Saturday, January 22, 2011

Lebanese Druze kingmaker changes his mind

Walid Jumblatt says he supports HizbAllah. Sometimes Lebanese politics resembles Iraqi politics.

'Twenty years may have passed since Lebanon's civil war subsided but there has been precious little substantive peace and reconciliation. Fears the current crisis could slip towards the same horrors are very real.

But finally, after all the waiting and pushing and shoving here, Jumblatt's decision to jump sides from the U.S.-backed faction of the outgoing Hariri to Iran-backed Hezbollah, is dealing not just Hariri a blow but the United States too.

There is no guarantee Jumblatt's 11 member block will follow suit and hand Hezbollah and its allies the right to chose the next prime minister but in his justification provides clues to why the United States is losing its influence -- not just here but across the region as a whole.

..."Without compromise, his compromise, the risk of bloody sectarian violence will increase." '


I don't understand why some people insist on spelling it "Hezbollah" - Americans end up pronouncing it Hézb-Ollah. It should be spelled the way it's pronounced in Arabic - "Hizb Allah", which means "Party of God". What a name for a political party. They think they represent God. It's silly.

10 comments :

C.H. said...

They certainly THINK they are a modern political party with God on their side, anon

Iraqi Mojo said...

What did "hizb" mean in the Qur'an? What does it mean today in the name "HizbAllah"? Do enlighten us, anonymous.

Iraqi Mojo said...

"And verily the party of God is surely to triumph."

So they are the party of God, because they are surely to triumph? How presumptive of them.

They think they are on God's side, do they not?

C.H. said...

I don't care about what they "say" so much as what they do. During the unrest in Iran back in 2009, Iranian clerics announced that the protesters had "declared war on God" and imported Hezbollah to beat them down in the streets. I have friends there who experienced this -- their aggressors did not speak Farsi.

Iraqi Mojo said...

Maybe they were Sadrists.

C.H. said...

That's certainly possible...Sadr is back in Iran, btw, according to the BBC

Dolly said...

The Shia think this guy called Ali is god. Yes, Ali.

Anyone from outside can immediately tell it's a stupid belief. Ali? Pfft.

So this Ali got assassinated in year 661.

Dolly said...

If you go to 1:29 minutes here, they sing a hymn for Ali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U_xjyGt8kg

Maury said...

Here's a map that overlays US states with countries of similar GDP's. What I found shocking was the states similar in GDP to the big oil exporters. How does Saudi Arabia export 8M bpd of oil, and still have an economy the size of Massachusetts....which has no natural resources?

Texas-Russia
Massachusetts-Saudi Arabia
Connecticut-UAE
District of Columbia-Kuwait
Delaware-Libya
West Virginia-Iraq

Maury said...

Texas=Russia? That's just strange. Russia exports 7M bpd of oil, and provides 25% of Europe's natural gas. It also has a population 6X larger than Texas.

http://tinyurl.com/4r4ukhq