How Hezbollah Won

Hezbollah leader a hero to many Arabs

Despite the terrible toll in death and destruction in Lebanon, even enemies and critics say the stature of Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has risen dramatically from his guerrillas fighting toe-to-toe with the Israeli army.

“Hassan Nasrallah has won militarily and politically and has become a new leader like Nasser,” Lebanese lawmaker Walid Jumblatt, a harsh critic of Hezbollah’s alliance with Iran and Syria, said in a television interview.

Israel’s ferocious bombing has rallied many more Lebanese around Hezbollah, regardless of politics or religion, said Gen. Antoine Lahd, who led a now defunct militia that helped Israeli troops police the occupation zone before they withdrew six years ago. Beirut’s leading newspaper, An-Nahar, has long been critical of Hezbollah – especially its harassing rocket attacks on Israel before the war began – but it urged all Lebanese to stand behind Nasrallah’s group to achieve victory against the Jewish state.

Just as Chirol predicted earlier this month, Hezbollah has won the war against Israel just by surviving. The question is, has Israel created a large enough “buffer zone” inside Lebanon to protect it from future attacks. But at best that’s still just a short-term solution to the Hezbollah cancer that will remain a menace to both states.

On a somewhat related note, Time has a good article on why young British Muslims turn to violence against their nation of birth.