With Hizbullah and its likes, Western leftists can cultivate contact and try to listen to and talk to them if we wish. Noam Chomsky, As'ad AbuKhalil, etc. have met Hasan Nasrallah. In contrast, you cannot try to meet and reason with sectarian jihadists of an apocalyptic tendency who, with Washington, have made Iraq FUBAR -- you'd be lucky if you went to Iraq now and didn't get kidnapped and beheaded by them.
If the Tel Aviv-Washington axis succeeds in defeating or weakening Hizbullah, Hamas, Iran, etc., the Islamist Right, backed by Saudi money, will step into the vacuum, recruiting more angry Arab and Muslim youths into its sectarian jihads not just in the Middle East but all over the world. Hard as it may be for you to believe, it is Hizbullah, et al. who stand between us and apocalypse.
> Even if Hezbollah "wins" the war against Israel by surviving the
> onslaught and re-cementing its power with Lebanon and the Muslim world,
> Lebanon can only lose. How can progressives stand in solidarity with
> and support an organization that recklessly and selfishly played right
> into Israel's hands by giving it the pretense it was looking for to
> re-invade Lebanon? Why should we be encouraging Hezbollah when Lebanon
> is paying so dearly for the massive miscalculation-in moral, human and
> financial, if not in political terms-of Nasrallah and the Hezbollah
> leadership?
A majority of the Lebanese support Hizballah, which wasn't the case before the Israeli invasion. Tel Aviv helped Hizballah nationalize its resistance:
<blockquote> <http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/12698> Angus Reid Global Scan : Polls & Research Lebanese Support Resistance Against Israel July 30, 2006
- Many adults in Lebanon believe Hezbollah is right in fighting Israel, according to a poll by the Beirut Center for Research and Information. 86.9 per cent of respondents support the Lebanese-backed resistance against Israel.
On Jul. 12, Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two more in a cross-border attack. The Israeli armed forces launched air strikes inside Lebanese territory to fight Hezbollah, targeting the country's infrastructure and its airport. Hezbollah has retaliated by firing rockets into several Israeli towns. 70.1 per cent of respondents agree with the capture of the two soldiers.
The Lebanese Internal Security Forces have reported that 421 people have been killed and 1,661 have been injured. According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), 52 Israelis—19 civilians and 33 soldiers—have died during the conflict. In addition, 1,233 Israelis have been wounded. 63.3 per cent of respondents think Israel will never defeat Hezbollah.
On Jul. 28, Lebanese president Emil Lahoud expressed disappointment with the situation, saying, "It makes you so mad inside. If it does to me, what about these people who have got their children, their brothers killed?" Lahoud also outlined his views on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, declaring, "All Lebanese respect him and I respect him."
Polling Data
Poll highlights
Support for the Lebanese-backed resistance against Israel 86.9%
Agreement with the capture of the two Israeli soldiers 70.1%
Belief that Israel will never defeat Hezbollah 63.3%
Source: Beirut Center for Research and Information Methodology: Interviews with 800 Lebanese citizens—Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, and Christians—conducted from Jul. 24 to Jul. 26, 2006. No margin of error was provided. </blockquote>
Mark LeVine ought to blame Tel Aviv, not leftists, for Hizballah's popularity.
On 8/4/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Seems to me there's a difference between saying that Israel cannot be
> allowed to win in Lebanon, and the U.S. in Iraq and that Hezbollah
> and the Iraqi resistance are the only available agents to make that
> happen, and writing love letters to them.
Yes, there is a difference -- the former is analysis without emotion (whether due to simple absence of it or active suppression of it), whereas the latter is analysis of emotion. Two different genres, and both are valid -- it all depends on what you want to say, whom you want to address, and how you want to say it.
On 8/4/06, www.leninology. blogspot.com <leninology at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Doug wrote:
>
> > Seems to me there's a difference between saying that
> > Israel cannot be
> > allowed to win in Lebanon, and the U.S. in Iraq and that
> > Hezbollah
> > and the Iraqi resistance are the only available agents
> > to make that
> > happen, and writing love letters to them.
>
> Love letters? Can't you take a joke? Nasrallah would turn pink if he ever
> had to read those, I'm sure of it.
He would! But too many leftists lose the sense of irony and humor,
just as they become fearful of the rhetoric of love, when it comes to
the Middle East. . . . They are more like Ezekiel than they realize.
:->
On 8/4/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> On Aug 4, 2006, at 2:07 PM, www.leninology. blogspot.com wrote:
>
> > Love letters? Can't you take a joke? Nasrallah would turn pink if
> > he ever had to read those, I'm sure of it.
>
> Yes, the poem is a joke; it's crap in almost every sense.
Except that it has provoked responses, pros and cons, as Lucas says in her reflections on the responses to her, and as we can see on this listserv. Love is provocative, in a way a mere analysis can't be.
On 8/4/06, Joel Schalit <managingeditor at tikkun.org> wrote:
> Many of our fellow travellers, so to speak, are being radicalized by
> this violence in all the wrong ways, to the point that they have a
> hard time thinking outside of it. Imagination is always important. W
> when you lose that, you get into trouble.
Ah, Joel, but are you being radicalized in all the right ways? Surely, we all ought to have modesty about our respective ways.
BTW, love is not a zero-sum game. Cecilia Lucas loves you as much as she loves Hizballah.
I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision; Those bloody bands so lately reconciled, Were ever, as they went, by the contrition Of anger turned to love, from ill beguiled, And every one on them more gently smiled Because they had done evil; the sweet awe Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow mild, And did with soft attraction ever draw Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, Canto Fifth
That's my vision of future, on the morrow of war. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>