Learn To Deceive Hezbollah.

by Tariq Alhomayed

The comments made by Ali Mekdad, a member of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc on the reactions of some of the March 14 Alliance leadership regarding the telephone call between the President of Iran and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah were extremely funny. In this telephone conversation, Ahmadinejad spoke to Nasrallah about the necessity of resistance, being ready against any possible aggression, and stressed that "this readiness must be at a level that they (the Zionists) will be finished off and the region will be rid of them forever if they want to repeat previous mistakes." Of course, Nasrallah's answer to Ahmadinejad was clear and unequivocal, and he said that "the resistance is in good condition and does not fear Israeli threats."

The Hezbollah parliamentary bloc member, MP Ali Mekdad, responding to some of the March 14 Alliance fears, namely that Lebanon will be transformed into an arena for Iranian interests, began be describing those who fear Lebanon being exploited as being "mouthpieces." Mekdad also sarcastically and derisively told them "if you are not proficient in political analysis, then we ask you to enter any school or university and learn!"

The truth is that it is up to the Lebanese people who want to deal with Hezbollah not to go to school or university to learn political analysis but instead to learn deception, as this will allow them to better understand Hezbollah and how to deal with them. The consequences of events does not require that they be shared or analyzed, but that the Lebanese people be extremely aware of everything that Hezbollah says, and of course everything that the Iranians President says, because Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah are moving in the same direction.

When Ahmadinejad appeared at a press conference in Tehran last Wednesday and said that in the event of Israel launching a war against Iran "the resistance and regional countries will finish them," Nasrallah appeared threatening and menacing Israel the same day, indeed only a few hours later, saying that the next war would see attacks on a [Lebanese] airport retaliated with attacks on an [Israeli] airport, and an attack on [Lebanese] infrastructure would be retaliated by attacks on [Israeli] infrastructure. What is strange and worth mentioning here is that in his threat to Israel, Nasrallah did not say the bombing of Beirut would be retaliated with the bombing of Tel Aviv, but rather the bombing of [Beirut's] suburbs would be responded to with an attack on Tel Aviv. This means that the suburbs have become the capital, and more important to Nasrallah than Beirut whose Arabist history Walid Jumblatt pontificated on a few days ago. Therefore Nasrallah's talk about the suburbs is very significant, and dangerous.

The Lebanese reaction to the Ahmadinejad – Nasrallah telephone call can be summed up by what I said in my article "Iran…Nor Our War" which was published on Thursday [18/02/2010]. The Iranian embassy issued a statement of clarification surrounding the details of the Ahmadinejad – Nasrallah call, but the fact remains that Iran's war is not Lebanon's war, or Palestine's war, or the Arab's war, but rather this is a factional war led by Tehran who wants to ignite a new war in the region, in the same way that it has created sectarianism and division. Therefore it is up to the Lebanese people to learn deception in dealing with Hezbollah, rather than political analysis, and they must also remember that Hezbollah's weapons, which are described as the arms of the resistance, were the same weaponry that were turned against them the day that Hezbollah occupied Beirut.

Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that position.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.