Prior to the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon, few people in the world knew who Hassan Nasrallah was. Hassan Nasrallah belongs to the Shiat sect of Islam which represent only 10% of all muslims worldwide. Of those who knew him, including middle easterns, many thought of him as a leader of a terrorist organization and some did not like his struggle for dominance in Lebanon with an Iranian backing.Today, Hassan Nasrallah is a hero in the middle east. BBC News have described
him as "... Lebanon's most powerful citizen today". Rallies all over the world and particularly in the Arab and Muslim worlds hail him as a hero and "their only hope against Israel". This is also the case in Sunni dominated countries like Egypt and Jordan etc. Public opinion amongst Arabs, Muslims, anti-imperliasm movements, Peace activists and many free-thinkers has been galvanized behind him. For the Muslims and Arabs (Muslims and non-Muslims), he represents the long lost honour. His name is mentioned all over the middle east always preceded by the word "Seyed" which means "Sir", a level of respect not given to the rulers of middle eastern countries.It is becoming more apparent that the ruling regimes in the Arab world are becoming less and less relevant while movements like Hezbollah and Hamas are becoming more main stream. This is despite these organizations being labelled as terrorist organizations in the Western World including Australia. Indeed, the Saudi regime, after having initially blamed Hezbollah, are now slowly and tacticfully changing their position under the enormous pressure from the street. The ruling regimes in the middle east are now under a series threat of being irrelevant due to being unrepresentative of the majority view in the middle east.
It will become even more interesting if Hezbollah "wins" the war. Really, all Hezbollah needs to do is not to "loose" the war. This can simply be achieved by demonstrating loses to the Israeli army as well as getting Israel to accept an exchange of prisoners. If this happens, this will make most middle eastern regimes completly irrelevant and they will be under a series threat of being over turned. To me, this is probably the main reason why some middle eastern regimes have, shamefully, given the "green light" for Israel to finish Hezbollah and, in doing so, ending the lives of many innocent civilians.
Unknowingly, Israel has made an International hero out of an unknown person.
