Striking a Syrian Pose?

Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah runs an unsurpassed political machine, having swept all of that region’s 23 parliamentary seats during the last election (in collaboration with its fellow Shiite party, Amal). And Hezbollah offers yet another perspective, boasting that it is the most effective means of “resistance” against “the Israeli enemy.” Indeed, throughout the region, it is credited with forcing Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon back in 2000, though the issue of the still-occupied Shebaa farms remains a sticking point–and something of a raison d’être for Hezbollah. The party also says it is an authentically Lebanese political movement fighting for domestic reform and a government that serves the people, “not vice versa.”

ONE THING Hezbollah has never been accused of, however, is being a particularly festive bunch. So it raised local eyebrows when, just before the Syrian pullout from Lebanon earlier this year, Hezbollah proved it could throw farewell bashes with the best of them.

In April, Hezbollah feted Syria’s then-intelligence chief–and de facto proconsul–in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazali. Mere weeks after the March 14 “Cedar Revolution” demonstration that, in tandem with international pressure, compelled Syria’s exit from the country, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah showed no compunction in giving Ghazali a warm send-off. What’s more, Nasrallah stood for a photo op, in which he presented the retreating Syrian envoy with an Israeli rifle seized by Hezbollah fighters. By calling attention both to Hezbollah’s militancy and its cozy relations with foreign governments, the photo was a perfect representation of all the characteristics that make many Lebanese wary of the group.

Interest in this photo has been kept afloat by U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis’s report on the assassination of Rafik Hariri, in which he singled out Ghazali for giving statements “not compatible” with all other testimonies. Also included in Mehlis’s report was the text of a phone call intercept between Ghazali and an unnamed “prominent Lebanese official” given the alias “Mr. X,” with whom Ghazali plotted the best way to arrange Hariri’s political downfall.

Since losing its Syrian protector in Lebanon, Hezbollah has been quick to seek out new political cover by joining a cabinet for the first time in its history. Would the party’s newfound emphasis on its Lebanese bona fides prompt any contrition over the Nasrallah/Ghazali photo?

ON NOVEMBER 9, I visited Hezbollah’s offices in Haret Hreik, part of Beirut’s dahiyeh, a knotted chain of sprawling suburbs just south of the capital. While sitting underneath movie-poster sized portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, I spoke with Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, the Hezbollah politburo member in charge of outreach to non-Shiite communities in Lebanon.

Neither a sayyed nor a sheikh himself, Abu Zeinab, in his modest slacks-shirt-blazer attire, recalled another Iranian figure: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like the Iranian president, Abu Zeinab abjures the necktie, following the logic of a hadith made prominent by Khomeini, in which Muslims are encouraged not to dress as non-Muslims.

But while the international uproar that followed Ahmadinejad’s “World Without Zionism” speech has shown the Iranian president to be a bit green about the world beyond his borders, Abu Zeinab displayed the cool manner and political acumen of a man who specializes in preaching the necessity of Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon to the un-converted. (By all reports, Abu Zeinab has been instrumental in developing Hezbollah’s ties with the Christian “Free Patriotic Movement” party, led by Michel Aoun, who some say is favored by the White House in Lebanon’s coming presidential sweepstakes.)

At first, Abu Zeinab sought to downplay the importance of the Ghazali photo, calling it a “non-issue” that he said would “not affect the course” of politics in Lebanon. However, in conversation, Abu Zeinab did perform the rhetorical trick of transforming Ghazali into a metaphor for the Syrian nation as a whole. “We did not present the rifle to Rustom Ghazali as Rustom Ghazali,” he said. “We presented it to Syria in appreciation for its role in supporting the resistance against Israel . . . and not in appreciation of the internal efforts exerted by Rustom Ghazali inside Lebanon.” (“Internal efforts” being quite the euphemism, there.)

When asked whether Hezbollah would ever welcome Ghazali again, given the evidence in the Mehlis report, Abu Zeinab coyly noted that Ghazali is currently “responsible for the security and intelligence in Damascus,” and that such a hypothetical situation was unlikely to bother anyone by actually occurring. When pressed, though, Abu Zeinab said: “If he comes as a delegate of Syria, then it would be us [as well as] the government that would welcome him. But if he comes for a personal visit, of course, out of respect for the general feeling in Lebanon, we would not welcome him; we would not meet with him.”

But then, as if he’d come too close to an apology, Abu Zeinab took the opportunity to lash out at Hezbollah’s political rivals in Lebanon, and wound up delivering an unexpected (and perhaps unthinking) slap against Ghazali as well.

