Abrabanel: Musings on the Jewish condition

Tom Gross passes on a fairly credible rumor:

In a report posted this morning on the Iraqi news website Almalaf, diplomatic sources in Beirut are quoted as saying that Hezbollah supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah was poisoned with a deadly chemical last week and that his life was saved by Iranian doctors who were rushed to Lebanon to treat him.

Nasrallah’s medical condition was apparently critical for a number of days, according to the report, but he is now stable.

Almalaf claimed that the sources believed it was “highly likely that the poisoning was an Israeli assassination attempt.” In fact Hezbollah is more hated in Lebanon than in Israel, and any assassination attempt could have stemmed from the many enemies Nasrallah has in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia militia which is under the de facto control of the Iranian regime, has denied the report. (In Arabic here; in English here.) But that would not explain why on Monday, the Iranian newspaper Khoursid suddenly reported that Nasrallah’s cousin, Safi al-Din, had been elected to take over Hezbollah in the event that “the Zionists succeed in assassinating Hassan Nasrallah.”

For a few seconds while reading that Ban Ki-Moon in a report to the Security Council formally called for dismantling nongovernmental Lebanese militias, we were delighted. Following on the heels of a similar statement by the German Free Democratic Party’s Dirk Niebel, it boded well for a general trend – perhaps a new international willingness to challenge the organization that is quickly destroying Lebanese freedom and prosperity from the inside.

Ban even called Hizbullah “a fundamental challenge to the government’s attempts to consolidate the sovereignty and authority of the Lebanese state.” That is, at least, until it disarmed.

But then we read farther down:

Ban, in his report, said in addition to establishing diplomatic relations, Lebanon and Syria must also take concrete steps to implement other agreements reached during these meetings, including “joint activity to improve security arrangements along that border.”

And:

In the report, Ban called on Lebanese parties to immediately halt all efforts to acquire and build paramilitary capabilities.

That’s when we realized: this report isn’t a new realization, but a fig-leaf for the UN’s total helplessness. All parties should immediately stop building up their strength? That’s not just stupid, it’s unnatural. And a pointless statement when there isn’t a damn thing anyone is planning on doing to enforce it.

Like most things in the Middle East, this news is both new and very old. According to a Los Angeles Times piece from last week out of Beirut, Hizbullah is actively connecting to left-wing activist groups worldwide in order to claim the mantle of moral leader against Western globalized imperialism.

It is doing this through a “front organization” think tank, the Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation, which is showing up in left-wing gatherings and international conferences.

“Hezbollah succeeded in incorporating the idea of resistance as part of the international anti-globalization movements,” said Abdel-Halim Fadlallah, vice president of [the center], the Hezbollah-affiliated think tank that often participates in activities abroad. “Through our contacts with these groups, we have managed to challenge the idea that Hezbollah is a dogmatic terrorist Islamist organization and convince part of the international left that we can be a strong partner,” he said.

Is it working? The article quotes Caoimhe Butterly, “an Irish activist who has worked in Lebanon for two years,” saying of the Second Lebanon War:

“It was a potent symbol that right makes might and that a guerrilla ready to fight for its people can succeed.”

Come again? Have the alleged successes of the Islamist strategy of muqawama, “persistent resistance,” inspired new musings on the use of violence for the anti-globalization campaign? Haven’t these starry-eyed Westerners noticed the social implosion and appalling tyranny in all the societies where it is practiced? Does the Left really want to return to those Stalinesque days when the means justified the ends?

We are ideological polar opposites to that international Left, but we have felt a basic sympathy for their sincerity and passion. A warning is justified: Hizbullah has ruined everything it has touched, including Lebanese politics and freedom, and Shi’ite Islam itself. They will ruin you if you succumb to the allure of violence.

A Hizbullah rally in 2005