Word: nasrallah
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Once the cease-fire begins, both sides will surely claim victory. Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah will declare himself a new champion of the Arab world for having terrorized 1.5 million Israelis with his blindly flung rockets. The Israelis can claim that they replaced the Hizballah militants along the border with Lebanese troops and a tough international force...
...standards of Arab strongmen, Hassan Nasrallah is a charmer. In televised appearances made from the undisclosed location where he shelters from Israeli bombs, the Hizballah leader appears more soothing than bellicose. There is none of Saddam Hussein's finger wagging or Yasser Arafat's eye-bulging lectures or Osama bin Laden's hectoring sneer. Instead, Nasrallah reads deliberately from notes, occasionally swallowing as if to catch his breath. Every so often, he looks into the camera and flashes a smile...
...Nasrallah is having a good war. By surviving Israel's aerial onslaught and fighting its army to a standstill, Nasrallah, 46, has staked a claim to being the most popular leader in the Arab world. Nasrallah's fighters have kept up their daily rocket barrages against Israeli cities and towns, keeping his promise to inflict suffering on Israel in return for its bombardment of Lebanon. When Nasrallah went before the cameras on Hizballah-run al-Manar last week, he presented himself as the custodian of Muslim honor. Even his Arab critics are biting their tongues, mindful of the support Nasrallah...
...Claiming victory may be harder for the Israeli leadership, which initially defined success by the image of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah either dead or crying for mercy, his army and its rockets scattered to the four winds. Instead, Israeli leaders now have to convince their increasingly skeptical citizens that the war has been won. It's hardly surprising, then, that Israel is using the interlude before the truce takes effect - Israeli officials are reported as saying that moment will come at 7am on Monday - to drive deep into Lebanon to draw whatever blood and teeth as they can from Hizballah...
...part, has achieved the "victory" of surviving the Israeli onslaught, and has burnished its standing in the Arab world by its ability to land painful blows on Israel. That will spur it to seek the last word and deny Israel's efforts to shape perceptions of the outcome. Nasrallah on Saturday accepted the cease-fire plan despite reservations, but made clear that his men will keep fighting Israeli forces that remain on Lebanese soil even if they ceases rocket fire into Israel. The Israelis want the closing image of the war to show their forces taking control of Hizballah-land...