Nasrallah has changed a lot. When he talked in the past he was extremely inspirational. People felt that he was talking like a national hero, a liberator who was trying to motivate his people and make them proud of him and his organization.
Those of us who knew him well loved him . Nasrallah has sacrificed his own son during the Israeli occupation. He is credited with liberating the south of Lebanon from the Israeli occupation in 2000. In short he was the national Hero
That Nasrallah that we knew is gone. He now talks now like an occupying General who reports to a foreign land . Very much like a Nazi general talking in Prague or Warsaw , after the German Nazis s occupied these countries during the second world war. People have started forgetting Nasrallah the hero .
Just like the Nazi Generals , to Nasrallah everyone is an enemy . Not only Israel is his enemy, so are the majority of the Lebanese , the majority of the Arab states and the western world . His only friends are Iran and Syria .
This behavior by Nasrallah is an unfortunate development for Lebanon . The Lebanese held him and Hezbollah group in the past in extremely high regard . He was the undisputable hero for young and old, Christians, Shiites Sunnis and Druze, males or females . He was by far the most popular leader in Lebanon.
Not anymore . Every time I meet anyone, I find Nasrallah has very few fans . In fact almost none except the Hezbollah members, even some of them now started complaining about his leadership abilities and arrogance.
Perhaps he has lost touch with the Lebanese during the past 3 years he has been hiding in bunkers …. All, his speeches are on video tape now. Time for him to be courageous again . Time for him to come out of hiding and talk directly to the Lebanese people . Perhaps then he can interact again with the audience . Perhaps then he may realize that he is on the wrong track and needs to make a U turn.
Hearing Nasrallah talk leaves you with a very strong impression that these are not really his own words . You get a horrible feeling that these are the words of Basher al Assad of Syria and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Borrowing words from others , especially when they are intellectually inferior , makes you lose that edge you were known for . Makes you lose that leadership skill that made you so popular . You are reduced to a soldier who has to obey orders without having the right to ask questions before carrying out these orders .
As Nasrallah has changed , so have the people of Lebanon. The number one priority for the Lebanese people in the past was to be liberated from Israeli occupation . Now the people in Lebanon want to be liberated from the Hezbollah occupation . People see Hezbollah as the big danger for Lebanon . They view Hezbollah as a fifth column for the axis of evil , Iran and Syria… People in Lebanon view Hezbollah as the greatest danger to the Lebanese independence and sovereignty . People view Hezbollah as the greatest danger to the Lebanese way of life . People view Hezbollah occupation of downtown Beirut as the greatest danger to the Lebanese economy. People view Hezbollah as an agent of an enemy that refuses to recognize Lebanon as an independent and sovereign nation an enemy that is supposed to be a sister state but instead it treats our country like its own farm as the border incidents have shown during the past week.
Nasrallah has changed . In the past he was the most eloquent speaker in Lebanon , but now he is the most arrogant and obnoxious speaker in the whole region . As one observer told me today after hearing his speech “ you could cut his arrogance with a knife “.
All Nasrallah needs to do is play back and listen to his own speeches of the past … speeches that made him the most popular hero of Lebanon. Perhaps this will be a wake up call for him to change .
Nasrallah’s declaration of war on Israel is undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty freedom and independence . Nasrallah could count in the past on the support of the Lebanese people when he liberated the south of Lebanon but his declaration of war this time is risking the whole country just to revenge the murder of his colleague. This time Hezbollah will not have the support of the Lebanese people if it engages in any war , because the Lebanese can easily differentiate between a war of liberation and a proxy war , to serve the interest of other nations. This time Nasrallah will not be viewed as a liberator but more like a traitor who betrayed and destroyed his own country.
In 2006 Nasrallah made a big mistake when his organization kidnapped and killed the Israeli soldiers . He admitted after the war that it was a poor judgment on his part to assume that the Israelis will not react . He also confessed that had he known that Israel will react in the manner that it did he would never have started the war. The Lebanese were willing back then to forgive him for his big mistake but not anymore . Not after he changed .
This time Nasrallah may be making the same mistake :
The president of the National Liberal Party Dory Chamoun said DNA tests should be performed on Mughniyah’s body to make sure it was him who was killed in the the explosion in Damascus
"Before Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah goes to war, DNA tests should be performed on the body of Imad Mughniyah to make sure it was him who was killed in the explosion in Damascus , specially since he underwent several plastic surgery operations to disguise himself “. He told al Markaziyah news agency
Besides , no one has the right to subject the citizens of a country to the dangers of war except the elected government of the country . Nasrallah may be the leader of Hezbollah movement but was never elected by the Lebanese to any position ....he is therefore far from being the leader of the country .
The parliament majority also made a big mistake. It failed to act . It should not have allowed Hezbollah ally Speaker Nabih Berri to lock the doors of the parliament and give its keys to Syria . The majority should have made another set of keys , opened the parliament and forced the election of a new president from its own ranks or use ultimatum to reach consensus on a compromise candidate . Now it is too late to take such steps and Lebanon is paying dearly for their big mistake
One thing that worries me most about people that hide is they lose touch with their peers and they start becoming too suspicious of others and start dreaming of conspiracy theories. Exactly like prisoners do . This is how Nasrallah speeches sound like these days .
It has been three years since the Lebanese leaders talked to one another . Perhaps it is mighty time they all start talking to one another again. Perhaps Nasrallah should come out of hiding and start the dialogue game again . This should be done sooner rather than later and before the Lebanese outrage reaches its limits. Lebanon has been taken to the brink …Time is of the essence …it is time for Nasrallah and Hezbollah to change or Lebanon should rid itself of Nasrallah and Hezbolah
Picture: Cartoon showing president Basher al Assad of Syria( L) and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( R) on top while Hezbollah's Nasrallah and his weapons are in the bottom , treated like puppets
Tags: Berri, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Nasrallah, Syria
