhaps the FM has decided to do no harm and sit this one out until the STL speaks. But by choosing to remain silent (with the notable exception of the fiery ex-MP Mustapha Alloush) they’re projecting an image which at best can be described as confused and at worst as weak. They’re opening the door to rumors of “implosion” and “crumbling of the house of cards”.

Mr. Hariri, in the present circumstances, silence is not golden.

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 Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.