Wednesday, June 18, 2008

U.S. and Shi`ite Politics in Lebanon. So you all must have heard about this incident with the U.S. embassy delegation in South Lebanon. Several remarks: notice that all Western news accounts referred to the protesters as "Hizbullah supporters". How did they know that? Did they interview them one-by-one? I saw the footage on Lebanese media and none referred to them as "Hizbullah supporters". The purpose behind the identification of the crowd as "Hizbullah supporters" is: 1) to delegitimize the protesters in Western eyes; 2) to pretend that protest against U.S. policies is confined to Hamas and Hizbullah in the Middle East region; 3) and to promote a distinction between the people of South Lebanon and Hizbullah when public opinion surveys and elections indicate that Amal-Hizbullah (and Amal is the very junior partner here) command the support of at least 95% of Shi`ites in Lebanon--whether you like it or not. The other thing that got my attention was this: U.S. efforts at promoting and cultivating Shi`ites alternatives to Hizbullah are rather comical. This is like the hosting of Ahmad Al-As`ad (representative of what remained of Al-As`ad feudal family, and who 25 years ago complained to me that his father (former speaker, Kamil Al-As`ad) spoiled his education because he never would make up his mind whether his son would become a "za`im" or not--the father and son are now on non-speaking terms) by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (which holds views to the right of Meir Kahane). But what was amusing is that Ms. Sison was visiting this `Abdullah Bitar (who belongs to Ahmad Al-As`ad's group which has a support among Shi`ites equals to much less than the margin of error of every poll on the subject), who after the flight of the delegation from his house earlier today made a statement to the LBC-TV. He said that he only meets with the Americans to pressure them to pressure "the Israeli enemy." It was not reported whether he chanted to the crowd that song by Sha`ban `Abdur-Rahim titled "I hate Israel." You read this story and learn of the brilliance of U.S. Middle East policy what you knew not before.