Sunnis Return Home
I’ve been reading a number of blogs form Lebanon lately. They are mostly from educated employed city dwellers, not so different from you or I. Thus they tend to be Sunni or Christian and not the biggest Hezbollah fans. It was kind of depressing to watch their attitude change during the course of the war from thinking Hezbollah was getting what they deserved, to thinking the Israelis were overreacting, to fleeing for their lives and hating all Jews. Now that they are back home it seems like the anger at the Israelis is still there (understandably) but much more concern is focused at internal politics and a special anger is reserved for Nasrallah.[1] It was interesting to see a NYT article telling a similar story from Sunni village on the border of Israel. The Lebanese government doesn’t have the power to disarm Hezbollah, but hopefully the popular anger will keep Hezbollah in check long enough for the government to build up its power base and take over the Hezbollah territories.
[1] Quick primer for those who don’t know: Lebanon is a multi-cultural country, 40% Shia, the rest are Christian, Sunni and Druze. The Hezbollah are supported by many Shia (more before they started this most recent war) but they get most their money from Syria and Iran. They operate as a separate state within Lebanon, much to the dismay of the other 60%