Jihadist Isolation?
Earlier today (see previous post) the Saudis distanced themselves from Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran in their latest confrontation with Israel. Now a voice of moderate, nationalist Lebanon has done the same. The English-language internet edition of The Daily Star has published an editorial that portrays the recent crisis as an “opportunity.”
While at first glance the editorial might actually seem to praise Hezbollah, a careful reading suggests that moderate, Lebanese nationalists are, in fact, throwing down the proverbial gauntlet at the feed of the Shi’a Islamist movement. The editorial does this by first laying out the stakes for “tiny” Lebanon.
Israel's steadily mounting military response to Hizbullah’s capture of two soldiers inside the Jewish state has already imposed human and financial costs that a tiny country like Lebanon can ill afford. Since the damage thus far is still relatively small when compared to that to be expected if and when Israel unleashes the full weight of its might, things can easily get far worse unless cooler heads prevail. With luck and forethought, however, the deeply worrisome situation might still be retrieved to the benefit of all parties.
Next, the editorial makes a pitch for national solidarity.
The past 17 months have been disappointing, but only because they began with so much optimism: On balance, the accomplishments far outweigh the failures. The current crisis has the capacity to shatter this emerging sense of nationhood, though, so any political act that tends to help solidify it is highly encouraging.
Then the editorial issues its challenge to Hezbollah.
What has been missing is a consensus with sufficient strength and appeal to forge a genuinely Lebanese identity. Hizbullah has always been the missing catalyst in that consensus, and the current crisis provides an opportunity to fulfill the resistance movement’s potential as cornerstone of a new stability. This can only happen, though, if Nasrallah is able to keep his party’s fate—and therefore his country’s—from becoming intertwined with the problems that plague Iran and Syria's relations with the international community. He has the power to do this by empowering Lebanon's government—not Germany’s or Egypt’s or anyone else’s—to negotiate on Hizbullah’s behalf. Only thus can he begin to refute, once and for all, the suspicion that his priorities are regional ones, and that local issues and the people they affect are only tools and pawns in a wider game in which most Lebanese have little stake and even less interest.
The editorial, while it appears to speak well of Hezbollah, is calling upon its leaders to place Lebanon’s national interest ahead of any other, most especially that of Syria and Iran. The obvious problem is that Hezbollah is not a nationalist organization, be it Lebanese or Arab. It is an Islamist/Jihadist movement.
In combination with the Saudi statement, The Daily Star editorial reflects the increasing isolation of Hezbollah in this crisis. I’m certain that behind the scenes the Arab states are busily pressuring Syria as well. The crisis will demonstrate just how subservient President Assad has become to Iranian interests, for it is only Tehran’s interests that are now being served.
