Can Haifa Wehbe help Bush develop a more nuanced view of Hezbollah?

A friend in Lebanon emailed me this take on the political situation there and sums up perfectly why Bush’s one-dimensional view of Government = Good, Hezbollah = bad is over simplified and lacks a real understanding of how politics works in Lebanon. From an email my friend sent:

"I shuddered when I heard the words of our (mis)leader: "Gaza and the West Bank ... are not the only places where the forces of radicalism and violence threaten freedom and peace," Bush said. "The struggle between extremists and moderates is also playing out in Lebanon - where Hizbullah and Syria and Iran are trying to destabilize the popularly elected government," Bush said.

I hate it when Bush oversimplifies things, especially when it comes to
Lebanon. What Bush doesn't mention is HOW the Lebanese government was "popularly elected." Prior to the May 2005 parliamentary vote, the Future Movement (led by Saad Hariri), Progressive Socialist Party (led by Walid Jumblatt) and Amal (led by Nabih Berri) knew they simply didn't have enough backing to win an election on their own in Lebanon. Under the electoral law, they had absolutely no way of getting elected without Hizbullah's help. So what did they do? They formed an electoral alliance with Hizbullah, a grouping known as the "Qadripartite alliance." In exchange for these parties getting to appear on the same voting list as Hizbullah in certain provinces, the parties agreed to "support the resistance". They all got elected by mostly Shiite voters (the majority in Lebanon) and they formed a Cabinet of ministers together, and that Cabinet issued a ministerial statement proclaiming official support for Hizbullah's resistance.

Then during the war, the parties that got elected on the backs of Shiite voters became critical of Hizbullah. That's why Hizbullah withdrew from the Cabinet and demanded either a new unity government or early parliamentary elections. The simple fact is that if elections were held today under the same electoral law, none of those characters would have as much power as they do now. Most Shiites, who make up the largest group in Lebanon, simply wouldn't vote for them again.

I assure you, the "battle" simply isn't as black and white as Bush wants us to believe: freedom vs. radicalism, violence vs. peace, extremists vs. moderates. It's much more nuanced than that.

Take Haifa Wehbe, Lebanon's super sexy pop starlet, for example. She is a Shiite from South Lebanon, an area that has been subjected to repeated Israeli incursions, massacres and poundings since 1948. Look at these
Photos and ask yourself whether she looks like an "extremist":

http://www.haifa-wehbe.ws/haifa-wehbe-photos/view.php?gid=1

Now read this article, and ask yourself why does this extreme sextress
(not extremist) support Nasrallah and the resistance?

http://www.nysun.com/article/42928

The reason is because ordinary and sexy people around the world (not just extremists) believe that if somebody attacks you in your own homeland, as the Israelis did beginning with the Hula massacre in 1948, and subsequent incursions and attacks in 1968, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 2006, you have the right to defend yourself against aggression. It's also interesting to note that Hizbullah as a resistance movement did not come into formal existence until 1985, in the middle of Israel's 22-year-long occupation of South Lebanon (1978-2000)."

This summary of why Lebanese people, not just extremists, support Hezbollah is unlikely to be read by those within the beltway who should read it. I had a meeting with a woman who is heading to the American embassy in Beirut and wanted to know about Lebanese politics and my opinion. But from her very questions it was clear that the indoctrination had already begun. It is hard for Americans who have never feared their homes being destroyed, their families, killed, their cities devastated and their country invaded to imagine how such conditions may legitimately affect political perspectives.