Word: hizballah
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...Hizballah's power reflects a larger truth about the pitfalls of democracy in the region. "The religious fundamentalists are the only real countervailing power to the local oligarchs," a Middle Eastern diplomat told me. "There may be, as President Bush believes, a general desire for freedom, but the number of people who really understand democracy and free-market economics is very small, and it's groups like Hizballah that are ready to move into the vacuum...
...Indeed, last week's Hizballah rally may be a leading indicator of events in the Palestinian territories, where Hamas-another terrorist-military-civic group-dominated the municipal elections in Gaza and is poised to win the Palestinian parliamentary elections in July...
...Kurdish and Sunni minority rights and seems unlikely to demand the constitutional imposition of strict Islamic law. Most important, it has resisted the temptation to retaliate against the outrageous violence of Sunni extremists, especially against Shi'ite mosques. Several Administration officials told me they hope that Hamas and Hizballah will respond similarly to the peaceful desires of their people, that they will emphasize stability, economic development and social services and avoid military posturing and attacks on Israel. Yes, the U.S. still considers Hizballah a terrorist organization, but it won't insist on the disarming of the group's militia...
...only imagine the Republican wrath and utter ridicule-the Rush Limbaugh fulminations-if, say, John Kerry had proposed a similar policy: Let's pin our Middle East hopes on the statesmanship of Hizballah and Hamas. But that is where the democratic idealism of the Bush Doctrine has led us. If the President turns out to be right-and let's hope he is-a century's worth of woolly-headed liberal dreamers will be vindicated. And he will surely deserve that woolliest of all peace prizes, the Nobel...
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizballah, was so struck by the daily street protests unfolding on the streets of Beirut--full of flag-waving demonstrators demanding Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon and an end to foreign meddling in the country--that he decided to hold a party of his own. He summoned his supporters to Beirut last week for a counterdemonstration, which drew hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites and other pro-Hizballah Lebanese into the capital's Riad al-Solh Square. Addressing the crowd from a balcony above the square, Nasrallah praised Syria, denounced the U.S. and made...