WarSclerotic

“We will not let [Syrian President Bashar] Assad fall,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced on Saturday. Clearly, he was thinking about himself as well. Nasrallah is under pressure, and he has every reason to be. Two rockets exploded in the Dahiyeh quarter, a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, a day after his speech. The rockets prove just how far Nasrallah has fallen, from the people’s champion of the Arab world until Sunday, when he became the loathsome enemy of the Sunnis — and Israel was not even a part of it.

Not long ago, Nasrallah was the symbol of Arab pride. His persona enchanted the masses. Nasrallah was the heir of mythological leaders the likes of former Egyptian and Iraqi leaders Gamal Abdel Nasser and Saddam Hussein. After the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, Nasrallah was the only brand to succeed in reviving pan-Arabism. The leader of a Shiite militia became the hero of the Arab public. The way he faced down Israel catapulted him into the Arab pantheon.

I remember back when I used to live in an Arab country (Mauritania) and portraits of Nasrallah were hung on every door and car, and this was in a Sunni country. It was amazing to see how big Nasrallah was back then. The fact that he was hiding in a bunker was forgotten.

Meanwhile, the Middle East has gone through a few changes. “The Arab Spring” — or the “Sunni Fall,” if you will — has spun Nasrallah’s image 180 degrees. Especially the Syrian uprising. Nasrallah went from Arab leader to being the small head of a Shiite militia, who is no more than a mouthpiece for Damascus and Tehran and who does not hesitate to massacre Sunni fighters in Syria.

The war in Syria exposed Nasrallah’s real face to the Arab world. The leader of Hezbollah who succeeded in fooling everyone for 20 years is now suddenly seen as a Shiite leader.

It is hard for Nasrallah to sound sure of himself these days; the irony has disappeared from his rhetoric. The hero of the Israel Defense Forces retreat in 2000 and the Second Lebanon War in 2006 is now a leader in decline.

The war in Syria has yet to topple Assad, but in terms of image it has already taken down Nasrallah. The fight with Israel put a halo around him for 20 years. But his battle in Syria has put the light out over his head. Nasrallah is sending his troops to fight alongside Assad’s. Even if the Syrian president survives the uprising, Syria will not be the same Syria and Nasrallah will not be the same Nasrallah. The axis of evil may live on, but it has a suffered a significant blow.