As Hezbollah Seeks Power, Lebanon Is Feeling Edgy - New York Times

As Hezbollah Seeks Power, Lebanon Is Feeling Edgy - New York Times: "As Hezbollah Seeks Power, Lebanon Is Feeling Edgy
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 12 — In the upscale center of Beirut, the normally somber atmosphere at the graveside of the assassinated former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, is increasingly tense. His former supporters, long the most powerful constituency in Lebanon, anxiously talk about the wave of Shiite political power washing over the country.

“After the first of the year, I am leaving to Qatar,” one woman, Myrtha Hadidi, said Sunday, after she bowed her head and crossed herself in front of the grave. “The situation is very, very dangerous now. I think there will be a war again.”

Across town, along the crowded streets of the poor Shiite neighborhood devastated by Israeli bombs during the summer war, there is despair over the destruction, but confidence in the growing power of Lebanon’s Shiites."