Hezbollah game celebrates war vs. Israel
Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:07 PM
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Beirut, Lebanon
By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
It was a launch party that would have made Microsoft proud, if Microsoft were an anti-Israeli militant group.
Hezbollah held on Thursday what was basically a giant garden party to announce the release of its latest video game, "Special Force II," in which players destroy Israeli tanks, shoot down helicopters and destroy warships; killing Israeli soldiers earns bonus points.
Under a giant marquee in Beirut’s dusty southern suburbs, Hezbollah displayed captured Israeli helmets, rifles and ammunition in glass trophy cases. The turret of an Israeli tank and jeep Hezbollah captured during its 34-day war with Israel last summer were set on mounds like garden statues, artistically lit by red and green spotlights. Families took pictures of the Israeli weapons as their children paid $10 for a copy of Special Force II, designed by Hezbollah’s "Internet Division."
Victory party
All week, Hezbollah has been holding victory celebrations to coincide with the end of the conflict in August 2006, which Hezbollah considers a major victory. It’s a war Hezbollah says is not over.
In a speech earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Sayid Hassan Nasrallah declared there is "no ceasefire" with Israel, but only a "halt of offensive operations." Nasrallah also claimed his forces are fully rearmed with rockets that can reach "anywhere" in Israel, but added that he does not want another war.
Until there is a new war – many Lebanese fear it could happen at anytime – young people here can now relive the fighting on their computers.
Hezbollah’s celebrations and new video game may also have a domestic political goal. Many Lebanese now question if the nation gained anything from what Nasrallah calls his "Divine Victory" over Israel.
During the war, as Israel targeted – Lebanese say indiscriminately – the country’s infrastructure, most people here were united behind Hezbollah. But today, Lebanon remains in tatters, and on-going Hezbollah-led protests against the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora have closed most of the businesses in downtown Beirut and scared away tourists. Lebanon has not moved forward since the war. Lebanon has turned on itself. But that’s not part of the video game.
