|
Trending Topics
|
Some Lebanese Shiites Aren't Eager to Serve as Human Shields Again
(Tablet) Lee Smith - Is the culture of resistance Hizbullah has cultivated on the wane? Anti-Hizbullah Shiite activist Lokman Slim told me, "The shelf-life of the resistance has reached its expiration date." Last week in Beirut I found that many Shiites, even those not actively opposed to Hizbullah, are becoming increasingly anxious about the role that the party has designed for them - as cannon fodder in the next round of warfare with Israel. Recently there have been a number of signs - including books like a recently published volume of dissident Shiite cleric Sheikh Hassan Mchaymech, once a part of Hizbullah's leadership, as well as newspaper articles from Shiite journalists explicitly attacking Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah has openly sided with the regime in Damascus and perhaps even sent fighters to assist Assad. Now many of Lebanon's Shiites are asking themselves: Why is a resistance movement that is supposed to champion justice taking the side of a regime that slaughters other Muslims?