Word: nasrallah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Israeli intelligence sources fear that it could be emboldened to begin openly resuming military activities in the south, which raises the prospect of a new Israeli offensive. Some fear Hizballah might even deliberately provoke another bruising round by kidnapping a few more Israeli soldiers - though Hizballah chief Haassan Nasrallah admitted he was stunned by the Israeli onslaught last summer and may act more cautiously...
...aware that if Israel or the U.S. launched a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring the means to build nuclear weapons, Hizballah would almost certainly be enlisted to retaliate against Israel. Ties between Tehran and Hizballah are tight - Iran hand-picked Nasrallah, then a young cleric, to lead Hizballah - and Iran would want a return on the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of rockets and funds for social and military spending it has invested in Hizballah over a quarter century. While the U.S. remains committed for now to a diplomatic solution...
...Hizballah officials in Beirut say the movement has no intention of starting a new brawl with Israel. They say a new war would most likely be sparked by Israel launching a preemptive strike against Hizballah defenses, or by targeting its leaders. Nasrallah is still in hiding to avoid a possible Israeli attack, although Israel's willingness to kill him seems lately to have dimmed, according to Western diplomats in Beirut...
...irony, of course, is that Israel set out to destroy Hizballah last summer and ended up making its leader, Nasrallah, only stronger. In Beirut, Lebanese politicians fret that it's only because Hizballah came out of the war with Israel relatively unscathed that Nasrallah is attempting his current power play of bringing down the Siniora government. Given the current tumult in the Middle East, the outcome of a second fight to the finish for Israel could prove even more unpredictable - and possibly disastrous...
...battle is also being fought out on the airwaves, where the Hariri-owned Future TV and Hizballah's Al-Manar network have been accusing their sectarian rivals of stoking the conflict. A key Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ali al-Jozo, the mufti of Mount Lebanon, has repeatedly attacked Hizballah, describing Nasrallah as a "dictator" and accusing him of advancing a foreign, Syrian-Iranian agenda...