Hezbollah’s Primary Affiliations

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?