July 18, 2006: The leader of Hizbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is being declared another Nasser (the Egyptian leader that took the Arab world into several wars with Israel). This comparison is not seen as flattering. In retrospect, Nasser's pugnaciousness is seen as a disaster for the Arab world. The last war Nasser participated in, was in 1967. It lasted six days, and the armed forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan were shattered by the Israelis. It's called the Six Day War because six days was all Israel needed to accomplish this. Arabs blame Nasser for this disaster, and many now believe that Nasrallah is playing the same game. It has become conventional wisdom that Israel will only be defeated in the long term. It will take generations, perhaps over a century to overwhelm Israel.
Nasrallah sounds like a brave, bold and heroic figure now, as Hizbollah fires rockets into Israel. But at the same time, Israeli bombs, missiles and shells destroy Lebanon, inflicting far more damage on Arabs than Hisbollah on Israel. Worse yet, Nasrallah is doing the bidding of Iran, a radical, and too most Moslems, heretical, nation that has never looked after the best interests of Arabs. Thus when an Arab calls Hassan Nasrallah, "another Nasser," there's good reason why this is done without a smile. |