About
El Blog!, Touppi's Super Eleet Blog.
Tuomas Toivonen
Subscribe
Subscribe to a syndicated feed of my weblog,
brought to you by the wonders of RSS.
Flavours
There's more than one way to view this weblog; try these flavours on
for size.
Links
These are a few of my favourite links.
Mon, 31 Jul 2006
Hezbollah courageous? I don't think so.
We had an interview of the author Emily Nasrallah in the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat. I've been carrying around a collection of her short stories for a week or so, but haven't actually managed beyond the introduction. What amazed me in the interview was what she said about Hezbollah.
"War always creates more problems than it solves. Nevertheless on can't but admire the courage and will power of the Hezbollah fighters. They risen to oppose Israel, the strongest military might in the region, in a manner that no Arab country has been bold enough to do. It is astonishing even if one doesn't support Hezbollah itself."
Some semi-serious comparisons have been made between Nasrallah (Hassan) and Che Guevara. What Nasrallah (Emily) says reminds me of my own stance towards Che. I've never endorsed Che's politics, I've always considered his methods reprehensible, but I've always admired his attitude. Che believed and was consistent in acting on his beliefs.
With Hezbollah I can't accept the politics or the methods, nor admire the attitude. First, the premises of Hezbollah as the "resistence" are void. Shebaa is simply not worth it; prisoners would be freed if Hezbollah disarmed; and being dogmatically anti-Israeli is utterly out of touch of any realpolitik.
Second, the methods? Saturating civilian targets with Katyushas, very civilized indeed. As a friend pointed out, the asymmetric ratio of civilian deaths between Lebanon and Israel is not due to lack of malicious intent on the part of Hezbollah. The Israelis simply have better weapons, but both sides are causing unacceptable death and terror among the civilian population.
Third, would I admire the courage of Hezbollah fighters? It takes some gall to take on Israel, but the purity of Hezbollah's motives is absolutely open to question. And what courage is there in sacrificing Lebanon for politics that don't make sense and are not backed by a shared agreement covering the whole polity. Subjecting Lebanon to destruction for parochial interests is at best cowardly.
Granted, much of the criticism could be levied on Che as well. So maybe it is just that Che with his beret and scragly beard cuts a more dashing figure than Nasrallah in his robes and groomed beard.