Today we heard about Hezbollah’s presentation of supposed evidence that would prove that Israel assassinated Hariri in 2005. The material presented seemed overwhelming to interpret for most of us. Though I suspected there would not be anything very convincing in the evidence, I was open to being shown otherwise.
According to Time, the the main gist of the material hoped to show that Israel was expending much time and effort spying on Hariri and his allies in Lebanon. Nasrallah was suggesting that this can only mean one thing, that Israel was targeting this group. It was supposedly also proof that Israel was planning to murder Hariri. The verdict here was that the evidence was far too weak to be convincing.
The Daily Star also indicated there was not much evidence pinning the crime on Israel. The same paper also indicated that the main aim of Hezbollah was to “sow doubt” and provide a case if not a strong one to those who were already prone to believe the line that Israel was the perpetrator.
The Christian Science Monitor also weighed in with very similar conclusions. According to ABC News, Nasrallah to his credit admitted the evidence he was presenting was not absolute, though I heard the usual unequivocal attitude towards the conclusion he wished us to believe.
The New York Times reported that the motive for Israel in killing Hariri was to sow division in Lebanon and sectarian division in the hopes that it would weaken the supporting environment Hezbollah benefits from in its fight against Israel.
Of course, as the Washington Post points out, we all know that Nasrallah’s new found eagerness to provide evidence on the killing of Hariri is because of suspicion that he will be named in an imminent indictment. Hezbollah was not a serious suspect in 2005 and only in the last two years has this been the case. More recently, Hezbollah has indicated an intense feeling that they are on the verge of being named as the primary suspects.
In short, I do not see anything much in the way of serious evidence here. Had there been, this material would have made it to the UN long ago. Instead, Hezbollah appears to be piecing some material together to create something of a “case” in order to provide some material to sow doubt and to support those who already want to believe Hezbollah.
