Mideast crisis – Blog from Jerusalem
Jerusalem—When Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed seven others in a July 12 cross-border raid, sparking an aggressive Israeli military reaction on Lebanon, a Jordanian friend of mine changed his MSN messenger user name to "F*** Hezbollah."
It stayed like that for three days as Israel pounded the southern neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital and the southern part of the country, where many supporters of Hezbollah live. Hezbollah volleyed Katyusha rockets and longer-range missiles on Israeli villages and towns. "Hezbollah f***ed up big time," he wrote me later, calling the group "pawns in the hands of the Syrians and the Iranians."
Indeed, he was not the only Arab who felt that way. Despite strong criticism of Israel's military operation in Lebanon, many Arabs—from the man in the street to the man on the throne—blamed the Syrian and Iranian-backed Shiite militia for starting the dangerous back-and-forth conflict.
A Bahraini blogger, known for speaking his mind at 'Mahmoud's Den', ridiculed the Lebanese government: " Sorry, how many armies do you actually have, Lebanon?" he wrote Sunday. "Make up your effing mind and either amalgamate all of these "resistance fighters" under your army's banner or disband them. You are a sovereign nation, right? So what the hell are you doing allowing "resistance fighters" to "defend" the South? Isn't that your army's job?"
Some Lebanese criticize their compatriots. Sami Hermez, a Lebanese academic doing research in Ramallah, tried desperately to call his family when the conflict began. Writing on electronicintifada.net, he said that Lebanese are angry at Hezbollah, which claims to be a resistance movement defending Lebanon. "Lebanon was doing just fine before Hezbollah decided to act," screamed his mother, when he was finally able to get through to her on her cell phone.
Arab and Muslim leaders often try to maintain a single stance in regards to Israel. But Hezbollah's act last Wednesday created a crack. Saudi Arabia, for one, lashed out at Hezbollah last Thursday, calling its attack inside the Israeli border "irresponsible adventurism ... that risk[s] putting in danger all the Arab countries and their achievements before these countries have said a word." Egypt and Jordan also expressed implicit criticism of Hezbollah, which gets its backing from Iran and Syria.
But the crack soon revealed itself to be a gorge. Instead of agreeing on a joint statement against Israel, the representatives of unlikely countries such as Kuwait, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, joined the Egyptians, Jordanians and Saudis against the Lebanese and Syrian foreign ministers in criticizing Hezbollah's actions at an emergency session of the Arab League on Saturday. According to the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, the Kuwaiti foreign minister suggested throwing a glass of water on the Syrian foreign minister "to wake him up."
A few Arab newspaper editors have also dared to blame Hezbollah. "I do not see any reason why the Israeli soldiers have been abducted, in Gaza or in Lebanon," Mohammed Galadari, editor-in-chief of The Khaleej Times, an English-language daily published in Dubai, wrote in his Saturday column.
But as the Israeli military operation continues and the number of killed Lebanese civilians rises complete with ghastly pictures on Arab TV, even those who fault Hezbollah for starting the dangerous back-and-forth lobbying of missiles and rockets are turning their criticism towards their usual foe, Israel.
Yesterday, my Jordanian friend changed his MSN Messenger name again. Now it reads: "F*** Hezbollah and Israel. Long Live Lebanon."
Halpern is a freelance journalist in Jerusalem.
advertisement
