Lebanese Protestors One-Up Hezbollah

Massive New Demonstration in Beirut

Published on March 14, 2005 By Eastern Diamondback In Current Events

Yahoo News: Opposition Launches Protest in Beirut

Monday's protest easily topped a pro-government rally of hundreds of thousands of people last week by the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. That show of strength forced the opposition to try to regain its momentum.

I became somewhat interested in Lebanon a little over 14 years ago. For one of my majors in college I was required to take two semesters of a non-European language. Since the US was involved in a little something in the Persian Gulf, I thought I'd give Arabic a try. My first instructor for Arabic was a young Christian Lebanese woman from Beirut. She would tell us about her family life and the civil war there when she wasn't teaching class material. Very sweet woman. I ended up getting an A in her class. In the Spring 1991 semester I took my second Arabic class. This class was also taught by a Lebanese; a young Shiite man from the Bekaa valley. He had just recently finished school at the American University in Beirut. He told of times during the civil war when an occasional mortar shell would drop within sight of his classroom, and the professor would flinch and then proceeed with the lecture as if nothing had happened. By the way, I got a A- in that class.

When I would see either one of them outside of class, I would gladly talk with them. Politics, religion, jobs, music, you name it. Both spoke English very well, were very intelligent (I should hope so if they were teaching) and very polite.

Anytime I now here about Lebanon I am reminded of those two very nice people.

A few days ago, I watched a video clip of Walid Phares in an appearance with Brit Hume on Fox News. While many journalists worldwide were noting (some praising) Hezbollah's ability to muster a protest which was much larger than the original anti-Syrian demonstration, Phares was not necessarily impressed. His belief was that, although Hezbollah produced more people, such a feat could not be sustained. He states that the oppositional display is genuine and can be reproduced over and over again, Hezbollah cannot generate large protests repeatedly.

Comments

Eastern Diamondback

on Mar 14, 2005

Update: 1500 CST 3/14/2005:

Anti-Syria demonstration estimated at almost one million. It's almost as large as the crowd in Grant Park for the Taste of Chicago and Fireworks show on July 3rd.

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