What is interesting about the ongoing altercation between Walid Jumblatt and Hezbollah over the party’s military telecommunications network and the act of blocking access to Beirut International Airport is: where is the Lebanese state in all this?

The acerbic-tongued Jumblatt revealed to all the hegemony exercised by Hezbollah over all authorities and practices, which is evidenced by the party’s seizure of airport security and its operation of a telecom network outside of state sovereignty. Such actions are only practiced through state agencies around the world.

I expected the party to refute this information, even if just to say that the war is illusory – but it didn’t. In fact; it issued a statement in which it attacked Jumblatt (which is only natural) but when it came to the matter of the telecom network, it upheld that Jumblatt, “is providing the Israeli enemy with information” – which only affirms the existence of such a network.

As for the reports about airport security and the nature of the relationship between Hezbollah and head of airport security, Brig-Gen. Wafiq Shukair, the party and [Lebanese Parliament Speaker] Nabih Berri had fiercer comments to make on the matter. Meanwhile, last Monday 5 May, the pro-Hezbollah newspaper ‘Al Akhbar’ stated that criticizing the party’s telecommunications network or the post of the head of airport security is considered “challenging the resistance’s arms.”

Irrespective of the media accusations and the daily political disputes among Lebanon’s politicians; the notion of Hezbollah as a state within a state is a clear and present one.

In order to reconstruct the odd scene, let us first state that the accusation leveled against the party is that it has set up its own military telecommunications network, with Iran’s backing and which covers most areas in Lebanon. Moreover, airport security with all that it entails was under the command of a ‘soldier’ who is affiliated to the party.

The divine party (Hezbollah) and the ‘human’ element, Nabih Berri, have shifted the debate to a different level so as to divert attention, such talk revolved around Hezbollah’s defiance of the state and the setting up of its own telecommunications network, rockets, army, espionage services – and everything else that characterizes a state.

Any discussion about this strange case of ‘ectopic pregnancy’ is deemed treacherous talk that is issued upon American and Zionist instructions and which aims to fight the resistance that achieved divine victory, and which has also taken it upon itself to defend this victory by seizing the state and usurping its powers. Any objection or victory on the part of the state against the mini-state is considered treason, submission and siding with the enemy.

Some reserve admiration for the capabilities of the divine party; the fact that it possesses a military, intelligence, media and service outlets, and now a telecommunications network. The truth is this arouses as much admiration for Hezbollah’s cleverness and actions inasmuch as it arouses pity for the weakness of the state and the deterioration of the Lebanese political contract; the so-called Lebanese formula.

Those who find reason to boast about Hezbollah’s rockets and its challenging of the state should feel concerned about the future and the repercussions of raping the state against its will – at least the other ‘half’ of the Lebanese who are not chanting for Hezbollah regard it with suspicion and fear.

The nature of Hezbollah’s media discourse and that of its affiliates and whoever supports it outside Lebanon is that it is elevated through divine spiritual power, which they believe is transcendent and that its political action is blessed by heaven. This notion exists out of necessity and a need to protect the resistance, as Nasrallah stated in his meeting with the “flexible” Michel Aoun.

This indicates that delving into Lebanese politics with all that it entails of concessions, understandings and amendments in the interest of the state and the Lebanese society is not fundamentally or originally included in Hezbollah’s politics or that of its political players in parliament.

The only objective that commands the party is to protect the resistance and it is what the ideological basis, and discourse, are founded upon. The resistance is an indivisible whole that is made up of ideology and behavior, which constitute the resistance action and which manifests the most in military action. All political and media action and verbal maneuvers are nothing but a service to this ultimate and unmatched purpose. Anything that goes against the resistance’s ‘creed’, not only against the military aspect, amounts to nothing. Likewise, any speech or vision that rejects or weakens the resistance is deemed invalid and impure.

This is not a fabrication of lies against the divine party; rather it is the truth of the situation and what is stated by its symbols and leaders, whether tacitly or explicitly. Moreover, the significance of Hassan Nasrallah’s speech in an interview conducted by Aoun’s television station [OTV] when he spoke of the reason behind the party’s engagement in parliamentary action is further attestation of this truth.

Resistance is a catchy but burning phrase to whoever dares to question or discuss it –let alone object to it. Opposition to the resistance immediately shifts into becoming viewed through Hezbollah’s holocaust of treason in media and that of its affiliates; Syrian and Iranian media and their supporters. As a result, some fear the consequences of disagreeing with the party, same as with Hamas, so as to avoid the media bombardment that the ‘divinely guided’ parties will heap upon them. This is not unlike the prohibition, although it is executed in a different manner, of discussing the [validity of the] Jewish Holocaust… How ironic!

The resistance presently targets Israel, which is an eternal and chronic enemy from an Arab and Islamic perspective; I speak here about the sentiment on the street, which is important in propaganda. However, under this “holy” banner anyone who stands against this sacred and pure mission is doomed. Whoever differs with a party of that resistance, such as Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, is not only an enemy to these parties but an enemy to honor, purity and identity, because they have different values. This is where it becomes truly alarming; the mixing between the sacred and the profane.

Israel just celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish state after it was founded on 14 May 1948. This still constitutes a complex for us; in the name of its fighting regimes fell, coups were executed, groups were established and the course of Arab and Islamic, or rather international, history has changed due to its existence.

The peace process and Israel’s negotiation with its Arab neighbors come in stretches following wars and conflicts and the Arabs emerge as the losing party. After the rhetoric of “driving the Jews to sea” and the deviation of horizons, and following the charging with treason and killing whoever agreed to negotiate with and recognize Israel, those who had rejected it have come back to acknowledge the reality.

Moreover, [late Palestinian president] Yasser Arafat raised the olive branch and the time came in which Abu Ammar [Arafat] shook hands with [Yitzhak] Rabin in the White House and returned from Tunisia to Gaza, and Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel after Egypt. The Israeli taboo collapsed as we saw Tzipi Livni publicly arrive at Doha, even Mauritania recognized Israel.

The most significant breakthrough was yet to come when the Arab Peace Initiative was presented at the Beirut summit and was adopted by all Arabs. This initiative, in the words of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal, emerged as the Middle East was being further dragged into a quagmire of depression.

As a result of this situation, Prince Saud al Faisal did not fail to bring attention to the international disregard for Israeli acts of aggression against Palestinians that stems from the sympathy felt towards Israel following the Holocaust, in which the Arabs had no involvement whatsoever.

Prince Saud al Faisal did not stop there; he turned his focus towards the future rather than the past. At the international Middle East Quartet’s meeting in London that was held recently, he stated that “Arab countries have spared no efforts in supporting the peace process and adopted the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut.” “This initiative entails providing Israel with complete security that it seeks through neutralization that is based upon a peace treaty signed by Israel and all Arab states, in addition to the Islamic countries,” added Prince Saud. However, the role remains to be assumed by Israel and its American patron.

Peace and negotiation form the strategic option for the Arab states. However, what Hezbollah or Hamas is doing is another thing although the amount of truth in the consistency between slogans and practices continues to be questioned especially when we see Syria rushing to negotiate with [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert. It is the same Syria that is praised and saluted by Hassan Nasrallah and is considered the state of resistance and purity yet there are recurring reports that messages and envoys are being sent between Damascus and Tel Aviv.

The Sayyed failed to inform us about these negotiations; wouldn’t that be considered treason and a stab at the resistance?

After all that, when resistance becomes associated with a series of visions of salvation and the notion of a coup d’etat against society and state, resistance is against life rather than for the sake of life.

It is neither fair nor beneficial to cut off our noses with the knives of the resistance.