Muslims as powerful regional players

There is a new war being fought in Lebanon after the UN-brokered cease-fire. It is not a military war, but a political one. Despite 34 days of fierce fighting between Hizbollah and the Israelis, Hizbollah has consolidated its grasp in Southern Lebanon as they have laid down their rockets and picked up the shovels in an effort to rebuild war-torn Lebanon.

And what is even more surprising is that despite the aid been poured by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other nations, the Lebanese government is having difficulty reaching those in need amidst the country's reconstruction mode. Iran has already contributed $150 million in cash and is still sending more. Hizbollah is endearing themselves among their supporters by sending out engineers and contractors to survey and repair damages done to entires villages in the south.

This consolidation in power makes it more difficult for the world to dissarm Hizbollah. Their influence has grown exponentially, not just because they withstood the powerful Israeli army but also because they were the first in the line of responders for reconstruction efforts.

This entails many new tangibles for the West. Washington's influence and diplomacy in the region is at a new low. The US has only committed $50 million in aid. Iran has already disumbursed three times that amount to Hizbollah and so far Saudi Arabia has injected $500 million into the Lebanese economy. However this is not enough, the government needs approximately $3 billion to reach pre-war levels. The real and often obscure predicament is that the rules of the game have changed and many are not willing to see this. By supporting Hizbollah, Iran is telling the world that not only are they a powerful player in the region, but there needs to be a shift in the way negotiations occur in the Middle East. It is not only up to the West to make decisions that affect mostly the inhabitants of the region. The message is clear yet it's difficult to digest.

We have come to see that Israel's military might is not as reliable as it once was. Something the US can relate to in Iraq. Hizbollah has succedeed in punching a hole in the invincibility of the Israeli military apparatus. With this said, a new reality is emerging in that the countries of the West need to shift their political policies to encompass a more balanced round of discussions, by respecting their counterparts' ideologies without stumping on their political rights. The truth is that Arabs should no longer be considered "donkey riders", as an Israeli reservist said. Israel and the West must recognize Arabs as equals and seek political solutions rather than military ones. All western countries went down that path before being emacipated and reaching high class status; at some point they too were donkey riders with a cause.

It is time we play it fair.

Bush is a fool

HIZBALLAH STARTED THE CRISIS, AND HIZBALLAH SUFFERED A DEFEAT

George Bush, August 15, 2006.

After 34 days of fighting, 1,000 killed, 1.5 million displaced, Israel and Hizballah have reached a UN-brokered cease-fire. However, some leaders are just plain stupid, boasting to the world that Israel has won and Hizballah has lost. Can someone tell the president of the United States (who else) that things are way more complicated than that.

Time to face the facts: Israel's move to airstrike Lebanon after Hizballah entered Israeli territory, killing six soldiers and kidnapping two, was a considerable just reaction from a Prime Minister that had been seen as too weak and compromising by the majority of Jews. Acting with sufficient military arsenal(plenty of arms and troops)and unable to cripple Hizballah military capabilities, Israel has maybe temporarily succeeded in halting direct confrontation with the radical Arabs, but many Jews are of the mindset that this conflict has produced a bigger ridge between the two cultures and exposed Israel's unique vulnerability to the radicals of the region that are gaining strength and have now a new poster child: Hizballah.

Who says that anyone has won this conflict? The truth is more complicated than that. If your enemy can fire more rockets the last day of the conflict than any other day, then your degradation campaign did not work. Israel trusted blinded in its military capability (just like the US did in Iraq) and forgot that they are dealing with a camaleonic enemy, capable of patient retaliation and an unwavering strength that seems to grow day by day.

Some scholars and even political bloggers would argue that Hizballah displayed more tactical discipline in the battlefield than Israel did, killing more soldiers than Israel and effectively announcing ahead of time possible targets so that civilian deaths were minimal. Even after the cease-fire came into effect at 1:00 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Israel continued bombing Beirut.

And now, the president of the US is complacently undermining the little remnants of diplomatic influence this nation has. By coming out and saying so openly to the world, like a pestering child that Hizballah has lost and Israel won, he is single-handledly enabling the people of Lebanon (shiites, sunnis, christians) to unite against the evil-doer Israel who inflicted destruction and dispair to the majority of Lebanese civilians. This is the kind of memory that fuels the insurgent mind, and when the young generation of this conflict arrives at adulthood, some will come to realize that Israel is the enemy because they had lived through it and remembered what it was like. The West should open their eyes: what the radicals are doing is creating memories that will serve as the guiding principles of these young and maleable minds. As an enabler of a foolish Israeli policy, Bush has helped unite the Arab world against Israel and around Hizballah. Hopefully he does not have the same "success" in Iraq.