The Shia leader is happy to support protesters in Bahrain and Egypt, but he won't criticise Syria's violent crackdown.
A VERY GOOD PIECE
Hamid Dabashi
(Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. )
Al-Jazeera
"Hassan Nasrallah is in trouble. This time the troubles of the Secretary General of Hezbollah, which were hitherto the source of his strength, are not coming from Israel, or from the sectarian politics of Lebanon. Seyyed Hassan's troubles, which this time around are the harbingers of his undoing as an outdated fighter, are coming from, of all places, the Arab Spring.....
....And then Tunisia happened, and Egypt, and Libya, and Bahrain, and Yemen - and then, Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei's nightmare, Syria happened. It is a sad scene to see a once mighty warrior being bypassed by the force of history, and all he can do is to fumble clumsily to reveal he has not learned the art of aging gracefully.
Deja vu
When Hasan Nasrallah came to the defence of Bashar al-Assad's murderous regime in Syria, signs of frailty were all over the old fighter's countenance. He asked Syrians for patience. He admitted mistakes had been made by Syrians in Lebanon. He promised Assad would do reforms. He pleaded for time. Deja vu: For an uncanny moment the Hezbollah fighter sounded and looked like the late Shah of Iran days before his final demise early in 1979: desperate, confused, baffled by the unfolding drama, worriedly out of touch with what was happening around him.
"Hassan Nasrallah," according to ,an Al Jazeera report on 25 May 2011 has called on Syrians to support president Bashar al-Assad and enter into dialogue with the government to end weeks of ongoing protests across Syria.".....
"Bashar is serious about carrying out reforms," he was now pleading with his audience, "but he has to do them gradually and in a responsible way; he should be given the chance to implement those reforms." When Nasrallah made these remarks more than 1000 Syrian civilians had been gunned down by Bashar Assad's army and security forces, serving the Assad dynasty for about forty years.....
Nasrallah, who could not care less for such revolting behavior by his patrons, now for second time in a row, was siding with brutal, vicious tyrants and their criminally insane security forces against the democratic aspirations of their people - once in Iran and now in Syria. A "freedom fighter"? Really? What kind of a "freedom fighter" is that? Forget about the Shah, Hassan Nasrallah now sounded more like President Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) who once famously said about the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (1896-1956) that he "may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." Hassan Nasrallah too did not care if Khamenei and Assad tortured and murdered their own people - so far as they kept him in business.....
Hypocrisy
Nasrallah's predicament with Syria had been moving towards him apace. He has been dillydallying since the commencement of the Arab Spring as to how to calibrate his positions. When Tunisia happened he said,"we must congratulate the Tunisian people on their historic revolution, their struggle, and their uprising.".....
....Is Iranian or Syrian blood any thinner than Libyan blood in the mighty warrior's estimation? Is there a word for this barefaced hypocrisy in any language? What sort of "resistance" is this - and resistance to what? Resistance to Israeli expansionism by a band of militant thugs maiming and murdering their own people in Syria and Iran? Is this the choice that our people must make?....
And then Syria happened, and Hasan Nasrallah began stuttering. "First, we should be committed to Syria's stability, security and safety." Syrians' security and safety - or Bashar al-Assad's? Scores of Syrians are being gunned down, tortured, and killed. There is a massive humanitarian crisis on the Syrian-Turkish border, finally forcing Turkey to sever its ties with Syria. Syrians are fleeing their homeland en masse, fearing for their lives from Bashar al-Assad's murderous army. What about their security and safety?
"Second," he said, "We call upon the Syrian people to maintain their regime of resistance, as well as to give way to the Syrian leadership to implement the required reforms and to choose the course of dialogue." Really? Isn't that what Clinton also says about Bahrain?.....
"Third, we as Lebanese shouldn't interfere in what is going on in Syria, but let the Syrians themselves to deal with the issue." Truly? How come "you as Lebanese" interfere anywhere from Morocco to Iran, from Bahrain to Yemen, but not about Syria? Why? Aren't Syrians humans? If you shoot them do they not bleed? If you torture and mutilate them do they not suffer and die?....
That Hassan Nasrallah is not altogether aware of what is happening around him is also evident in the fact that it seems just to have dawned on him that the US is "seeking to hijack the wave of pro-democracy popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world." Of course they are - but what is Hassan Nasrallah doing to safeguard and promote it, siding with Bashar al-Assad and Ali Khamenei? Hassan Nasrallah is now outmaneuvered, checkmated, made redundant by history, by, of all things, a magnificent Arab Spring, in which he has no role, no say, and no decision. Nothing...."
