Hezbollah's popularity lies chiefly with Lebanon's Shiites, although it also has the support of its political allies in parliament. It leads an alliance made up mainly of Shiites and Christians, with a few Sunnis and Druze. The alliance has a broad appeal to Muslims and Arabs for its anti-Israel activities.
Hezbollah's popularity peaked in the late 1990s when its stubborn and successful armed resistance against Israel's occupation of south Lebanon earned it wide admiration and sympathy. However, Hezbollah's determination to keep its weapons following Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 has created unease among the party's opponents, who insist that only the Lebanese Army should have the right to bear arms and only the government should decide matters of war and peace.
In May 2008, Hezbollah and its allies briefly overran the western half of Beirut in a crushing display of force against its political opponents, an event that triggered the worst internal clashes since the civil war and left more than 100 people dead. In June 2009 elections, it narrowly lost to the ruling Western-backed March 14 coalition and had to settle for two seats in the 30-person cabinet agreed to on Nov. 9.
More recently, Hezbollah's popularity in the region has suffered due to the uprising in Syria. As the Arab Spring protests rolled across the Middle East and North Africa, Nasrallah spoke approvingly of them, calling them "the product of the people's will and determination." But when Assad's regime began its violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in Syria, Nasrallah spoke out for its patron, Bashar al-Assad, denying that it was attacking civilians and stating that Hezbollah would never abandon Mr. Assad. As a result, Hezbollah has been subject to growing criticism among its base, as its support for Assad stands in stark contrast to the group's purported commitment to the common Muslim.
