Another Nasrallah Speech | As’ad AbuKhalil
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/another-nasrallah-speech
Nasrallah focused on the general international campaign to unseat Syrian President Bashar Assad. He only would refer to “mistakes” by the regime. Many Syrians would rightly take offense. The killing of thousands of Syrians amounts to much more than a mistake, as would the many decades of repressive rule. And the notion that the regime itself “admitted” its mistakes – as Nasrallah put it – makes the argument worse because the regime does not even admit its long record of repression and oppression and cruelty.
In the second section of the speech, Nasrallah’s demeanor changed and he became more relaxed and humorous. He was very effective in undermining the arguments of March 14 one by one. He effectively mocked the popular notion – popular only in Lebanon – that the Hariri uprising in Lebanon triggered the “Arab spring” (Najib Mikati claimed that Saudi peace initiative triggered the “Arab spring”). He reminded the audience that March 14 figures used to perform regular pilgrimages to Cairo to coordinate their moves with Egyptian regime (Umar Sulayman was the contact person for those leaders).
Nasrallah also compared the words of March 14 about Bahrain with their words on Syria. The audience loved that needling especially when he referred to the Lebanese Forces’ history of massacres. Nasrallah also talked about the ability of Hezbollah to face its enemies and he brought back his memories of the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006. He was not reluctant here to invoke the experience of Hussein, which must have tickled the sectarian audience.