Lebanese Not Necessarily Rushing To Embrace Hezbollah

I've read a lot of posts making the case that Israeli's attack was pushing the Lebanese to support Hezbollah. One blogger -- I apologize, I cannot remember who -- said, basically, Hezbollah had acheived a coup d'etat against the Lebanese government, using Israel as its unwitting assassin. The government, he maintained, would be replaced by something far more unsavory. Not just tacitly permitting Hezbollah to conduct terrorist raids from the country, but openly aiding them in such endeavors.

Lee Smith debunks that, and Michael Totten, who's spent time reporting from the region, more or less agrees.

I'm quite sure the Lebanese are right now pretty angry at Israel. It doesn't necessarily follow that anger at Israel translates to support of Hezbollah. A pox on both houses attitude will not help Hezbollah, as it's not Israel, after all, permanently basing terrorists in Lebanese territory.

The cry of "Israel and Hezbollah Out Of Lebanon, Now!" hurts Hezbollah more. Israel doesn't really want to be there at all. Hezbollah needs to be.

posted by Ace at 03:33 PM

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