THE HEZBOLLIZATION OF THE LEBANON:

Lebanon Enjoys a Respite (David Ignatius, December 28, 2008, Washington Post)

[Ibrahim Mousawi, Hezbollah's informal spokesman] sees the two-year siege of the prime minister's office in much the same terms Siniora does -- as a battle over Lebanon's identity. It ended in a compromise, and Mousawi seems to find that acceptable. His organization doesn't want to create a Hezbollah state, he insists. It just wants to block a pro-American one.

"Lebanon was meant to go again into the American age" after the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005, Mousawi says. "To Hezbollah, this meant the end. They don't want to be part of American hegemony, part of the West." The militia and its poor Shiite supporters felt they were fighting for their existence. (The other side felt the same way, as always happens in the existential conflicts of the Middle East.)

Hezbollah escalated its tactics on May 7, when its fighters seized West Beirut and other areas. The pro-American forces, known as the March 14 movement, were quickly overwhelmed. The heavy fighting ended in just a few hours, and a broad truce was negotiated over the next few days in Qatar with help from France and Turkey.

"No one would have imagined the Americans would have let [Lebanon] go. But they are a superpower, and they said: 'Let it go,' " Mousawi observes.

As long as the North yields to the South they can hold the place together...loosely.

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Posted by Orrin Judd at December 28, 2008 9:01 AM