Crisis Intensifies in Lebanon As Hezbollah Takes to Streets

"I'm staying until the year 2100 or until Sayyid Hasan speaks again," vowed Hassan Karnib, a 20-year-old protester, using an honorific for the Hezbollah leader.

If the protests fail to force the government's resignation, flatly ruled out by Siniora in a speech Thursday, Hezbollah's supporters have talked about resignations from parliament, work stoppages or civil disobedience to shut down ministries.

The group's opponents, sensing that Friday's mass demonstration was the biggest card it had to play, promised to wait.

"They decided to go to the streets. Let them do that, and let them stay there as long as they want," said Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze community, who has shifted alliances since the civil war and is now one of Hezbollah's most outspoken opponents. "We will stay in our homes, raise our flags and wait one month, two months, as long as they want."

Hezbollah announced the protest Thursday, and by early morning the movement, among the best-organized in the Middle East, was in full swing. The southern suburbs, devastated by Israeli bombing this summer, were almost frenetic, with buses plying roads and flags of Hezbollah and Lebanon flying from windows. Mopeds sped through streets plastered with portraits of Nasrallah, who has inspired a cult of personality among his followers and others in the Arab world. "I promise you victory always," read one of his posters near a warren of shops along a street snarled with traffic.

Protesters ventured downtown along streets adorned with the iconography of Hezbollah's opponents. One sign read in French, "I love life." Another, written in red, said in Arabic, "We want to live." Both were critiques of Hezbollah's celebration of martyrdom.

"They don't love life; they love the throne," quipped Maha Kanj, 16.

A Hezbollah placard read: "Because we love life."

Each side boasted of the numbers, or lack thereof, at the protest. Hezbollah's television station, al-Manar, put the figure at 1.5 million. Future Television, loyal to Hariri's son, Saad, who has inherited leadership of the Sunni community, estimated tens of thousands. Although it was larger than last week's funeral for assassinated cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, it appeared smaller, according to anecdotal impressions, than the March 14 protest that climaxed last year's demonstrations.

While al-Manar provided minute-by-minute coverage of the protest's early hours, Future broadcast a cooking show. During the protest's peak, Future broadcast a split screen. On one side were images of an empty Martyrs' Square, with troops, armored personnel carriers and firetrucks barring demonstrators from entering. On the other were images of protests the night before in support of the prime minister. On al-Manar, the numbers themselves were the message: "This is probably the view Siniora had of the demonstrations," the announcer said as footage rolled. "We wonder whether he heard and saw."

Hezbollah went to lengths to portray the demonstration as less its own and more an expression of what it calls the national opposition. No Hezbollah speakers appeared; Aoun, a Christian, gave the main address, although the number of his supporters paled in comparison to Hezbollah's. The demonstrators themselves were eclectic, from sober-looking clerics in traditional robes to supporters of Aoun who had dyed their hair his group's trademark orange. Others had donned orange wigs and cowboy hats. Some of the slogans were sectarian: "God, Nasrallah and all the southern suburbs." At times, though, the crowd aimed for chants with broader appeal: "Green, yellow, orange," the colors of Hezbollah, an allied movement and Aoun, "we want to topple the government."

The slogans played on themes that Hezbollah and its allies have pushed relentlessly since the crisis began. Corruption was a key complaint. Many chants were directed at Siniora, some ridiculing him for crying in public during the war. "We've had enough lies and tears," one went.