Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The hallmarks of desperation


Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah embraces Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hezbollah has done little to
advance Lebanon but much to support the aims of its Iranian clients. (AFP photo)

New Opinon
Now Lebanon
26 July '10

On the face of it, Thursday night’s speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah marked another milestone in the party’s proud policy of intimidation. Those of us who lived through the attempted coup of May 7, 2008 know only too well what Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition March 8 bloc can and will do if they feel their agenda is under threat.

Nasrallah’s speech, the second in which he has sought to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon – the court formed to find the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others as well as the victims of subsequent political violence – targeted the March 14 bloc and urged its members to reconsider the “choices they made.” In short, as March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soueid said in an interview on Saturday with Radio Free Lebanon, Nasrallah was suggesting March 14 surrender the ideals forged in the heat of the 2005 Independence Intifada.

But so far March 14 has stuck by its political choices. There have been no concessions, and while the political grouping has had to adapt to the realities of the region, including opening diplomatic channels with Damascus – a move that many saw as signaling the end of the movement – its position on the tribunal has remained solid.

We must not forget that the purpose of the tribunal is twofold: It is about achieving justice, not just for the Hariri family, but the families of those who died with him on February 14, 2005, as well as the families of the dozens of victims – not just the MPs or state officials – of the political violence that punctuated daily life until the 2008 Doha Agreement brought a measure of calm to the domestic scene, albeit at the barrel of a gun.

Secondly it is about laying the foundations of a modern democratic state, one that can serve as a model for others in the region by demonstrating that there can be a mechanism to fight political violence. It will end the ability of regional despots to perpetrate murderous outrages and sell them as Zionist conspiracies, and it will show the common man that he can seek redress through the justice system. In this, the international community is standing squarely behind the Lebanese government, a commitment borne out by France’s recent assurances that funding for the court will not stop.

If we follow Hezbollah’s advice, we will have allowed threats and intimidation to derail justice, even if it is sold as a move to avoid civil violence. Nasrallah wants us to believe that the Resistance is more important than justice and that we should give up our pursuit of it because he will allow nothing to harm the Resistance.

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

No comments:

Post a Comment