Ibrahim Alloush

On the occasion of the first anniversary of Lebanese resistance victory against the Zionist army in the summer of 2006, and thus against American/Zionist project of having their puppets in Lebanon and its neighbouring countries, the problematic stance that has been taken against Hezbollah, and the position of the Hezbollah itself, is one of the most complex matters that attracts the attention of considerable sectors of the Arab public in various Arab states.

The problem became more complex after the execution of President Saddam Hussein and those accused alongside him in Iraq, and the apparent indulgence of Iran in Iraq and the region, which cost Sayyed Hassan Nassrallah and Hezbollah a considerable loss of the popular and moral support they gained during their confrontation with the Zionist enemy in the summer of 2006.

Some of the Arab regimes allied with the American-Zionist axis exploited the splitting and indistinctness of vision not only to escalate their campaign against Iran, or against Hezbollah and Nassrallah, but in particular and primarily against

1. Lebanese resistance and its spectacular achievements in the summer of 2006,
2. Shia Arabs and
3. The excuse of the alignment of Islamic Palestinian forces of allying with Iran.

Unbelievable and vicious rumours spread in the Arab street and in some fundamentalist Islamists Internet sites too, we are unfortunately seeing the spreading of the fallacy that the confrontation between Hezbollah and the Zionist entity during the summer of 2006 was nothing but a "deception" and a "fabricated play" with the sole aim of attracting Arab Sunnis towards Iran.

It is depressing to hear a supposedly grown-up and a mature person saying what is supposed to mean that the Zionist entity intentionally planned its military defeat on the battlefield, gave up its arrogance over Arabs and Muslims under the feet of Lebanese resistance, and losing the confidence and prestige of the imperialist camp, its army and government allowed internal conflicts to spread within its lines. All of this was to shake the stance of its Lebanese and Arab allies, and uncover its strategic blemishes thwarting the plans of the neocons in the U.S. Administration to Zionise Lebanon and in its siege on Syria, besides many other plans, exclusively in the interest of Iran, secretly conspiring with it behind closed doors.

If it was acceptable or logical that these political parties are interested in creating a split between the Sunnis and the Shias, to weaken the resistance approach and marginalize its achievements, it wouldn�t be acceptable to read such nonsense or hear it from supporters of Iraqi resistance or even fundamentalist Jihadists fighting Americans and Zionists in various places around the world. These are actually crazy hallucinations, and a political diffusion that contradicts the credibility and the sensibility of those who utter them. It would not be sensible on the part of the Zionist entity to degrade itself for anybody's sake, even it was the government of the United States of America! The Zionist entity is not a degraded Arab regime that might need to do so.

We don't intend here to defend Hezbollah's relations with Iran or Hezbollah's stance in Iran or to pretend that Hezbollah is completely free from the Iranian agenda in the region. And for sure, it doesn't mean that we should keep silent about Iranian policies and projects in the region, in the pretence of protecting ourselves from being swept by America's and its ally's camp. Our national interest requires a national approach, which is only tied with this interest, and not with Iran nor with our arch enemy, the American/Zionist camp and their puppets.

But there should be a minimum level of practicality and balance when handling complicated issues, Hezbollah and its role. As for the Lebanese issue, and with the Arab/Zionist struggle, encircling Syria, Hezbollah is playing a role that serves the Arab national interest as long as it is standing in the face of the project of Zionising and Americanizing Lebanon militarily by the Zionist entity, or politically by the 14th March forces, the victory of Hezbollah in this field is a victory for the entire Arab nation and by Arab forces on an Arab land for the Arab interest, even if Iran could benefit from it.

In the regional scope, and not limited to Iraq, Hezbollah is tied with Iranian hegemony, which is clear, but the complex and double role should not drive us to express miraculous comparisons such as the defeat of the Zionist entity in Lebanon last summer was a "deceit" or a conspiracy made together with Iran.

Under exactly this political situation, when the resistance arms become an international issue, and a project laid for discussion in the Security Council with the purpose of stationing international forces to separate Syria from Lebanon, and when the international committee for investigating the assassination of Rafic Al-Hariri becomes a tool for blackmailing Syria and hunting down resistance leaders, we have to stop and think well before we say things, the sole aim of which, is to rescue the project of the dismantling of our country on a sectarian basis, and put Lebanon and Syria under international trusteeship, depriving the popular resistance of its Arab popular legitimacy.

Original Source published on July 24, 2007: Yahoo group Arab Nationalist.

Ibrahim Alloush is a Palestinian scholar

� Copyright 2007 by AxisofLogic.com

Please note: Reprints of this article may be published on the condition that the author and original source (Axis of Logic) be cited. We also ask that the article appear without modification, linked to the original source. Thank you!

Adib S. Kawar and Mary Rizzo are members of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. Risso is also editor of the blog PeacePalestine. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.