The motorcade of the US State Department's Charges d’Affaires in Lebanon Michele Sison was pelted with stones on Wednesday by townspeople in the south Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh. Sison was visiting USAID and US-sponsored projects in the area, but reportedly had to make an unexpected lunch stop in Nabatiyeh after one of the cars in her motorcade broke down.
Nabatiyeh is one of the larger towns in predominantly pro-Hezbollah south Lebanon. Much of the town was damaged as a result of air-strikes against Hezbollah in its 2006 war with Israel.
Not surprisingly, the not-so-warm welcome for Sison made prime-time news on Al Manar TV Wednesday evening. According to the Hezbollah-run station, local residents gathered outside the house of a local official where Sison was having lunch and chanted anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans. Statements cited by Al Manar, reportedly issued by the people of Nabatiyeh and a local parliamentary representative, were posted in full on one of Hezbollah's primary websites wa3ad.org.
An alleged statement issued by the people of Nabatiyeh described Sison's visit as exemplary of “the impudence of America's [foreign] role,” while another statement made by local Ba’athist MP Qassem Hashem went further to explicitly cite US-made cluster bombs dropped/fired in the area by Israel during the 2006 war – some of which still linger unexploded and continue to take lives – as a reason why Sison's visit was not welcomed by locals.
While the State Department has addressed the issue of cluster munitions in Lebanon, the US's supplying of Israel with arms continues to be reiterated by Hezbollah and its constituents to challenge America's image in the media. Subsequently, such negative perceptions may continue to threaten any progress achieved through US-sponsored development and relief efforts in Lebanon aimed at reinforcing America's reputation in the country.
Based on these circumstances, is it futile for the US to try to win hearts and minds in south Lebanon? Perhaps the price of not trying is too great.
