Intheireyes.info, 27-03-2011
It is yet another time and perhaps at a very critical point in the history of Arab nations when Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is not alone in his speech. It is him plus his psychological warfare silhouette guard that has long escorted him even in the absence of his real bodyguards, who are technically absent in the instant of addressing the crowds through a video link for security reasons.
No wonder he was named and branded by his loathing enemies; albeit they show respect towards his mental and psychological abilities and above all his reliability, as the "Father of the Psychological Warfare" who enjoys "microscopic capabilities" due to the mammoth effect of his words and stances on an overstretching swathe of diversified viewers and audience not only in the Arab World, but more across the continents.
In a televised address on March 19th in solidarity with the Arab peoples' mobile revolutions across various Arab states Sayyed Nasrallah's psychological warfare dictum was there in the way he addressed the rebels of Libya, "I have a final word on the Libyan topic. We have experience in wars, fighting, confrontation and psychological war also. When we look into faces we know whether these faces are disappointed, afraid or miserable. Personally and according to my experience, I found in all the faces of the revolting fighters in Libya which I looked at, I found vigor and high willingness for martyrdom and great determination not to retreat or to be defeated. This calls for hope. Indeed the situation in Libya has become very complicated today regarding the international intervention which has started and which might take Libya to the game of nations. This requires the awareness of the rebels and their nationalism which we trust highly."
Sayyed Nasrallah went on saying: "I tell them a final word. From the Resistance in Lebanon which remained steadfast for 33 days and nights while in the Lebanese skies there were more than a 100 "Israeli" warplanes shelling and demolishing and committing the worst massacres across all regions - from this victorious Resistance we extend thousand regards to the steadfast Libyan rebels in Benghazi, Ajdabya, Tabrak, Misrata and in all of the steadfast and patient Libyan cities."
Hizbullah Secretary General also extended in the same speech a similar message to the rebels in Bahrain where he elaborated more on the crucial situation over there in addition to being very successful in employing his psychological warfare element:
"Have patience and tolerance and be firm in defending your rights. I tell them because I know the faces (note here how he is keen on recharging the Bahrainis), You have a wise, rational and brave leadership. So listen to them and be harmonious with them. Brothers and sisters! Your blood and wounds will defeat the tyrants and dictatorships and will force them to recognize your legitimate rights. What you are doing today deserves sacrifices, martyrdom and industrious work even if that lasted for a long time."
In one of the reports published in the "Israeli" daily Yedioth Ahronoth done by the "Israeli" publicity committee during Lebanon's second war and put out by a subcommittee related to the another foreign and security committee specializing in foreign relations and publicity affairs it found that the "Israeli" entity failed in confronting the extensive propaganda campaign pursued by Hizbullah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during the war and that the "Israeli" campaign did not succeed in allaying the fears of "Israeli" audience, on the contrary this "Israeli" campaign added to their confusion.
The report further added that the recent war has shown the vast hiatus between Hizbullah's propaganda campaign and it's only spokesperson Hassan Nasrallah with all its coherence in presenting the information and the swiftness in transmitting and broadcasting the messages on the one hand, and the "Israeli" campaign implemented by a barrage of spokespeople who lacked any prior coordination, perception, coherence and more than once have fallen into lots of paradox, mistakes and created an exaggerated optimistic mood which consequently led people to a feeling of frustration and loss.
In one of the editions of the London and Kirshenbaum news show on "Israeli" Channel 10 on January 3rd, 2007 the anchor said:
"By God! If we weren't in a state of war and enmity with Nasrallah wouldn't we‘ve been supporters of the way he understood democracy, especially that Shiites in Lebanon constitute one third of the Lebanese population. By God! I ask you does democracy bear such flagrant conflicting interpretations. There is a big difference between Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda, here we don't have conspiracies, neither vacant nonsense slogans, on the contrary here we have a democratic rational presentation, but we don't like the approach. Maybe you'll grasp from my words that I'm an extremist, but we have to say that we saw in Nasrallah a person who is an incredibly stable man with depth and great intellect and in the way he weighs matters and developments, a rational man with common sense, and yes normally we don't know everything but we can say that he's right."
In another article written by Antoine Shalhat about the repercussions of the July War of 2006 and Hizbullah's informational capabilities, quotes Dr. Oudi Leevil a prominent lecturer of political psychology- relations in the "Israeli" Army and media outlets- at the University of "Ben Gurion" as saying:
"To confront a leader who enjoys a compelling informational effect and impact like Nasrallah the "Israeli" institution must have had an equal and opposite retaliation. In this sense, the "Israeli" audience puts his trust in the leader of the enemy who we are fighting against. He further added that an informative leader must provide for the viewer 3 fundamental factors:
a-Reliability
b-Certainty
c- Suspense
By reliability we mean the truth, by certainty we mean conveying what is really going on the ground and by a sense of suspense we mean anxiously waiting to listen to his statements.
In the eyes of "Israeli" commentators and analysts Sayyed Nasrallah keeps a very close and accurate observation of the "Israeli" reports published in the Hebrew newspapers that are in direct relevance to protest movements and civil society groups, as they unveil there, every time, the power of Hizbullah's psychological warfare.
This is only a little of the flow of articles describing Sayyed Nasrallah's rhetoric which has hit hard and punctured the "Israeli" society due to the "Israelis" lack of trust in their own leaders. So are we to witness similar consequences when it comes to various revolutions in the Arab region and lead this time to Arab leaders' disintegration and erosion in face of mere words uttered by an intensely experienced man in the meaning of steadfastness and victory?
*Zeinab Al-Saffar is a freelance journalist, researcher and academic
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