A VERY GOOD PIECE
Hamid Dabashi
(Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. )
Al-Jazeera
"Hassan Nasrallah is in trouble. This time the troubles of the Secretary General of Hezbollah, which were hitherto the source of his strength, are not coming from Israel, or from the sectarian politics of Lebanon. Seyyed Hassan's troubles, which this time around are the harbingers of his undoing as an outdated fighter, are coming from, of all places, the Arab Spring.....
....And then Tunisia happened, and Egypt, and Libya, and Bahrain, and Yemen - and then, Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei's nightmare, Syria happened. It is a sad scene to see a once mighty warrior being bypassed by the force of history, and all he can do is to fumble clumsily to reveal he has not learned the art of aging gracefully.
Deja vu
When Hasan Nasrallah came to the defence of Bashar al-Assad's murderous regime in Syria, signs of frailty were all over the old fighter's countenance. He asked Syrians for patience. He admitted mistakes had been made by Syrians in Lebanon. He promised Assad would do reforms. He pleaded for time. Deja vu: For an uncanny moment the Hezbollah fighter sounded and looked like the late Shah of Iran days before his final demise early in 1979: desperate, confused, baffled by the unfolding drama, worriedly out of touch with what was happening around him.
"Hassan Nasrallah," according to ,an Al Jazeera report on 25 May 2011 has called on Syrians to support president Bashar al-Assad and enter into dialogue with the government to end weeks of ongoing protests across Syria.".....
"Bashar is serious about carrying out reforms," he was now pleading with his audience, "but he has to do them gradually and in a responsible way; he should be given the chance to implement those reforms." When Nasrallah made these remarks more than 1000 Syrian civilians had been gunned down by Bashar Assad's army and security forces, serving the Assad dynasty for about forty years.....
Nasrallah, who could not care less for such revolting behavior by his patrons, now for second time in a row, was siding with brutal, vicious tyrants and their criminally insane security forces against the democratic aspirations of their people - once in Iran and now in Syria. A "freedom fighter"? Really? What kind of a "freedom fighter" is that? Forget about the Shah, Hassan Nasrallah now sounded more like President Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) who once famously said about the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (1896-1956) that he "may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." Hassan Nasrallah too did not care if Khamenei and Assad tortured and murdered their own people - so far as they kept him in business.....
Hypocrisy
Nasrallah's predicament with Syria had been moving towards him apace. He has been dillydallying since the commencement of the Arab Spring as to how to calibrate his positions. When Tunisia happened he said,"we must congratulate the Tunisian people on their historic revolution, their struggle, and their uprising.".....
....Is Iranian or Syrian blood any thinner than Libyan blood in the mighty warrior's estimation? Is there a word for this barefaced hypocrisy in any language? What sort of "resistance" is this - and resistance to what? Resistance to Israeli expansionism by a band of militant thugs maiming and murdering their own people in Syria and Iran? Is this the choice that our people must make?....
And then Syria happened, and Hasan Nasrallah began stuttering. "First, we should be committed to Syria's stability, security and safety." Syrians' security and safety - or Bashar al-Assad's? Scores of Syrians are being gunned down, tortured, and killed. There is a massive humanitarian crisis on the Syrian-Turkish border, finally forcing Turkey to sever its ties with Syria. Syrians are fleeing their homeland en masse, fearing for their lives from Bashar al-Assad's murderous army. What about their security and safety?
"Second," he said, "We call upon the Syrian people to maintain their regime of resistance, as well as to give way to the Syrian leadership to implement the required reforms and to choose the course of dialogue." Really? Isn't that what Clinton also says about Bahrain?.....
"Third, we as Lebanese shouldn't interfere in what is going on in Syria, but let the Syrians themselves to deal with the issue." Truly? How come "you as Lebanese" interfere anywhere from Morocco to Iran, from Bahrain to Yemen, but not about Syria? Why? Aren't Syrians humans? If you shoot them do they not bleed? If you torture and mutilate them do they not suffer and die?....
That Hassan Nasrallah is not altogether aware of what is happening around him is also evident in the fact that it seems just to have dawned on him that the US is "seeking to hijack the wave of pro-democracy popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world." Of course they are - but what is Hassan Nasrallah doing to safeguard and promote it, siding with Bashar al-Assad and Ali Khamenei? Hassan Nasrallah is now outmaneuvered, checkmated, made redundant by history, by, of all things, a magnificent Arab Spring, in which he has no role, no say, and no decision. Nothing...."
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