{"id":1348,"date":"2006-07-29T01:38:23","date_gmt":"2006-07-29T01:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2006-07-29T01:38:23","modified_gmt":"2006-07-29T01:38:23","slug":"2006-7-29-nyt-tide-of-arab-opinion-turns-to-support-for-hezbollah-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1348","title":{"rendered":"NYT: Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah"},"content":{"rendered":"
More on the growing regional support for Hizbollah…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

July 28, 2006
Changing Reaction
Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah<\/strong><\/a>
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR<\/p>\n

DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.<\/p>\n

An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new Middle East\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd that they say has led only to violence and repression.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst in Amman, Jordan, with the International Crisis Group, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the most potent issue in this part of the world.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Distinctive changes in tone are audible throughout the Sunni world. This week, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt emphasized his attempts to arrange a cease-fire to protect all sects in Lebanon, while the Jordanian king announced that his country was dispatching medical teams \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for the victims of Israeli aggression.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Both countries have peace treaties with Israel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Saudi royal court has issued a dire warning that its 2002 peace plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201d offering Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for returning to the borders that predated the 1967 Arab-Israeli war \u00e2\u20ac\u201d could well perish.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd it said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Saudis were putting the West on notice that they would not exert pressure on anyone in the Arab world until Washington did something to halt the destruction of Lebanon, Saudi commentators said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

American officials say that while the Arab leaders need to take a harder line publicly for domestic political reasons, what matters more is what they tell the United States in private, which the Americans still see as a wink and a nod.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long \u00e2\u20ac\u201d would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. Hence their first priority is to cool simmering public opinion.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But perhaps not since President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt made his emotional outpourings about Arab unity in the 1960\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, before the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, has the public been so electrified by a confrontation with Israel, played out repeatedly on satellite television stations with horrific images from Lebanon of wounded children and distraught women fleeing their homes.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Egypt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opposition press has had a field day comparing Sheik Nasrallah to Nasser, while demonstrators waved pictures of both.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An editorial in the weekly Al Dustur by Ibrahim Issa, who faces a lengthy jail sentence for his previous criticism of President Mubarak, compared current Arab leaders to the medieval princes who let the Crusaders chip away at Muslim lands until they controlled them all.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After attending an intellectual rally in Cairo for Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote a column describing how he had watched a companion buy 20 posters of Sheik Nasrallah.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People are praying for him as they walk in the street, because we were made to feel oppressed, weak and handicapped,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Mr. Negm said in an interview. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I asked the man who sweeps the street under my building what he thought, and he said: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcUncle Ahmed, he has awakened the dead man inside me! May God make him triumphant!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, Rasha Salti, a freelance writer, summarized the sense that Sheik Nasrallah differed from other Arab leaders.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since the war broke out, Hassan Nasrallah has displayed a persona, and public behavior also, to the exact opposite of Arab heads of states,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd she wrote in an e-mail message posted on many blogs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In comparison, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brief visit to the region sparked widespread criticism of her cold demeanor and her choice of words, particularly a statement that the bloodshed represented the birth pangs of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new Middle East.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd That catchphrase was much used by Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who was a principal negotiator of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which ultimately failed to lead to the Palestinian state they envisaged.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A cartoon by Emad Hajjaj in Jordan labeled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The New Middle East\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd showed an Israeli tank sitting on a broken apartment house in the shape of the Arab world.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fawaz al-Trabalsi, a columnist in the Lebanese daily As Safir, suggested that the real new thing in the Middle East was the ability of one group to challenge Israeli militarily.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps nothing underscored Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rising stock more than the sudden appearance of a tape from the Qaeda leadership attempting to grab some of the limelight.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera satellite television broadcast a tape from Mr. Zawahri (za-WAH-ri). Large panels behind him showed a picture of the exploding World Trade Center as well as portraits of two Egyptian Qaeda members, Muhammad Atef, a Qaeda commander who was killed by an American airstrike in Afghanistan, and Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. He described the two as fighters for the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr. Zawahri tried to argue that the fight against American forces in Iraq paralleled what Hezbollah was doing, though he did not mention the organization by name.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But by taking on Israel, Hezbollah had instantly eclipsed Al Qaeda, analysts said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone will be asking, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhere is Al Qaeda now?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\ufffd said Adel al-Toraifi, a Saudi columnist and expert on Sunni extremists.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr. Rabbani of the International Crisis Group said Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to withstand the Israeli assault and to conti
\nnue to lob missiles well into Israel exposed the weaknesses of Arab governments with far greater resources than Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Public opinion says that if they are getting more on the battlefield than you are at the negotiating table, and you have so many more means at your disposal, then what the hell are you doing?\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Mr. Rabbani said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In comparison with the small embattled guerrilla movement, the Arab states seem to be standing idly by twiddling their thumbs.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo for this article, and Suha Maayeh from Amman, Jordan.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can find pix of solidarity demos in Egypt here<\/a> and here.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More on the growing regional support for Hizbollah…<\/p>\n
\n

