HEZBOLLAH ADVERTISES "DIVINE VICTORY"
David Enders, The Washington Times, 31.08.06
Beirut -- With the guns put away for now, jockeying for political position in Lebanon has begun, and Hezbollah has mounted a massive advertising campaign.
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Along roads in and out of the capital, there are red signs with slogans such as "the divine victory" and images ranging from angry Lebanese standing on the rubble of their homes to children wounded by Israeli bombs to Hezbollah guerrillas standing next to Katyusha rocket launchers.
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The belief that the U.S. supported Israel during the war also helped to boost Hezbollah's standing. "We're not in a popularity contest -- we have much longer objectives," said a U.S. diplomatic source in Beirut. "There were very significant benefits for the pro-reform, pro-democratic movement."
But analysts and members of the largely secular and pro-economic reform parliamentary bloc, with whom the United States and the West are most familiar, fear that public support for this group has declined with the surge in Hezbollah's popularity.
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