Amazing!

and Franco was not Mussolini. We get it Dr. Cole. I took a trip to Austria many years ago. Did you know I couldn't find anyone who had ever heard of Nazism? Yeah it always over in that village OVER THERE somewhere.

If you're looking for Nazism, just catch the first flight to Israel. And depending on your race and religion and perhaps some genealogical records, Bibi N and Avigidor Lieberman might just extend you citizenship.

For a while there, it seemed as if Professor Cole was going to ignore Israel and concentrate on the other players in the Middle-Eastern/Asian mess, like Pakistan and Afghanistan. But worry not, Israel-haters! Good ol' Professor "Israel Can Do Nothing Right" Cole has returned! What a relief! The world makes sense once again!

Your complaint is rather odd, Mr. Moran, considering that most Israelis think that the recent Lebanese war was an ill-considered disaster.

I neither said nor implied that I think the recent Lebanon incursion was a Bad Idea (tm); it obviously was. No; my problem is with Prof. Cole, who it seems hails from the "every issue is the fault of the Israelis" wing of Middle East scholarship. He is very anti-Israel, for whatever reason, and I find his monochromatic focus on the Middle East problems through that particular lens to be tiresome in the extreme.

Israel has done some spectacularly bone-headed things. So have the Arabs. So have the Palestinians. I prefer my Middle East analysis to take that into account; Mr. Cole's rarely does.

So you aren't complaining about anything in the article itself, only on general hasbara principles?

Drive-by criticism of a pretty much drive-by excerpt?

What IS your silly stink ALL about?

So I'm guessing that in Dr. Cole's perfect paradise it won't be any longer?

Lebanese love Lebanon, first and foremost. They know their ancestors have lived in this little Mediterranean Paradise for thousands of years. They offer allegiance to whoever comes in peace with a handout. They are the ultimate merchants and will always sell to the highest bidder, at the same time protesting their honesty, honor and allegiance.

I lived in Lebanon for forty years, I, an American, and I would be willing to wager a hefty sum on the ultimate goal of all Lebanese---to have US support and access to the democratic dream.

It is not Lebanon that hates Israel. It is the reverse, because, Lebanon, as a true multi-religious and multi-ethnic country, strikes fear in the heart of neighboring countries, in the same way it threatens Syria, who is always trying to keep a foot in the door.

American Presbyterian missionaries brought the gift of education to the Middle East in the 1860's. Their work bore fruit and transformed education in the ensuing century.

What Lebanon needs now is understanding and respect! It is not a hotbed of Hizbollah! It is a country that has endured endless and continuing proxy wars, and still manages to dance and sing the night away!

WASHINGTON — With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/washington/21policy.html?scp=6&sq=cia%20pakistan%20missile&st=Search

Wouldn't it be nice if Obama supported the people (even if they are not christian) instead of a corrupt and dictatorial government.....I'm referring to Pakistan but it also applies to America.

First sentence:

Despite the conviction in Washington, D.C., that Lebanon is becoming an Iranian outpost, the reality is more complex.

Last sentence:

Khamenei was reported to have lost confidence in Nasrallah's military judgment as a result and removed him from control of the paramilitary. Hizbullah vigorously denied the report but did not deny that Khamenei had the authority to make such a decision if he so chose.

Kinda hard to see how those two sentences could be written by the same author in the same article.

But the real problem with the article is that it does not even try to outline the ideology of the ascendant force in Lebanon today, Hezballah. And that can be summarized as the promotion of the Iranian Islamic revolution and the adoption of Sharia through both electoral politics and military force.

You're an expert on Lebanese politics too now? Wow.

If you think that Hezbullah has any realistic possibility, or any actual intention, of imposing an Islamic state on Lebanon, you have completely and utterly demonstrated your complete ignorance of the country. Even most actual real Israelis know better.

Thanks for an interesting article, which makes some intriguing points. (And thanks to "old lady" for her comments, which ring true to me.)

But there is no "southern port of Sideon". It is called Sidon in English, and Saida in Arabic.

...that would make a more apt title to this piece.

"... though no one denies that Iranian money comes into Lebanon. Some of the donations pay for the katyusha rockets that Hizbullah uses to deter another Israeli attack." - juan cole

Deter an Israeli attack?

I'm not sure which is more ignorant, the notion that these rockets would deter the Israelis, or juan's belief that deterence is the objective. . . . I suspect juan is just looking for excuses.

If you want to deter Israeli attacks, all you need to do is recognize their sovereignty, and do not attack them.

Egypt and Jordan have proven that this approach works.

Stop making excuses juan.

Even most actual real Israelis know better.

You're an expert on Israeli politics? Yeah, sure.

Free Democratic Islamic People's Shiny Happy Republic of Hezbollah admits to being funded to the tune of nearly $70 million dollars a month by Iran. They are, essentially an Iranian outpost, a state within a state in Lebanon. As such they form the Mediterranean front in an arc that stretches across southern Syria, Kurdistan and Iran forming a loose confederacy of Sharia dominated violently militant nation-states. Since Syrian intelligence and Hezbollah successfully murdered all political opponents in Lebanon, that country has become moribund. Which is really the plan to start with, since Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and now their occupation by proxy, was built around siphoning off 1-2 billion dollars a year from the Lebanese economy and exporting it Syria.

And why not? Lebanon is largely Christian, Syria is politically Alawite e.g. secular. Both of those things are unacceptable in the "MUSLIM" mideast, only slightly less objectionable than the Jews. If we are to make any progress at all in appeasing them it's necessary to ensure that all Christians and seculars are 'dealt with'.

By the by, Iran outlawed the Bahai religion this week. It is now a crime in Iran to talk about Bahai. Of course the world center for Bahai is in Haifa Israel, so that's another good move on the way to a monolithic Muslim mideast.