[Sunday Times-UK] Andrew Sullivan - The Hizballah provocation, sponsored and armed by Iran, is dangerous in itself. Combined with the developments in Iraq, it presages a real and new shift in power. If Tehran gains a Shi'ite mini-state with vast oil reserves in Iraq, if its nuclear program continues unchecked, if its proxy fighters in Lebanon continue to show the tenacity and barbaric targeting of civilians that they have demonstrated so far, we have the makings of a war in the Middle East with Iran as the central player, vowing to rival al-Qaeda as the spearhead of the new caliphate. The Israelis are aware of this because their survival depends on it. Their elimination as a people and a nation is a central tenet of Hizballah's and Tehran's ideology. That is why their response in Lebanon, however unsettling, is rational from their point of view. It is disproportionate only if you ignore the existential threat that they increasingly face.
2006-07-31 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive