The White House calls for democracy in Lebanon have not produced the results they were hoping for. In yesterday’s third round of voting, neocon poster boy Walid Jumblatt was trounced by a Syrian-alligned coaltion led by former general Michel Aoun.
Even more of a surprise was the sweep by Hezbollah in the eastern Bekaa Valley where the group labeled by Bush as “terrorists” won all 10 seats. Hezbollah has so far won 33 seats out of the 128-seat parliament, the largest of any single group.
Hezbollah was not expected to win anywhere near this many seats, but was helped by recent pronouncements of the White House. Knight Ridder reports:
Samia Hajj, a 43-year-old Shiite Muslim housewife, said she isn’t traditionally a supporter of either Hezbollah or its recent ally, the more secular Amal party. However, recent U.S. admonitions for Hezbollah to lay down its arms infuriated her, she said, and drove her to vote for the Hezbollah-Amal list as a means of resisting outside influence.
“We are not against America, but we aren’t terrorists and we don’t like being called terrorists,” Hajj said. “When the United States talks like that, it makes us think they are going to interfere here like they did in Iraq. We’re not going to let that happen.”