L'Orient Today notes that Hezbollah has been criticizing Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even though the Saudis are the ones who are most likely to spend the billions needed to rebuild Lebanon. The reason?
But according to political scientist Karim Bitar, what particularly troubles Hezbollah is “the pressure the kingdom is putting on the last remaining allies of the party,” namely Faisal Karameh and the Frangieh family. Both had aligned with the “Resistance” for years but have now begun to distance themselves — a real blow to Hezbollah after the gradual withdrawal of support from the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).
A year ago, the Hezbollah bloc controlled 53 seats in Lebanon's 120 seat parliament. Today, it appears to be down to about 29, with some reported frictions with its main secular ally Amal that would cut that number in half if they split.
So it isn't that Hezbollah has lost some of its military power, but also it has lost much of its political power as well.
There is further anger in Lebanon because six soldiers were killed trying to dismantle an explosive device in a Hezbollah weapons depot in southern Lebanon last week.
The "strong horse" theory seems pretty compelling in Lebanon, and Hezbollah's influence has gone diwn in proportion to its perceived military might.
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