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Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah vs. Israel

[Weekly Standard] Robert Satloff - This was the week the Dark Side went on the offensive. Defeat for Israel - either on the battlefield or via coerced compromises to achieve flawed cease-fires - is a defeat for U.S. interests; it will inspire radicals of every stripe, release Iran and Syria to spread more mayhem inside Iraq, and make more likely our own eventual confrontation with this emboldened alliance of extremists. Victory - in the form of Hizballah's disarmament, the expulsion of the Iranian military presence from Lebanon, the eviction of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal from Damascus, and the demise of the Hamas government in Gaza - is, by the same token, also a victory for U.S. (and Western) interests. While military force is essential, nonmilitary measures are needed too. These include organizing transatlantic consensus on economic and political pressure on Syria, devising a fast-executing international mechanism to disarm Hizballah, and expediting the Security Council process on Iran. None of this can happen without America taking the lead. The writer is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2006-07-16 01:00:00
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