by Boaz Bismuth
Lebanese Tourism
Minister Fadi Abboud has threatened to sue the producers of the popular
U.S. television drama "Homeland" because of how it depicts Beirut, the
Lebanese capital. Speaking before Friday’s car bomb went off in the
heart of the city, Abboud said he believed the show was detrimental to
the tourism industry in his country, and Beirut was a thriving, safe
city.
Abboud was angry
because of a scene in the TV show in which American snipers are perched
on a rooftop watching a meeting between terrorists and a fictional
Hezbollah leader in the heart of Beirut.
But the tourism
minister would be better off taking Hezbollah and the Syrian regime to
court, especially after this latest car bombing, in which Brig. Gen.
Wissam al-Hassan, the head of Lebanon's most elite intelligence unit,
was assassinated.
Abboud should be angry
with Damascus and Hezbollah because calm had in fact been maintained
since a deadly 2008 car bombing in Beirut. Friday’s bombing, judging
from reports in the Lebanese media, threatens the calm achieved by the
Doha accords (as reported by the daily As-Safir).
The March 14 Alliance, a
coalition of Lebanese political parties and independents united by
their anti-Syrian regime stance, led by former Prime Minister Saad
Hariri, was quick to point an accusatory finger at the regime of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad. Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt blamed
Assad for the death of al-Hassan, but opted to refrain from explicitly
implicating Hezbollah, despite the terrorist organization's obvious
fingerprints on the attack.
"Let's be careful not
to come out and blame elements inside Lebanon; let's avoid divisions,"
said Jumblatt, highlighting the fear prevalent in Lebanon over
re-igniting sectarian-based violence. Lebanese commentator Saleh
Mashnouk came out and directly accused Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's
organization: "Hezbollah's assassins — we're sick and tired of burying
our loved ones without saying who is responsible for what is happening
in the country."
Hezbollah has had its
back to the wall recently. The organization is witnessing members of its
political coalition (the March 8 Coalition) distancing themselves from
the Syrian regime in light of Lebanese public opinion, specifically in
the city of Tripoli. Hezbollah, fearful for the fate of its patron, has
upped the ante. For this reason, the organization openly declared two
weeks ago that it had dispatched its fighters to fight alongside Assad's
forces in Syria. It is why it admitted to dispatching a reconnaissance
drone over Israel to gather intelligence, and it is why it is
responsible for the terrorist attack on Friday.
Hezbollah is responsible for this
politically motivated murder par excellence, meant to warn Lebanon's
political system not to distance itself too far from Assad. Unlike
Hamas, Hezbollah cannot afford to turn its back on the Syrian dictator.
Such a move would be tantamount to suicide.
Boaz Bismuth
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2724
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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