By SAM F. GHATTAS
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 20, 2006; 4:12 PM
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanon had not even finished burying the dead from 34 days of war when the country's deep sectarian and political divisions split open again. That has shattered the semblance of unity that held, just barely, through the Israeli attacks against Hezbollah.
In particular, differences over the militant Shiite group _ stilled while the war raged _ are re-emerging. Critics of the guerrillas and their leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, have begun to speak out, with some Sunnis, Christians and Druse clearly feeling Hezbollah dragged them into a fight they did not want.
So far, it's all rhetoric and factional leaders have been careful not to actively inflame tensions, stressing instead the need to rally behind the government even as they criticize each other.
Yet tensions are rising in a country where most damage was done in Shiite Muslim areas while Christian and Sunni areas remained largely unscathed.
Senior politicians have sought to smooth feelings. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, a pro-Western Sunni Muslim and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite and close ally of Hezbollah, toured the devastation of south Beirut together Sunday and pledged unity.
But the newspaper As-Safir, which has an Arab nationalist agenda, warned that Lebanese divisions could cause an explosion. "The country seems on the edge of a political volcano," it said on the front page.
Tension has most noticeably filtered into the reconstruction effort, with complaints from Shiites that the government was slow in acting. By contrast, Hezbollah was swift and bold in its show of aid.
Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, a key figure in the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and a critic of the pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian Hezbollah, has been among the outspoken.
"Is this (Hezbollah) resistance Lebanese or is it a tool of the Syrian-Iranian axis on Lebanese territory?" he asked Thursday.
"We have the right _ and it is not treason to say it _ that we are Lebanese who look forward to a secure future without war of others on our land," Jumblatt added.
Hezbollah's support among the Shiite community _ believed to be Lebanon's largest sect _ remains strong, buttressed by the guerrillas' efficient drive to rebuild and help those who lost their homes by handing out cash.
Hezbollah's image as defender of the country also remains untarnished, even boosted, despite Israel's destruction of many Shiite villages.
Yet the group has not taken the new criticism lightly. Al-Manar TV, the mouthpiece of the guerrilla group throughout the war, broadcast an unprecedented attack on opponents, accusing them of "backstabbing."
"Why is this turning against the victory and completing the aggression? Is it because Hezbollah, the resistance and Lebanon has emerged victorious?" said the TV's commentary.
The anti-Syrian majority in parliament has been demanding that Hezbollah give up its weapons, but Nasrallah has said that is out of line and out of touch.
With Hezbollah still burying its dead, Nasrallah said any talk of disarmament was insensitive and "immoral." Speaking hours after the cease-fire took effect Aug. 14, he took aim at those calling for Hezbollah to give up its arms: "I advise them not to resort to provocations, threats and pressure through humanitarian or security considerations."
The issue of Hezbollah's weapons is so sensitive there have even been warnings that any attempt to disarm the group by force could lead to a civil war.
Still, there are those in the other communities of this country of 4 million people who say enough is enough.
Bridges in the Christian heartland have been destroyed in what many saw as an attempt to push the Christians to rise up against Hezbollah. That prompted some Christian leaders to call for calm and not to lose focus.
Sunni areas of Akkar lost many bridges, electricity cuts were widespread, fuel shortages and the air and sea blockade have touched all.
Hezbollah's opponents widely blame the guerrilla group for dragging Lebanon into a ruinous war with its July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. They accuse the group of having a regional agenda serving its backers, Iran and Syria.
While Jumblatt was the most outspoken, others also hit out at Hezbollah.
Saad Hariri, the U.S.-backed Sunni leader of the parliamentary majority, was careful not to directly criticize Hezbollah to avoid inflaming sectarian tensions. But he has focused on the theme that all Lebanese should rally around the government and the army _ an implicit call on Hezbollah's military wing to fold.
Samir Geagea, a Christian politician who opposes Hezbollah, said Nasrallah should consider the opinion of other Lebanese "who did not approve what happened."
"It is wrong to think that others do not exist. ... There are popular roots other than theirs (Hezbollah's), deeper roots under a completely different view and did not want what happened," he said in a lengthy TV interview.
Geagea also said Hezbollah's strategy of trying to deter Israel with its rocket arsenal proved futile.
Israel's retaliation has affected "not only the resistance but the entire nation," said Geagea, a member of the anti-Syrian political coalition.
He said that by keeping its arms, Hezbollah "drags Syrian and Iranian intervention into the internal affairs" of Lebanon. The army, he added, should be "the only one responsible for defending Lebanon and taking military action."
Many in the pro-Hezbollah, pro-Syria camp fear that what Israel and the United States could not achieve in fighting may come about in Lebanese politics.
"Mercy for this nation," appealed former Prime Minister Omar Karami, a Sunni, criticizing the disarmament calls as untimely and wrong.
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Sam F. Ghattas, based in Beirut, has reported on Lebanese and Arab affairs for two decades.