July 28, 2006
\nChanging Reaction
\nTide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah<\/strong><\/a>
\nBy NEIL MacFARQUHAR\n<\/p>\n

DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.<\/p>\n

Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.<\/p>\n

An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new Middle East\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd that they say has led only to violence and repression.<\/p>\n

Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.<\/p>\n

Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst in Amman, Jordan, with the International Crisis Group, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the most potent issue in this part of the world.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

Distinctive changes in tone are audible throughout the Sunni world. This week, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt emphasized his attempts to arrange a cease-fire to protect all sects in Lebanon, while the Jordanian king announced that his country was dispatching medical teams \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for the victims of Israeli aggression.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Both countries have peace treaties with Israel.<\/p>\n

The Saudi royal court has issued a dire warning that its 2002 peace plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201d offering Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for returning to the borders that predated the 1967 Arab-Israeli war \u00e2\u20ac\u201d could well perish.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd it said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

The Saudis were putting the West on notice that they would not exert pressure on anyone in the Arab world until Washington did something to halt the destruction of Lebanon, Saudi commentators said.<\/p>\n

American officials say that while the Arab leaders need to take a harder line publicly for domestic political reasons, what matters more is what they tell the United States in private, which the Americans still see as a wink and a nod.<\/p>\n

There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long \u00e2\u20ac\u201d would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. Hence their first priority is to cool simmering public opinion.<\/p>\n

But perhaps not since President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt made his emotional outpourings about Arab unity in the 1960\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, before the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, has the public been so electrified by a confrontation with Israel, played out repeatedly on satellite television stations with horrific images from Lebanon of wounded children and distraught women fleeing their homes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Egypt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opposition press has had a field day comparing Sheik Nasrallah to Nasser, while demonstrators waved pictures of both.<\/p>\n

An editorial in the weekly Al Dustur by Ibrahim Issa, who faces a lengthy jail sentence for his previous criticism of President Mubarak, compared current Arab leaders to the medieval princes who let the Crusaders chip away at Muslim lands until they controlled them all.<\/p>\n

After attending an intellectual rally in Cairo for Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote a column describing how he had watched a companion buy 20 posters of Sheik Nasrallah.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People are praying for him as they walk in the street, because we were made to feel oppressed, weak and handicapped,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Mr. Negm said in an interview. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I asked the man who sweeps the street under my building what he thought, and he said: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcUncle Ahmed, he has awakened the dead man inside me! May God make him triumphant!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, Rasha Salti, a freelance writer, summarized the sense that Sheik Nasrallah differed from other Arab leaders.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since the war broke out, Hassan Nasrallah has displayed a persona, and public behavior also, to the exact opposite of Arab heads of states,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd she wrote in an e-mail message posted on many blogs.<\/p>\n

In comparison, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brief visit to the region sparked widespread criticism of her cold demeanor and her choice of words, particularly a statement that the bloodshed represented the birth pangs of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new Middle East.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd That catchphrase was much used by Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who was a principal negotiator of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which ultimately failed to lead to the Palestinian state they envisaged.<\/p>\n

A cartoon by Emad Hajjaj in Jordan labeled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The New Middle East\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd showed an Israeli tank sitting on a broken apartment house in the shape of the Arab world.<\/p>\n

Fawaz al-Trabalsi, a columnist in the Lebanese daily As Safir, suggested that the real new thing in the Middle East was the ability of one group to challenge Israeli militarily.<\/p>\n

Perhaps nothing underscored Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rising stock more than the sudden appearance of a tape from the Qaeda leadership attempting to grab some of the limelight.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera satellite television broadcast a tape from Mr. Zawahri (za-WAH-ri). Large panels behind him showed a picture of the exploding World Trade Center as well as portraits of two Egyptian Qaeda members, Muhammad Atef, a Qaeda commander who was killed by an American airstrike in Afghanistan, and Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. He described the two as fighters for the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Mr. Zawahri tried to argue that the fight against American forces in Iraq paralleled what Hezbollah was doing, though he did not mention the organization by name.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.<\/p>\n

But by taking on Israel, Hezbollah had instantly eclipsed Al Qaeda, analysts said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone will be asking, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhere is Al Qaeda now?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\ufffd said Adel al-Toraifi, a Saudi columnist and expert on Sunni extremists.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rabbani of the International Crisis Group said Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to withstand the Israeli assault and to continue to lob missiles well into Israel exposed the weaknesses of Arab governments with far greater resources than Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Public opinion says that if they are getting more on the battlefield than you are at the negotiating table, and you have so many more means at your disposal, then what the hell are you doing?\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd Mr. Rabbani said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In comparison with the small embattled guerrilla movement, the Arab states seem to be standing idly by twiddling their thumbs.\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd<\/p>\n

Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo for this article, and Suha Maayeh from Amman, Jordan.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can find pix of solidarity demos in Egypt here<\/a> and here.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[59,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}