Looks like a little trouble in Hezbollah circles.
Cracks in the Hezbollah monopoly - The Washington Post
By Rola el-Husseini January 8 at 4:16 PM
A Hezbollah supporter holds up a Syrian flag with a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he listens to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on July 18, 2012. (Bilal Hussein/AP)
Hezbollah is known for holding a monopoly on Shiite political representation in Lebanon. Along with its sometimes ally, the Amal party, it is seen as the obvious voice of the Shiite community. Following the organization’s success in the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was hailed as a hero throughout the Arab and Muslim world – particularly by economically marginalized Shiites and Islamist hard-liners. Meanwhile, Amal enjoyed the support of moderate and wealthy Shiites, while gradually coming to act as a mouthpiece and adjunct to Hezbollah’s rising star. The leader of Amal, Nabih Berri, has been the speaker of the Lebanese parliament since 1992, and is frequently said to have bloated the state bureaucracy with his clients.
However, this political dynamic may be starting to change. In recent years other Shiite organizations that resent the dominance of Hezbollah and Amal have emerged to question the direction of their leadership. This defection began almost immediately after the 2006 war. While hard-liners hailed Hezbollah’s resilience in the face of the Israeli onslaught as a “divine victory,” others questioned the human and material cost of the group’s intransigent stance. Skepticism continued to grow in the following years – after a 2008 invasion of Sunni areas in Beirut intended to consolidate Hezbollah’s political power, after a 2009 corruption scandal that brought into question the altruism of the group’s leaders, and most especially, after 2011 when it became apparent that Hezbollah was intervening in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the repressive Assad regime.
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Cracks in the Hezbollah monopoly - The Washington Post
Cracks in the Hezbollah monopoly - The Washington Post
By Rola el-Husseini January 8 at 4:16 PM
A Hezbollah supporter holds up a Syrian flag with a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he listens to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on July 18, 2012. (Bilal Hussein/AP)
Hezbollah is known for holding a monopoly on Shiite political representation in Lebanon. Along with its sometimes ally, the Amal party, it is seen as the obvious voice of the Shiite community. Following the organization’s success in the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was hailed as a hero throughout the Arab and Muslim world – particularly by economically marginalized Shiites and Islamist hard-liners. Meanwhile, Amal enjoyed the support of moderate and wealthy Shiites, while gradually coming to act as a mouthpiece and adjunct to Hezbollah’s rising star. The leader of Amal, Nabih Berri, has been the speaker of the Lebanese parliament since 1992, and is frequently said to have bloated the state bureaucracy with his clients.
However, this political dynamic may be starting to change. In recent years other Shiite organizations that resent the dominance of Hezbollah and Amal have emerged to question the direction of their leadership. This defection began almost immediately after the 2006 war. While hard-liners hailed Hezbollah’s resilience in the face of the Israeli onslaught as a “divine victory,” others questioned the human and material cost of the group’s intransigent stance. Skepticism continued to grow in the following years – after a 2008 invasion of Sunni areas in Beirut intended to consolidate Hezbollah’s political power, after a 2009 corruption scandal that brought into question the altruism of the group’s leaders, and most especially, after 2011 when it became apparent that Hezbollah was intervening in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the repressive Assad regime.
Continue reading at:
Cracks in the Hezbollah monopoly - The Washington Post
