Dissertation!

Things have been a bit insane lately with the start of University, so my posts have gone down of late. I have started doing a large amount of research into Hezbollah, who are going to be the subject of my dissertation. I managed to find a complete archive of all of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's speeches, including the fantastic ones he gave during last summers Israeli aggression on Lebanon. His victory speech was actually electrifying, and though he's done much better, for me it reinforced my opinion of Hassan Nasrallah as an excellent orator. One thing that came to my attention about the speech was how he had actually appeared in the open in front of 800,000 people (incidentally the biggest demonstration in Lebanese recent history and virtually ignored by Western media). The recognition that Israel, though it potentially could have targeted him, but didn't, said a lot. It showed that Israel was unwilling to pay the price of performing such an action so soon after its defeat. This kind of security cannot be negotiated, nor can it be guaranteed, I'm now convinced.

I've also heard a lot of talk coming from people who were extraordinarily quiet during the aggression now saying Hezbollah was extremely foolish for invoking the wrath of Israel and bringing hardship on the Lebanese people. As if Israel's wrath was an unavoidable divine retribution for a sinful people....quite pathetic really. This is especially foolish considering the people that were suffering were the fighters own families and villages, and these people were not risking their lives, loved ones and everything they knew for the sake of grand strategic visions from Iran or Syria.

As for certain peoples claims that Hezbollah represents a totalitarian regime or system or party, Nasrallah's response to those people..." My grandfather was never a Beyk, my father was never a Beyk, and my son will never be a Beyk" (Beyk is a kind of hereditary aristocratic title from the days of the Ottoman empire). This underlines something I'll also look at closely, how Hezbollah is cutting through and shaking up the rigid class structure of the Lebanese political establishment. Hmm....these are interesting times...