In a recent speech Sheikh Nasrallah dedicated the swap with Israel to Lebanon. Many things can be said about Hizballah, but they surely know how to spin almost everything in their favor.
Hizballah claims that Israel is frail. Perhaps. However, in spite of its more recent victories, real or imaginated Hizballah is not the way it used to be, say, in mid 90s early 2000. Hizballah started as a militia, and it went on to be active on the socio-political stage. It did very well, and many hoped that in time, Hizbalah will abandon its military wing. Wishful thinking. In 2000 they had their biggest victory [again debatable, but technically Hizballah could claim it won] and they did not know how to use the moment to withdraw from the military career, in full glory. Or maybe they knew and simply ignored it. A while ago when they took the Sunni streets of Beirut Hizballah proved yet again that is a powerful militia full stop. Now that the negotiations with Israel ended, Hizballah tries to score some points politically too. The party needs reconcialition as much as the others need it. That won't be easy. That is why Sheikh Nasrallah wants to use the return of the prisoners as a unity moment. I can understand the political considerations behind it, but from a human point of view celebrating Samir Kuntar can only be one of the most shameful moments ever. If you don't know who Kuntar is and what his “glorious” actions were, just google him.
Meanwhile the negotiations over the new government continue, and President Suleiman thanked Qatar for giving him a helicopter. Question: did the Lebanese search it for bugs?
