Lebanon On The Edge

The Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick tackles the tenuous situation in Lebanon as her topic in this Friday's Column One: Don't wobble, Mr. President. Terror group Hizbullah is attempting to position itself as a "local" organization but that's complete folly:

If Hizbullah were interested in simply dominating Lebanese politics, then its best bet would have been to hop onto the anti-Syrian bandwagon. Under no danger of being viewed as an American or Israeli stooge, Hizbullah could have easily won the hearts and minds of Lebanese. The fact that Hizbullah is willing to endanger its local popularity in order to protect Lebanon's unpopular overlord in Damascus shows that while it may have local political attributes and aspirations, Hizbullah's position as a key member of the Iran-Syria alliance is central to its identity.

As long as Hizbullah is still around, armed, calling the shots -- there will never be fair elections in Lebanon. Of course, that's how Syria and Iran want it -- for various reasons. If they're to lose Lebanon, they lose their portal to launch terrorist attacks against Israel in the north, plus it could light a match of unrest in Syria, possibly toppling Bashar Assad's government. Now Assad owes Hizbullah, so the power they had over them isn't as strong. And this could spell out even more trouble.

The fact that young Assad now owes Nasrallah, coupled with the fact that Syria, Iran and Hizbullah are deeply enmeshed both together and separately in fueling the Palestinian terror war against Israel, means that Israel today faces a different situation on its northern border than it faced a month ago.

You would think the international community would be very wary of this, right? No, not our morally bankrupt band of bandits. Kofi Annan has said that the UN should recognize Hizbullah! Can you believe that?! He let loose this idiotic humdinger:

"Even Hizbullah [is] talking about non-interference by outsiders... which is not entirely at odds with the Security Council resolution, that there should be withdrawal of Syrian troops."

The EU is no better, but that's not a surprise. The kick in the teeth though came from my own government:

Most disturbingly, Thursday's New York Times reported that the Bush administration is about to follow both the UN and France's lead in accepting Hizbullah as a legitimate political force in Lebanon. According to the report, which sources in Washington claim was leaked by the State Department, "the Bush administration is grudgingly going along with efforts by France and the United Nations to steer the party into the Lebanese political mainstream."

IF THIS report is true, it would indicate that the White House is allowing its Lebanon policy to be taken over by the UN, Europe and the State Department in much the same fashion as its policy toward the Palestinians was hijacked two years ago.

With this, she talks about how originally the Palestinian state was supposed to be dependent on the PA reforming by stopping terror and turning into an economically transparent democracy. Instead, the US has foolishly (my word, not hers) allowed Palestinian anti-terror and democratic reform to be held hostage to Israeli concessions. A hideous outcome if you ask me.

And rather than force the PA to stop using its militias to terrorize and intimidate all democratic – yet unarmed – forces into silence, the road map regime has ignored such voices in Palestinian society and has said nothing as Mahmoud Abbas has signed the execution orders of dozens of Palestinians accused of working with Israel against terrorists.

And now we're in danger of having some similar foolishness happen in Lebanon. If that happens and freedom is deterred, Bush's doctrine is going to be in big trouble.

As it has joined the accomodationist camp in its treatment of the PA, the Bush administration has ignored the fact that Hizbullah, like Syria and Iran, sees all areas transferred to the PA's security control as bases of operation for the forces of global jihad. Rather than accept that Israel's presence in Judea, Samaria and Gaza – both military and civilian – is the only obstacle preventing these areas from becoming terror bases, the Bush administration, under the influence of the same voices calling for acceptance of Hizbullah in Lebanon, has accepted as truth the red herring that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria are somehow antithetical to peace and security.

We could be in trouble here, folks.