BEIRUT -- Well, this is just great. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said that reconciliation with Hezbollah was "impossible" because the Shi'ite militant group wants to replace the current pluralist state and society of Lebanon.
This is bunk. I have my criticisms of Hezbollah, but they don't want to take over the whole country. For one, they don't want the responsibility. They want to be a resistance movement fighting the Israelis; they don't want to be in charge of filling potholes in Tariq el-Jdeide. They want enough power within the current system to guarantee the south remains theirs, so they can move freely in and out of it and keep their weapons, which is the real base of their power. Does anyone think Iran and Syria would continue to finance them if they weren't such an effective tool against Israel? If Hezbollah had no weapons, then they have no money. If they have no money, they have no ability to support their social services, which are a strong draw to Lebanon's poorer Shi'ite population. Without that loyalty, they're nothing -- and Hezbollah knows it. As Hezbollah sees it, they have to protect their weapons if they want to remain politically viable.
But back to Jumblatt (or "Jumbo" as he's affectionately know to local journalists). He's long had a reputation as a dial-a-quote politician/warlord, but he represents one of the smallest communities in Lebanon. (Druze make up maybe 5 percent of the population.)
What's dangerous about his comments, however, is that he's listened to by the rank and file of March 14, and his comments can harden attitudes to any kind of compromise -- which is sorely needed these days. Hezbollah ain't going away, and it has to be integrated into the Lebanese political system somehow -- fully and nonviolently. Jumblatt's comments make that more difficult.
At any rate, his comments came in the wake of the disturbing discovery of two caches of explosives and detonation fuses scattered around Beirut and the rest of the country. Perhaps someone was just trying to dump them, but it's set the place on edge. Careless comments from political leaders are not the best way to calm the situation.
Interesting analysis. I’ve been very unsympathetic to Hezbollah, and distrustful of its aims, but arguments like this are edging me further away from my old assumptions. Notice the profile of Jumblatt in one of the latest New Yorkers? The piece seemed to me a but rich in inaccuracies, but still worth the read for its (rare) overall survey of Lebanon’s wars going back to the late 1960s.
By KIRK SEMPLE Published: March 11, 2007
BAGHDAD, March 10 — On one of the holiest days in the Shiite calendar, a suicide car bomber on Saturday tried to circumvent a military checkpoint on a bridge leading to Sadr City, a vast Shiite neighborhood, apparently intending to plow into a crowd of people nearby, Iraqi and American authorities said. USA
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But when Iraqi soldiers stopped the man, he detonated his vehicle, killing at least seven of them and wounding scores of civilians, many of whom were pilgrims returning from celebrating the religious rite of Arbaeen in the southern holy city of Karbala, officials and witnesses said.