Word: nasrallah
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...arrest if it is disarmed. And Hizballah's capacity to resist resides not only in its military capabilities, but in the people-power potential of its mass support among Lebanon's Shi'ites. In a show of strength during last year's "Cedar Revolution" protests, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah brought hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets of the capital. Iran, Hizballah's chief international patron, will also not be pleased to see Hizballah's wings clipped - Tehran is under fire at the U.N. over its nuclear ambitions, and needs to flex all the strategic muscle it can muster...
...Israel the latest hostage taking also represented an opportunity. For almost six years since Israel had quit southern Lebanon, the Israelis watched Hizballah build fortifications along the border and stockpile rockets and missiles. Of late, Hizballah's charismatic leader, Hasan Nasrallah, had explicitly threatened to kidnap Israeli soldiers, and Jerusalem believes it thwarted at least two attempts by his fighters to do just that. Army brass had urged the political leadership to respond with precisely the kind of campaign Olmert has initiated, and Israeli forces practiced just such an operation in a tabletop exercise as recently as two months...
...warn Lebanon that Jerusalem can set back the country's restoration even further if it chooses. Of the estimated 300 who have died so far in Lebanon, most have been civilians. For its part, Hizballah was taken aback by Israel's ferocity. In a TV interview last week, Nasrallah lamented, "Tell me about a war that was waged against a state because of two soldiers. This has never happened in history. Nor has Israel done it anytime before...
Meanwhile, the war continues. The Israelis announced early on that they hoped to assassinate Nasrallah, whom they credit as a clever and potent adversary. Israeli forces last week dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker in Beirut where they believed he was hiding. Nasrallah appeared later in the taped TV interview, disappointing Israeli officials, who said they were still after him. Nasrallah's death would bring Jerusalem a huge symbolic victory. But Israel may eventually regret raising expectations that it will get him. (Ask George Bush about the wisdom of calling for Osama bin Laden's head.) "If Nasrallah...
...further inflame anger toward the U.S. in the Arab world, coming on top of the chaos and violence in Iraq. These officials say that the loss of goodwill because of Iraq's instability, coupled with the unstinting support for Israel, have moved many Arabs to admire Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a David confronting a Western Goliath. This movement in Arab popular opinion, American officials say, has not been lost on the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, who are now said to be deeply concerned about the growing opposition movement fired with a combustible mix of extremist religion...