CAIRO: As Egypt commemorated the nationalisation of the Suez canal, some opposition leaders and newspapers on Tuesday compared Gamal Abdel Nasser and Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the former Egyptian leader’s momentous seizure of the canal, Tuesday’s edition of the Nasserist Al-Karama weekly carried a full-page picture of the Lebanese guerrilla leader with a caption that read: “Nasrallah, in Nasser’s footsteps”.
Another opposition weekly, Al-Arabi, published an entire supplement entitled: “Nasser 1956 — Nasrallah 2006: We will fight and not surrender”.
On July 26, 1956, Nasser seized control of the crucial waterway run by Britain and France, a move that took the world by surprise, sparked a war with Israel and a wave of pan-Arabist sentiment in the region.
Since Israel launched a massive military offensive in Lebanon following the July 12 capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah, the movement’s Nasrallah has acquired a new hero status among some Arabs for resisting the Jewish state.
“Until his last gasp, Abdel Nasser refused to be corrupted. He fought for national liberation till the end. Nasrallah is the same, he is not talking about peace but about war. He does not negotiate and seeks to recover lost national pride,” Al-Arabi editorialist Mohammed al-Baz wrote.
At demonstrations organised in Cairo since the start of Israel’s offensive, portraits of Abdel Nasser and Nasrallah are waved side-by-side. The Egyptian regime’s criticism of Hassan Nasrallah’s ‘adventurism’ only boosted his popularity among opposition circles.
“Hassan Nasrallah, the brave Arab, fights alone against the forces of evil and occupation, 50 years after the triple attack on Egypt,” wrote another editorialist, Said al-Suweikri.
Abdel Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal prompted a military offensive by an alliance comprising Israel, France and Britain. Paris and London reclaimed control of the waterway but had to withdraw their troops in 1957 under US pressure.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition force, didn’t shy away from the controversial comparison.
“The parallel can be drawn since Nasser fought for the independence of the nation and against the Zionist project, just like Nasrallah today,” senior Brotherhood official Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh told AFP.
He nevertheless stressed that “one was a head of state and the other a resistance leader.”
But some members of the opposition argue the comparison is irrelevant and can be explained by the absence of Arab regimes daring to challenge Israel’s might.
“We cannot compare a historical figure such as Abdel Nasser to Nasrallah. The latter’s combat is limited, while Abdel Nasser was spearhead in a much more crucial struggle,” said George Ishak, a spokesman for the Kefaya movement.
Sayyed Shaaban, a leader from the Nasserist party, argued that “Abdel Nasser was fighting all colonial forces at the same time and had a clear programme to support revolutionary forces” across the region.
“Nasrallah’s role is limited to the resistance against Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon,” he added.
“People are making this comparison because they are desperately looking for a hero who defends national independence and pride while Arab regimes are remaining silent” in the face of Israel’s actions, Ishak told AFP.
The Egyptian government has announced no plans for state celebrations of the nationalisation’s 50th anniversary, which are expected to remain low-key amid the wave of violence gripping the region.
Ironically in recent days, Egyptian television has been broadcasting old historical films praising Abdel Nasser and his pan-Arabist doctrine.
In one of them, entitled “Return my heart”, the words of the main character Ali — a young officer who joins Abdel Nasser’s Free Officers movement — would still strike a chord with much of today’s opposition groups.
“The Palestinians are dying and we are living under corrupt rulers who can’t stand up for themselves,” he says, in reference to the pro-British monarchy which Abdel Nasser eventually toppled in 1952.—AFP
CAIRO: As Egypt commemorated the nationalisation of the Suez canal, some opposition leaders and newspapers on Tuesday compared Gamal Abdel Nasser and Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
