Rami Naeem – Call of the Nation
The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naeem Qassem, loves the feeling of brokenness. He lives with it, accompanies it, and even controls his appearance. Every time he goes out to the media, you feel that there is a new disease that will soon be approved, called Naeem Qassem Syndrome. A disease that can be summed up in two words: Defeat is ours.
This is not an insult to Sheikh Naeem, but rather a correct description of his successive conferences, in which he confirms the defeat of the “party,” the defeat of the axis, and the loss of the compass, but he refuses to surrender and submit. Rather, he confirms that he and his “party” will continue to dominate the remaining Shiites in Lebanon until they meet together one day in the paradise of eternity!
Qassem’s speech is far from logical, as Hezbollah is far from throwing Israel into the sea. Even the party’s own audience is disturbed by the heresy of its Secretary-General and compares Qassem with the former Secretary-General of the Party, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, without wanting to. He immediately knows the level of gendarmerie to which the Party has reached and is certain of imminent defeat.
What Qassem says contradicts what Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says. In a meeting between Berri and US Ambassador Michel Issa, according to “Call of the Nation” information, Berri expressed his dissatisfaction with Qassem’s positions and said to Issa in clear terms: “Hezbollah will take us to the abyss and Washington must protect the Shiites of Lebanon from Iran’s madness.” Let Berri lie to us and then every recent incident.
The American ambassador, in turn, praised Berri’s positions, which he considered to be par excellence patriotic, and this is what was also said by the sovereign team in Lebanon, which refuses to plunge the Shiites into certain death, fulfilling the dreams of the Iranians. Berri’s position before the American ambassador was previously announced to local and Arab officials, calling for pressure on Iran to convince Hezbollah, even with an Iranian fatwa, to hand over its weapons. Here it seems clear that all the hints of betrayal that Naim Qassem includes in his speeches are directed directly at Berri, which means that the jar that has not yet been broken will not be delivered for long, especially since the Lebanese army officers are Shiite, who overwhelmingly hold sensitive and delicate positions. He is closer to Berri, and therefore Hezbollah does not have the ability to harm the Lebanese army if the political decision is taken to withdraw the party’s weapons by force.
Berri’s position is not surprising, as the man tolerated “Hezbollah” for more than 40 years, and despite his standing by it and coordinating with it during that era, Berri was the biggest Shiite loser in the long run. “Hezbollah” gave Berri personally a position above everyone else, but it undermined the “Amal” movement, withdrew its supporters and cadres of its youth, indulged its children, restricted its electoral keys, and tempted those who influence it, which made it an end, even if “Hezbollah” was destined to maintain its military, security, political, and financial strength for an additional ten years, and the Shiites in Lebanon became “Hezbollah” without any vaccination, even within the same resistance environment. The greatest evidence of what we are saying is the movement’s situation in the last parliamentary elections, in which “Hezbollah” decided to leave parliamentary seats to it in order for Berri to maintain a political position, while Berri knew better than anyone else that “Hezbollah” was capable of depriving him of 90 percent of the “Amal” movement’s parliamentary seats.
Today, after all this, the past disputes between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have resurfaced on the surface of the relationship between the two groups, and some skirmishes are taking place in some villages, bringing to mind the day the two sides fought and dozens of people were killed in the streets of Beirut and other than Beirut, but today’s problems have different titles. The movement and its supporters do not want to die for the sake of an Iranian project, and they prevent “party” members from placing weapons in their places of residence or from trying to rearm for fear of Israeli strikes. This is a clear indication that the “Amal” movement is complying with the government’s decisions and wants Lebanon first and the interest of the Lebanese before any other interest.
“Nidaa al-Watan” learned that “Amal” movement officials in Beirut, the South, and the Bekaa had been informed and told not to participate in any military activity, but rather they were asked to inform the Lebanese army of any military movement by “Hezbollah” in their areas.
Returning to Qasim, does it not seem surprising that he stressed the good relationship between his “party” and Presidents Aoun and Berri? If this relationship was good, he would not have had to confirm its strength. The funny thing about Qasim’s last speech is his emphasis on the alliance with the “Amal” movement in the upcoming elections, as if the non-alliance was proposed in the corridors of the “duo” or as if the announcement of the alliance was a clear message to Berri.
We are, then, facing a fateful stage in the history of the Shiites of Lebanon, as the conflict grows between those who belong to the 10,452 square kilometers and those who belong to religious fatwas that cross nationalities and constitutions, and our role as non-Shiite Lebanese is to stand by those who resemble us in patriotism and belonging and to extend a helping hand to them because Lebanon does not return to life unless its sects stand against any non-Lebanese project. Today, Nabih Berri writes a national line and launches an equation. New under the title: We are the Shiites of Lebanon and we do not want war!
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