“If we wanted to be sensitive regarding other people’s feelings in Lebanon, we shouldn’t be welcoming any of his [Ghazali’s] partners who have contributed to the political and financial corruption inside Lebanon . . . because most of the politicians inside Lebanon were partners with Rustom Ghazali in the internal corruption. . . . In Lebanon, you have to be realistic. There are no angels. We [Hezbollah] cannot create an angel. If Walid Jumblatt is head of the PSP [Progressive Socialist Party] and the Druze [sect], if ‘Mr. X’ is the head of the ‘X Party’ [a swipe at the incomplete nature of the Mehlis report], we will deal with these people. Should we be with [Michel] Aoun alone, and kick everyone else out for their partnership with Rustom Ghazali?”

IF IT’S TRUE that there are no angels in Lebanon, its demonology retains a distinct hierarchy. According to Lokman Slim, head of the “Hayya Bina” (or “Let’s Go” in English), an organization fighting for civil liberties in Lebanon, any totem pole of Lebanon’s demons would find Ghazali near its top. Slim, whose group has been fanning the flames over the Ghazali photo, said Ghazali is notorious even inside Syria. “One Syrian, who is not on our mailing list, wrote [us], saying it was a scandal for Nasrallah to give the rifle to the ‘butcher’ Ghazali.”

Regarding the photo’s significance, Slim said: “[In it], we see Nasrallah and Hezbollah’s political advisor on one side, and the Chief of Staff of the Syrian [troops in Lebanon] and the head of the Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon on the other. It is remarkable that Nasrallah presented the gun to the head of the intelligence [service], and not the head of the army. This is a gesture that indicates Hezbollah’s allegiance lies with the man responsible for countless crimes against Lebanese, and consecrates the image of Hezbollah as the Syrian regime’s ‘mercenaries’ in Lebanon. It is shocking and unforgivable that Nasrallah, who is surely aware of the crimes committed against Lebanese under the Syrian occupation, including the assassination of Hariri, would reward Ghazali with a gift that symbolizes Lebanese independence and glory.”

Himself the son of a prominent family from the same Haret Hreik neighborhood where Hezbollah makes its headquarters, Slim is the equivalent of a “made man” in local Shiite circles, which affords him a wide berth in his criticisms. “There is a lot to be said about a party that maintains relations with a foreign regime, while based in its own country,” he noted. “We know that Hezbollah, at its inception, openly described itself as a branch of the Khomeinist revolution in Iran, and now it is a staunch ally of the Baathist Allawite regime in Syria. Although Hezbollah would like the Lebanese to view [it] as a Lebanese party, free of foreign influence, this is clearly not the case. Therefore, we must assume that it was under the authority or counsel of Iran that this alliance between the [Syrian] Baath regime and Hezbollah was formed, and not because of a decision taken solely by Hezbollah, as they are merely a pawn of foreign powers.”

“Merely” a pawn? It’s perhaps here that many Lebanese, even those who share Slim’s outrage over the Ghazali photo, would part ways with the activist. After all, it’s not as though the Assad regime in Syria is especially well known for its efficiency in providing the kind of social services that Hezbollah does.

Nevertheless, Slim rejects the suggestion that the photo was simply an innocent lapse of judgment, or that the Ghazali soiree was an internal function not meant for public consumption. “This was a strong message directed to all Lebanese that Hezbollah’s loyalty to Syria is stronger than ever,” he said. To support this claim, Slim referenced Nasrallah’s October 28 speech (available in its entirety on Mideastwire.com), in which the Hezbollah leader said: “With utter clarity, we stress that we stand with the Syrian leadership and people against the US-Zionist . . . attempts to punish it politically. Syria is being punished because it stands by Lebanon and its resistance, and because it refuses to reach [a] separate peace [with Israel], and because it stood by the Palestinians. Our sincerity demands that we . . . not leave it as a soft target for the plots of the Americans and the Zionists.”

That speech by Nasrallah capped a massive military parade through the dahiyeh on the occasion of Al-Quds day, which Slim notes was established by Khomeini in 1979 as an occasion for all oppressed peoples to “rise up” against their oppressors. “But,” Slim asks with a hint of mischief, “who have Lebanon’s chief oppressors been for the last 15 years?”

Seth Colter Walls is the editor of MIDEASTWIRE.COM, a daily, web-based service that translates key Arabic and Persian stories from the print, radio, and television media of the Middle East.