Buying Loyalty
The Lebanese have always despised the Palestinian refugees who flooded the country at the birth of the State of Israel. The Palestinians were viewed - wherever they migrated to in their mass movement away from the territory that the United Nations offered them with Partition - as threats to civil society. A displaced people who could not be trusted and whose values were most definitely sub-par as compared to the society they had infiltrated.How things have changed. The despised Palestinians, maltreated wherever they went in the Middle East, now have a champion. A country that covets the resources of Lebanon, once considered the most beautiful, recreational country of the geography, now hands out millions of dollars to beef up its infrastructure. An infrastructure largely disabled by a war with Israel, which Hezbollah precipitated.
Hezbollah, the proxy militia of Iran, armed and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, for its usefulness in its 'resistance' against the Zionist occupier, violently challenges the sovereign autonomy of Israel, pleasing Iran hugely. While the Druze factions and the Christian-Lebanese are anything but thrilled with Hezbollah, it is now effectively a vital part of the government.
Viewed rightfully as a terrorist group by the Western world, Hezbollah has managed, by stealth and violent threats, to install itself as an arm of the government on the political side, while its militant side continues to stockpile deadly weapons and cache them among the Palestinian population in their towns and villages, against a future war with Israel.
While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his first-time visit to Lebanon, was feted and glorified by Hezbollah and the Palestinians, sharing their Shiite heritage, there are restive Sunni elements in the country that would love to assassinate Ahmadinejad for the threat he and his country pose to the sovereignty of Lebanon.
And while Ahmadinejad appeared in person in public, in a previously-destroyed village at the border with Israel which Iran had graciously paid to re-build, the top Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, would not emerge from his Syrian hidey-hole, but as usual addressed his mob and the ecstatic Palestinians by remote video connection.
Lebanon is now further indebted to Iran for the generosity of its most recent $450-million loan in support of the country's power and water projects. It has promised to assist the country in seeking out gas and oil deposits and drilling for extraction. But all is not quite well in the sanctorum of Lebanon's parliament.
The UN-backed investigation into the assassination of former premier Rafik al-Hariri is preparing to reveal their findings and it has been widely rumoured that Hezbollah will directly receive blame for the murder. And since Lebanon's current prime minister is the son of the slaughtered man, he remains wary and suspicious of Hezbollah.
The country is anxious to preserve its state of 'national unity', and to avoid another hugely destructive civil war. During the last one Syria helpfully embedded itself in the country and exploited its resources as a kindly occupier, one which only in the last few years was persuaded to leave Lebanon for Lebanon.
Fears of yet another factional war simmer just below the surface. The useful distraction of blaming Israel for all the troubles assailing the Middle East will continue, but it is anyone's guess how the situation in Lebanon will eventually play out.
Labels: Middle East, Traditions, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 14, 2010
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