484 Resisting Publics
45.lthough Hizbullah had taken precautions and dug elaborate underground A
bunkers, just a sonic boom by an Israeli plane could have caused a stam-
pede and chaos. Fearing the worst, the party cancelled its annual show of
force on “Jerusalem Day,” which fell on the last Friday of Ramadan.
- Mawsu‘at Nasrallah, 3:151–177.
47.srael also mocked Hizbullah’s “divine, historic, and strategic victory,” argu- I
ing that Hizbullah was only showing off at a time when Nasrallah had been
in hiding since 12 July and would return to his bunker after his speech.
Israel stressed that the claim of victory was being made by a person who
had conceded three weeks earlier that if he had anticipated Israel’s devastat-
ing response, the two Israeli soldiers would not have been kidnapped.
48.aturally Hizbullah benefited from the Understanding and its alliance N
with the FPM before, during, and after the war. Before the war, Hizbullah
boosted its image as a nationalist political party by saving Lebanon from
plunging back into civil war after the 5 February civil unrest. During the
war, Christian areas were no longer off-limits to Hizbullah, and displaced
Shi‘a were well treated and received all the aid they needed from members
of the FPM (along with other regional and international NGOs), which was
unprecedented harmony that had not been seen since the outbreak of the
civil war in 1975.
49.s stated by Hajj Mahmud Qmati, the vice-president of Hizbullah’s A
Political Council and the head of Hizbullah’s Committee on Christian-
Muslim Dialogue. Salun al-Sabt, Sawt Lubnan (Radio Voice of Lebanon),
6 May 2007. - Composed of four big blocs and a few independents.
51.or instance, see F al-Intiqad 1189, 17 November 2006, 1–2; and al-Intiqad
1191, 1 December 2006, 2. - Mustapha, al-I‘sar, 276–278.
53.e security arm of the Lebanese state killed thirteen Hizbullah support- Th
ers—including two women—and wounded forty because they took to the
streets when the Hariri government imposed a ban on demonstrations
on 13 September 1993 when the party was protesting peacefully against
the Oslo Agreement. On 27 May 2004, demonstrations spread all over the
country in protest of pressing socio-economic problems. In Hizbullah’s
southern suburb of Beirut, the Lebanese Army fired at demonstrators, kill-
ing five and wounding several others.