| Page 3 of 3 < |
As Mideast Smoke Clears, Political Fates May Shift
Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, talks with Condoleezza Rice before a Security Council meeting Friday.
(By Frank Franklin Ii -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Yet Siniora, who took over a fragile government only 13 months ago, has proved to be a strong and persuasive leader.
"It's been a remarkable performance," said Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
Siniora, who wept in talks with Arab leaders on Monday, gave an impassioned speech during the July 26 Rome conference that won support for his proposal on Lebanon's fate.
Hezbollah may gain more than any other party.
In tangible terms, the Shiite militia has lost several command posts and bunkers, financial distribution centers with funds in them, and as much as one-quarter of its front-line fighters, said Dennis Ross, a Middle East negotiator in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. With an expanded international force and a new arms embargo, secret attempts to replace hundreds of missiles from Iran and Syria will be far more difficult. And Hezbollah is supposed to dismantle the last private army in Lebanon under terms of the resolution.
But the movement is also now widely seen in the Arab world as having achieved its second victory against Israel -- after first forcing it to withdraw in 2000.
Although Nasrallah is a Shiite cleric, he has personally emerged from the Lebanon war as an epic "folk hero" in Arab and Islamic circles, said Paul Salem, director-designate of the new Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
The Beirut Center survey showed about 87 percent of Lebanese support Hezbollah's retaliatory attacks on Israel. Yet the general consensus throughout the country is that Nasrallah grossly miscalculated the response to seizing the Israeli soldiers.
"Inside Lebanon, he is stronger in the sense that he fought a war and survived, but he also comes out weaker in the sense that his leadership that once led the Shiites to political victory but has now led them to ruin," Salem said.
