Hezbollah sells coffee mugs, CDs, resistance

As part of a radio special on Hezbollah last month, BBC reporter Owen Bennett-Jones did a man-on-the-street bit in Beirut. Introducing the segment, the reporter casually mentions that a local shop sells Hezbollah key chains, coffee mugs, and Hasan Nasrallah CDs, and that the traffic cops on the street are all on Hezbollah’s payroll.

Here’s a telling two-minute clip:

The reporter asked pedestrians which political party they support.  Everybody he spoke with answered Hezbollah.  Answers included:

• “Yes, Hezbollah, the resistance, the one who lets you sleep at night.”
• “Party of the resistance of course, Hezbollah… cuz they were the ones who lifted our heads up in the sky, they were the ones who protected us and made us proud.”
• “I do support them, but I don’t like to make it public, I don’t like to make politics out of it.”