nasrallah - AP - August 9, 2010 Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah speaks during a press conference. Photo by AP Text
size  It was no coincidence that the opposition Hezbollah party
and its allies resigned from the cabinet yesterday, bringing
down the Lebanese government, at the same moment that Prime
Minister Saad Hariri met with U.S. President Obama in
Washington.  Party leader Hassan Nasrallah stopped performing
only for the Lebanon stage a long time ago. Since the country
evolved into an inter-Arab and international political theater,
there have been several arm-wrestling contests involving Iran
and Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, the United States and Iran -
with Nasrallah the fulcrum around which they strain.  In
essence, it's his call whether Lebanon becomes again a theater
of violence, or bumbles along with a new prime minister acting
in the shadow of Hezbollah.  The immediate excuse for the
resignation is Hariri's refusal to wash his hands of the
expected indictment regarding his father's murder.