Friday, August 16, 2013 10:29:52 PM
Hezbollah Makes Vow to Step Up Sunni Fight
Shiite Muslims gathered Friday for a televised speech by Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader.
Hassan Bahsoun/European Pressphoto Agency
The New York Times
By BEN HUBBARD
Published: August 16, 2013
AITA AL SHAAB, Lebanon — Thousands of men, women and children gathered in this village near the border with Israel, jumped to their feet, pumped their fists and cheered as Hassan Nasrallah [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/hassan_nasrallah/index.html ], the leader of Hezbollah [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hezbollah/index.html ], vowed on Friday to step up the fight against the radical Sunni Muslims whom he accused of a car bombing on Thursday in one of the group’s strongholds in Beirut.
The death toll from the blast in Beirut’s southern suburbs rose to 24 on Friday, making it the deadliest attack in Lebanon [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/lebanon/index.html ] in decades. Most people here saw the attack as payback for Hezbollah’s military support for the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Mr. Nasrallah insisted that the attack had not affected the group’s position. “If you think that by killing our women, by killing our children, by killing our innocents” that Hezbollah will back down from its support of the Syrian government, “you are wrong,” he said.
In fact, he said, such attacks would lead Hezbollah to double the size of its forces in Syria, where he said they were fighting takfiris, or extremists, who consider all but those who follow their school of thought heretics.
“If this battle with these takfiri terrorists requires that I and all of Hezbollah go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” he shouted.
The powerful explosion on Thursday has exacerbated fears that the sectarian war in Syria could set off similar violence in Lebanon. The attack, and Mr. Nasrallah’s new emphasis on his group’s battle against Sunni extremists, also underlines how much its decision to intervene in Syria has complicated its status at home.
In short, Hezbollah has more enemies than it used to have.
Founded as a popular movement to fight Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, while firmly based in Lebanon’s Shiite community, has long tried to portray itself as a national resistance movement that exists to protect all Lebanese. The strength of its fighters, who constitute Lebanon’s strongest military force, once made them — and Mr. Nasrallah — heroes throughout the Arab world.
That standing took a blow, however, when the group declared its support for Mr. Assad early in the uprising against his rule in 2011 and declined further as Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian forces on the battlefield against the Syrian rebels, who are primarily Sunni.
Many people in Lebanon have criticized Hezbollah for, in their view, veering from its primary role: fighting Israel. Given the deep sympathies of Lebanon’s Sunnis for their brethren in Syria, many have increasingly come to see Hezbollah as the enemy.
But those tensions were scarcely mentioned on Friday as Hezbollah held its annual commemoration of its 2006 war with Israel. Thousands of people from nearby villages and beyond packed a central square to listen to martial music and to Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, which was delivered by a live video link from an undisclosed location.
Much of the village was destroyed during the 2006 war, but Hezbollah has rebuilt it, and new two- and three-story houses line the main street.
Residents display a strong mix of rural hospitality, insistently inviting visitors into their homes for meals and coffee, and of distrust born from years of occupation by a foreign army and an ever-present fear of spies. Almost no one agreed to provide his full name when interviewed.
Many residents wrote off the talk of sectarian tensions in Lebanon, instead putting the blame for the region’s problems on Hezbollah’s traditional enemies.
“All of these splits were caused by Israel and America because they keep trying out new strategies, and now they are trying to split the Sunnis and the Shiites,” said Ali, a 34-year-old lawyer.
Like many here, he saw Hezbollah’s role in Syria as essential to its fight against Israel, not a distraction from it. “The war in Syria is not to defend Bashar al-Assad. It is to defend the axis of resistance,” he said.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/world/middleeast/hezbollah-makes-vow-to-step-up-sunni-fight.html
Shiite Muslims gathered Friday for a televised speech by Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader.
Hassan Bahsoun/European Pressphoto Agency
The New York Times
By BEN HUBBARD
Published: August 16, 2013
AITA AL SHAAB, Lebanon — Thousands of men, women and children gathered in this village near the border with Israel, jumped to their feet, pumped their fists and cheered as Hassan Nasrallah [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/hassan_nasrallah/index.html ], the leader of Hezbollah [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hezbollah/index.html ], vowed on Friday to step up the fight against the radical Sunni Muslims whom he accused of a car bombing on Thursday in one of the group’s strongholds in Beirut.
The death toll from the blast in Beirut’s southern suburbs rose to 24 on Friday, making it the deadliest attack in Lebanon [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/lebanon/index.html ] in decades. Most people here saw the attack as payback for Hezbollah’s military support for the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Mr. Nasrallah insisted that the attack had not affected the group’s position. “If you think that by killing our women, by killing our children, by killing our innocents” that Hezbollah will back down from its support of the Syrian government, “you are wrong,” he said.
In fact, he said, such attacks would lead Hezbollah to double the size of its forces in Syria, where he said they were fighting takfiris, or extremists, who consider all but those who follow their school of thought heretics.
“If this battle with these takfiri terrorists requires that I and all of Hezbollah go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” he shouted.
The powerful explosion on Thursday has exacerbated fears that the sectarian war in Syria could set off similar violence in Lebanon. The attack, and Mr. Nasrallah’s new emphasis on his group’s battle against Sunni extremists, also underlines how much its decision to intervene in Syria has complicated its status at home.
In short, Hezbollah has more enemies than it used to have.
Founded as a popular movement to fight Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, while firmly based in Lebanon’s Shiite community, has long tried to portray itself as a national resistance movement that exists to protect all Lebanese. The strength of its fighters, who constitute Lebanon’s strongest military force, once made them — and Mr. Nasrallah — heroes throughout the Arab world.
That standing took a blow, however, when the group declared its support for Mr. Assad early in the uprising against his rule in 2011 and declined further as Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian forces on the battlefield against the Syrian rebels, who are primarily Sunni.
Many people in Lebanon have criticized Hezbollah for, in their view, veering from its primary role: fighting Israel. Given the deep sympathies of Lebanon’s Sunnis for their brethren in Syria, many have increasingly come to see Hezbollah as the enemy.
But those tensions were scarcely mentioned on Friday as Hezbollah held its annual commemoration of its 2006 war with Israel. Thousands of people from nearby villages and beyond packed a central square to listen to martial music and to Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, which was delivered by a live video link from an undisclosed location.
Much of the village was destroyed during the 2006 war, but Hezbollah has rebuilt it, and new two- and three-story houses line the main street.
Residents display a strong mix of rural hospitality, insistently inviting visitors into their homes for meals and coffee, and of distrust born from years of occupation by a foreign army and an ever-present fear of spies. Almost no one agreed to provide his full name when interviewed.
Many residents wrote off the talk of sectarian tensions in Lebanon, instead putting the blame for the region’s problems on Hezbollah’s traditional enemies.
“All of these splits were caused by Israel and America because they keep trying out new strategies, and now they are trying to split the Sunnis and the Shiites,” said Ali, a 34-year-old lawyer.
Like many here, he saw Hezbollah’s role in Syria as essential to its fight against Israel, not a distraction from it. “The war in Syria is not to defend Bashar al-Assad. It is to defend the axis of resistance,” he said.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/world/middleeast/hezbollah-makes-vow-to-step-up-sunni-fight.html
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
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upon the Right of Election, 1790
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