On the street, prayers for
Hezbollah
By Michael Slackman and
Mona
el-Naggar July 19, 2006
Cairo - Hezbollah is a Shiite militia. Its followers hang
pictures of the grandfather of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, in their offices and in the towns. And it says its
mandate is to liberate Lebanon and Lebanese prisoners from Israel.
None of that matters to Ahmed Mekky, 40, an Egyptian lawyer and a Sunni
Mulism. Like many other people around the region, Mekky says he
supports Hezbollah because it is doing what the Arab leadership has
been frightened to do for too long - standing up to Israel and the
United States.
"We are praying that God would
make Hezbollah victorious," Mekky said as he stood beside a
newspaper kiosk in downtown Cairo Wednesday. "All the Arab governments are asleep."
Perhaps more so than at any time since Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, the
bloodletting between Hezbollah and Israel has highlighted the huge
divide between many Arab countries, and between many people and their
leaders. Sunni Arab leaders in Jordan, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and
other Gulf countries, see in Hezbollah a dangerous beachhead for
Iranian influence in the region. They have criticized Hezbollah for the
raid that led to the Israeli attack on Lebanon.
But the longer the conflict drags on, the more these leaders are
finding their own credibility called into question. The longer
satellite television shows images of civilians killed and maimed by
Israeli bombs, the more these leaders face hostility from their own
people. The longer Hezbollah fires rockets into Israeli cities and
towns, killing and wounding Israelis, the longer these leaders have to
face questions about why they do not take similar action as well.
"People know that the Arab
governments are impotent and are always looking for excuses to justify
their failure to do anything," said Adnan Abu- Odeh, a former
adviser to King Hussein of Jordan. "In
fact, historically, this episode is another example of how Israel
embarrasses the moderate regimes in the region."
The attacks on those who have not stood with Hezbollah have been
biting. Al Dustoor, an Egyptian opposition weekly newspaper, mocked
President Hosni Mubarak in a headline comparing him to the Hezbollah
leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah's son died in 1997 during the
Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Mubarak has been accused of
positioning his son, Gamal, to take over as president in six years. The
headline: "The difference between a
leader who offers his son as a martyr and a leader who offers his son
as a successor!"
In Egypt, 75 prominent academics, political leaders and former
government officials, issued a statement declaring solidarity with
Hezbollah, commending Nassrallah, and criticizing Arab governments as
"silent and impotent."
It is impossible, of course, to talk about one "Arab Street," because opinions are
as varied as they would be in any multicultural, multinational,
multireligious region. But it has gotten to the point that even some of
those who are critical of Hezbollah for the cross-border raid into
Israel, are calling for unity in standing up to Israel and the United
States.
"What is certain is that
Hezbollah's step and that taken by Hamas before it, lacks political
wisdom," wrote the Saudi journalist, Dawood Al Shiryan, in the
pan-Arab newspaper, Al Hayat. "But to
insist on calling the resistance to account for this mistake now that
Israel's violent response has been launched has created a political
reality that is difficult to describe."
Should Hezbollah and Hamas emerge victorious, he argued, leaders of
countries like Egypt and Jordan will be isolated from the leaders of
those groups. And if they lose, Egypt and Jordan will bear part of the
blame. In many ways, the dynamics of the region were predictable.
Hatred of Israel runs deep, even when it is not visible at the surface.
Arab governments have struggled for legitimacy while often relying on
security forces and restricted voting rights to maintain their monopoly
on power. And the experience of the Arab League, an organization that
was supposed to advocate for the combined Arab interest, has repeatedly
demonstrated that Arab states cannot agree on a common interest.
But this crisis has proved particularly vexing to the leadership and
galling to many people because it came after the Palestinians elected
as their leaders another group that so-called moderate Arab leaders did
not trust: Hamas. In the public view, their leaders failed to come to
the aid of Hamas when its funds were cut off by the West and then
failed to do anything when Israel attacked in Gaza in response to the
kidnapping and killing of soldiers. Even in Syria, which has offered
strong rhetorical support for Hezbollah during this crisis and is
accused of having helped arm and train it in the past, there is growing
frustration that tough words are not followed by tough deeds.
The Syrian authorities have cracked down recently on people who speak
out against the government, so people were afraid to be identified. But
in recent conversations at a café in the center of town, many people
expressed just that sentiment. "The
Syrian leaders don't want war with Israel, but what's the use of
supporting Hezbollah under the table," said a retired lawyer who
was afraid to be identified for fear of retribution.
In Egypt, the public sentiment toward the government is even more
hostile. People repeatedly said that their government was hiding behind
the idea that it was trying to block Shiite, or Iranian influence, when
they believed it was really doing America's bidding. At the moment,
Iran appears extremely popular among many ordinary Sunni Muslims.
See also
Hizbollah - power to be reckoned with
Lebanon
Israel
Hizbollah
Hamas
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