Hezbollah sets sights on its internal enemy

Lebanon's Hezbollah is poised for war.

- MARTIN REGG COHN

Time now to parse its war of words.

Leading the battle cry is sheik Hassan Nasrallah, a Shia Muslim cleric. As head of Hezbollah (Party of God), he commands Lebanon's most powerful fighting force, but it is Nasrallah's rhetoric that is so powerful a motivating force for millions of faithful followers.

His loyalists address him as a "sayyid," an honorific recognizing his lineage as someone descended from the Prophet. Consider, then, the sayings of the sayyid:

Lebanese Muslims must mobilize against "a clear and present danger." For the enemy is a "threat to society," and the Lebanese people must "collectively face this phenomenon by all means necessary, without any limits."

What do these words mean for Israelis? How should his rhetoric be interpreted by Zionists anywhere who support a Jewish state?

Wrong question. For Nasrallah is not talking here about Israelis, Zionists or Jews.

The "danger" he speaks of emanates from Lebanon's LGBTQ population. It is the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people that preoccupy his Party of God.

The sayyid has seen the enemy and the enemy is queer. Which is why Nasrallah repeatedly dehumanizes and demonizes LGBTQ people.

"The culture of homosexuality is very influential and comes from the United States," he complained in a televised speech. "It is not only demonic; it has real effects."

Demonic?

When Nasrallah speaks of combating the perversity of homosexuality "by all means necessary" and "without any limits," what does he mean?