The results of the “new tone” in America’s Middle East policy – from Commentary:
Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt now says he “supports” Hezbollah and the ghastly regime in Syria that murdered his father and his friend Rafik Hariri. Hezbollah’s fan boys should not kid themselves here. Jumblatt is under duress and is only saying what he must to ensure his own survival and that of his people.
Saad Hariri remains defiant, but Michael Young — the best analyst of Lebanon’s internal politics — thinks he probably won’t return as prime minister. If that’s the case, Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution is well and truly cooked. Beirut is being cleverly reconquered by Damascus and Tehran, and is rejoining, against its will, the Iran-led Resistance Bloc.
Everybody in Lebanon needs to understand something: Israel is more likely than ever to target the entire country during the next round of conflict…
All too true, I’m afraid – and what else could the Druze leaders do? If they are defiant, then Hezbollah’s thugs will exterminate them. Syria and Iran see Lebanon as their only platform for attacking Israel – the Palestinian leadership on the West Bank doesn’t want any part of a renewed war; Jordan lies at the mercy of Israeli power; Egypt has enough problems without fighting Israel. None of these will suit as a means for Iran’s leaders to attack Israel…but Hezbollah has got control of Lebanon, and Hezbollah will follow orders.
But as the article notes, if there is renewed conflict then Lebanon’s Christian population cannot be spared by Israeli forces – a renewed war means war of all Lebanon against all Israel. And as Iran continues to arm Hezbollah to the teeth, we must presume that war is envisioned at some, future date…likely right around the time Iran gets ready to test and deploy a nuclear weapon.
All of this is the result of simple, American failure. We’ve cuddled up to the tyrants in Damascus, cut the rug out from underneath the anti-Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, turned a cold shoulder to Israel and tip toed around both Iran’s nuclear program as well as their continued and extensive support of global terrorism, including that part of it which takes American lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. We’ve been so ardent to show that we’re no longer Bush’s America that we’ve essentially given away the Middle East store to our and Israel’s most deadly enemies.
Eventually this error will have to be paid for in blood – ours, Israel’s and the Moslem world’s. You can’t shake hand with tyrants; you can’t befriend those who’s whole existence is based upon a rejection of you and all you stand for. War our enemies want, and so war we must give them until they have, at long last, had enough.
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