Times Watch Quotes of Note -- Hezbollah Terrorist Leader Nasrallah as "Folk Hero"
Posted by: Clay Waters
7/28/2006 2:09:09 PM
Hezbollah Terrorist Leader Nasrallah as “Folk Hero”
“Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.” – Neil MacFarquhar from Damascus on July 28.
NYT, Hezbollah Taken Aback by “Ferocity of Israel’s Response”
“The consensus here is that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah were all taken aback by the ferocity of Israel’s response to the capture of two soldiers; the seizure seemed to fall within the unspoken rules of limited engagements. Similar operations had prompted prisoner exchanges in the past, the current demand by Hezbollah for ending the fighting.” – Neil MacFarquhar, reporting from Damascus, July 26.
The “Civil Aid Group” Hezbollah
"The situation is made all the more complicated by the nature of Hezbollah. It functions as a civil aid group as well as a militia, helping with schools and in hospitals, and in many cases providing essential public services at times in the years of the war when the government was simply not able. It has a savvy media operation, with a spokesman who takes groups of journalists on tours of the devastation in southern Beirut with a truck that blares Hezbollah fighting songs from rows of speakers." – Sabrina Tavernise in Beirut, July 25.
Bush’s “My-Way-Or-the-Highway Approach”
“But in the space of one hour in Rome on Wednesday, the public rewards of that hard work -- the view around the world that the United States may now be more willing to play nice with others -- may have been undone. Once again, it seemed, the United States had reverted to its my-way-or-the-highway approach, and Ms. Rice was on the defensive.” – From a July 28 “news analysis” by Helene Cooper.
We Like Him Already
"Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina often plays the contrarian, the conservative Republican willing to poke a stick in the eye of the White House. Now Mr. Graham is playing an even higher-profile variant of that role, as the Senate's foremost expert on military law in the midst of the emotional debate over what rights to provide to terror suspects…..But drawing on his own experience and a deep personal loyalty to the military justice system, Mr. Graham is working across party lines to try to assemble a consensus for his approach, saying it is sound legally and in terms of national security. His views are shaped not only by his understanding of the law, but also by his respect for an institution he credits with changing his life, by shaping his career and allowing him to support his 13-year-old sister after his parents died when he was in college. His belief in the integrity of the military code has repeatedly led him to resist the White House when it comes to defining the treatment of people accused of being terrorists.” – From Kate Zernike’s July 18 profile of Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“The Escape of Willie Horton”?
“[Ken] Mehlman’s much-publicized apology to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People seems to have done little to address the resentment that built up over what civil rights leaders view as decades of racial politics practiced or countenanced by Republicans. One example they point to is the first President Bush’s use of the escape of Willie Horton , a black convicted murderer, to portray his Democratic opponent in the 1988 election, Michael S. Dukakis, as soft on crime." – Political reporter Adam Nagourney, July 18. Horton was out of jail on a furlough program later defended by Dukakis.
“Asymmetry” in Deaths Between Hezbollah Terrorists, Innocent Israelis
" The asymmetry in the reported death tolls is marked and growing : some 230 Lebanese dead, most of them civilians, to 25 Israeli dead, 13 of them civilians. In Gaza, one Israel soldier has died from his own army’s fire, and 103 Palestinians have been killed, 70 percent of them militants. The cold figures, combined with Israeli air attacks on civilian infrastructure like power plants, electricity transformers, airports, bridges, highways and government buildings, have led to accusations by France and the European Union, echoed by some nongovernmental organizations, that Israel is guilty of 'disproportionate use of force' in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and of 'collective punishment' of the civilian populations." – From a July 19 story by Jerusalem Bureau Chief Steven Erlanger.
Hezbollah “Martyrs”
“But this town is also the gateway to Hezbollah country, where Hezbollah controls everything from local administration and schools to security. Hezbollah has its footprint everywhere here, from its signature yellow banners to portraits celebrating fallen martyrs." – Hassan Fattah from Tyre, Lebanon, in the July 18 edition.
U.S. Experiment in Iraq “Up in Flames”
"In any event, all the countries of the Middle East, having seen the American democratic experiment in Iraq go up in flames, may now be less amenable to any of the world powers that have shaped the region for so long." – Reporter Robert Worth in the July 23 Week in Review.
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