Israel Matzav: The good news is that a Saudi newspaper is blasting Hezbullah as a terror organization

Sunday, June 09, 2013

The good news is that a Saudi newspaper is blasting Hezbullah as a terror organization

Last Sunday, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) did what the spineless Europeans have been unable to do: They declared Hezbullah a terror organization. And they did so, it should be noted, without the bogus distinction between the 'political' and 'military' wings on which the Europeans are still insisting.

That led to this editorial in the Saudi Gazette on Sunday. They might be saying something different in Arabic - although I suspect that they're not - because what's missing from this editorial is one small salient fact: The Saudis are the leaders of the Sunni Muslim world, while Hezbullah and Iran are Shiite, and Bashar al-Assad's Alawites are an offshoot of Shia Islam (although the Shia also regard the Alawi as heretics).

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah may, however, have now overreached himself. Some wonder if he has not become a victim of his own propaganda about a militant and victorious organization and really believes that his forces are actually capable of turning the tide of defeat that is engulfing the Assad regime. Not only this, but he clearly had little idea of how, by throwing in its lot with the hated Assad, Hezbollah would unmask itself in the Arab world as an Iranian cipher. Even the leadership of Hamas, with which Hezbollah once had close relations, recoiled in disgust when it threw in its lot with the Assad dictatorship.

Say what you will, but as of now, at least, Hezbullah still controls Lebanon, and I don't see any Arab countries riding to Lebanon's defense to fight Hezbullah. As to Hamas, did they really have a choice? Once it was clear that the Syrian conflict is Shiites v. Sunnis, could Sunni Hamas really throw in its lot with the Shiites of Iran and Hezbullah? Working together against Israel is one thing, but working together against Sunnis?

In recognizing that Hezbollah, for all its attempts to portray itself as a responsible political movement, is in fact simply a terror group, the GCC member states have taken a bold and decisive step. No longer will Hezbollah be able to present itself convincingly as a champion of any Arab cause. No longer will it be able to pretend that its men are dying for the rest of the Arab world.

If only.... Hezbullah could win back the Arab world's sympathies really quickly by starting a war with Israel, God forbid. And they may be hoping to do just that with a presence in the Golan, leaving Israel to fight Bashar al-Assad's army rather than Hezbullah alone in Lebanon.

Read the whole thing.

The truth is that all the GCC was doing was giving voice to anti-Hezbullah sentiments in the Arab world.

Over two-thirds of participants in a four-day online survey that ended Tuesday believe that the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group is the new enemy of Arabs and Muslims.

The one-question survey by Aljazeera.net asked: “Do you think Hezbollah has turned out to be an enemy of Arabs and Muslims?”

A total of 453,943 respondents (or 72.8%) said yes, compared to 169,605 (or 27.2%) who said no.

Almost half of the respondents (49.18%) were from Saudi Arabia. The others were from Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Turkey, Jordan, the UAE, Palestine, Morocco, the UK, Germany, France, the U.S., Canada and Australia.

The survey that closed Tuesday got underway last Saturday, when Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, whose militiamen are openly fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army, told supporters Assad’s war “is ours, and I promise you victory.”

In his televised weekend address to Hezbollah loyalists in Mashghara, Nasrallah said his party would not let Assad fall to the U.S., Israel and the (Sunni) Takfiris.

He said, “Syria is the linchpin and backbone of the Resistance” and his party “cannot stand, arms folded, while its back is broken.”

Note - 'an enemy.' But all they have to do to get back in the Arab Muslim world's good graces is to go after the real enemies: Big Satan and Little Satin.

Yes, Hezbullah is paying a relatively high price for its involvement in Syria. But I suspect that Hezbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has done a much better job of planning than the Sunni Muslim world gives him credit for doing.

Yes, Hezbullah is a terror organization, but for reasons that have nothing to do with its geopolitical calculations.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, designated terror organization, Free Syrian Army, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbullah, Iran, Nusra Front, our friends the Saudis, Shiites v. Sunnis, Syria, Syrian uprising