 Lebanon's Shiites fear the country's stability and opposition to Israel will be weakened by the protest movement that forced out a Syrian-backed government last month. The Shiites, the largest community, say the protesters may later try to curb the Syrian-backed Hizbollah group and undermine its staunch resistance to Israel. "They want to push out the Syrians so they can then concentrate on Hizbollah," said Yahya Maqhour, a 43-year-old coffee vendor in Beirut's Haret Hreik district, close to where the staunchly anti-Israeli Hizbollah has its headquarters. "They are concealing their real aim and that is to disarm Hizbollah from its weapons and strength," he told Reuters.
| He says that like it's a bad thing. |
Hizbollah, and the other main Shiite group, the moderate Amal Movement, want a dialogue with the opposition movement of Maronite Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims that forced the government to resign on February 28. Many Shiites said the opposition should not push its luck for fear of triggering a backlash, with echoes of the 1975-90 civil war.
| ... since as everyone knows, they're incapable of controlling themselves, thus others should step warily around them... |
"The first and last word is ours because we are a majority. Let them shout as much as they can but we have the strength on the ground," Hussein Rammal, a guard at a school, said. Syria arms the large and powerful Hizbollah party, which drove Israel from south Lebanon in 2000. Maqhour, like many Shiites, didn't join the protests that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and then toppled the government. Some Shiites said pictures during the protests of Lebanese leaders who had collaborated with Israel exposed the intentions of some in the opposition. "The pictures of Israel's collaborators have surfaced again near Hariri's tomb," said a young Shiite supporter of Hizbollah who declined to give his name. They are promoting the US goal of transforming Lebanon from an arena of resistance to Israel to a gateway for Israel to end the Arab-Israeli conflict in its favour." |