Love of the Land: When the Resistance Passes It's Expiry Date

When the Resistance Passes It's Expiry Date

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid
Asharq Al- Awsat
19 January '10

At the UNESCO palace in Beirut, Arab resistance groups were reunited, and each resistance leader was able to recall his heroism [during the Forum of Arab and International Support for the Resistance]. The leader of Lebanese resistance, [Hezbollah chief] Hassan Nasrallah attended the conference via a video-link, while Iraqi resistance leader Sheikh Harith al-Dari, and Palestinian resistance leader Khalid Mishal attended in person, along with other figures such as [Lebanese politician] Selim al-Hoss, whose resistance affiliated is not yet known.

The word resistance has become obsolete with time and as a result of misuse, and so this word has lost its sanctity. How can someone respect the resistance in Iraq when witnessing thousands of innocent victims killed as a result of the deliberate targeting of schools, markets, residential areas, and civilian and governmental areas? How can the resistance be sacred in Palestine when on the one hand the Palestinians are fighting against one another, whilst at the same time [one Palestinian faction] is guarding the Israeli border against infiltration by other resistance elements? Why is it that today in Lebanon, the resistance is not playing this role, but is ruling the people of Lebanon by force, and this is almost nine years after Israeli troops withdrew from the country?

This is the state of the resistance today. This is the state of any type of resistance that passes its expiry date, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon whose resistance became an internal problem after the movement was practically transformed into a local militia [following the Israeli withdrawal]. The resistance is just a title, and it seems that its real job is to dominate the internal situation through force of arms and by silencing the opposition in the name of confronting the enemy. In Palestine, where there is occupation and an armed enemy, some resistance factions have become foreign tools.

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Love of the Land: When the Resistance Passes It's Expiry Date