Disarming (clever) Hezbollah
Why speak of disarming Hezbollah? It should be clear to anyone with half a brain that they're already more than slightly disarming. They were, after all, right up on their public relations techniques during their rocket assaults on Israel designed to ensure that Israel's return fire would target the civilians they so handily hid behind, and then pointing outraged blame on Israel, weren't they? Didn't the international corps of reporters-from-the-war-zone fall all over themselves to file stories of Israeli atrocities? Didn't the news photographers lend themselves ever so willingly to the clever wiles of Hezbollah?Hey, we ain't seen nothing. There's a new tack, and it's proving to be highly successful. Terrorists? What terrorists? These are freedom fighters. They must be, because they are the Party of God, and you can be assured that God would never lend his hallowed name (think of his shattered reputation) to a group that did not truly represent him, right? So here is this Party of God, doing the will of the Grand Master of the Universe, which is to expunge from the earth all beings claiming to be of Jewish heritage.
They're doing God's will, they cannot be wrong, they are mere messengers, the Party of God. If God demands it, they obey. Now, apparently, the Party of God feels it is finished for the time being with slandering and murdering Jews and more particularly at the moment, Israelis (Israeli Jews by intent, Israeli Arabs by default). The attention swivels from the evil Israeli agents who but do the work of their Satanic master, the United States as the fount of all evil.
Hezbollah has been falling all over themselves persuading the Lebanese population that the war which they perpetrated upon said population was for their own good, for the liberation of Lebanon from the evil tentacles of Israel. Not Iran, not Syria, but Israel which has no interest whatever in Lebanon but for it to sit still and behave itself. To that end, they grandly hand out gobs of cash (U.S. of course) to those whom they have deprived of their homes, businesses, belongings. I haven't yet read what a life is worth in cash (U.S. of course).
And Hezbollah's vaunted building crews are out there with bulldozers and cranes demolishing the already-destroyed, working to restore homes they so diligently engineered to be bombed, with or without residents. Civic centres, clinics, schools will be re-built by Hezbollah, which non-terrorist group has taken steps to forestall aid attempts by international organizations, telling them to get lost. After all, if any others than Hezbollah are seen to be doing the restorative work, who will the credit go to?
Hezbollah is also busy with tourism, which has suffered such a great blow in Lebanon. At the site of Haret Hreik, in the heart of Beirut, where Hezbollah's headquarters stood along with a dense population of Shia Muslims loyal to Hezbollah, they have set up a tourist attraction - guiding choreographed tours through the ruins they created. These excursions host the bulk of the international press corps, and they are led by Hezbollah public relation spokesman Hussein Haboulsi who hysterically shrieks blame on Israel/U.S.A.
As the press, both print and electronic, TV anchors, photographers, are led on this tour, every now and then a distraught man pops out from a destroyed building to scream his rage at what has befallen his home. Now, Hezbollah focuses blame directly on the United States - Israel being portrayed as a puppet - for to do otherwise would be once again to have someone indelicate enough to remind Hezbollah that Israel fought a war that Hezbollah began.
The detritus from the mangled concrete pushed into place by busy backhoes now host signs reading variously: "New Middle Beast", "The Divine Victory", "Made in U.S.A.", and lest one doubts the extent of Hezbollah's commitment to public relations, in small letters below the outraged captions one reads "trademark"; not to infringe, pray. This helpful distraction, compelling "tourists" to confront the carnage wrought by Israel/America is useful in assisting the public to overlook the $230M U.S. in aid for reconstruction from America.
"We've been broadcasting live from here all day, from ten in the morning until three," said Ahmed Naeem, the Hezbollah functionary in charge, with pride. "We had everyone! NGOs, ambassadors, even the Turkish foreign Minister."Reporter Annia Ciezadlo, a Beirut-based writer for the New Republic went to search out Hezbollah's graphics unit, curious to see where all the colourful signs were being produced. She discovered a virtual army of graphic artists, sitting around, relaxing, while a team of young men passed out posters. She asked one of the designers why so many of the signs are in English, and he replied: "It's normal for them to be in several different languages, because there are foreign journalists here, asking questions," he replied. "People are receptive - especially Made in U.S.A."
Obviously, nothing succeeds like excess in brazen chutzpah.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, August 25, 2006
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