worth pondering. You got that right. I’ve been trying to make logical sense of all of the Iranian bombast, baiting the U.S. into bombing nuclear facilities, wiping Israel of the face of the map, etc., followed by the claim that Iranians are not in Lebanon helping Hizb’allah shoot their Iranian missiles.

My best theory is that Hizb’allah did not consult with Iran, or any of the Arab nations for that matter, before kidnapping the Israeli soldiers. They saw that Hamas had done it, perhaps thought Israel couldn’t fight on 2 fronts and decided to copy Hamas. Israel’s response was totally unexpected.

Iran still wants its war with the U.S. and Israel but it just isn’t ready for it yet, hence the claim that Iranians aren’t shooting rockets. This might also explain why Nasrallah has gone from the "wiping Israel of the face of the map" rhetoric to referring to survival as victory.

...this latest Middle East war seems one of the strangest in a long history of strange conflicts. Strange it is. Never before has anyone telegraphed his punches so much as Ahmadinutjob (oops I forgot we’re not calling people names anymore) Ahmadinejad. But then, no one has ever previously tried to start a war he knew he couldn’t win except with the help of a godlike 12th Imam magically springing from a well to rescue the Muslims from the chaos they’ve created.

There is one pondrable VDH raises that really doesn’t take much ponderin’. He asks And why — when Hezbollah rockets are hidden in apartment basements, then brought out of private homes to target civilians in Israel — would terrorists who exist to murder noncombatants complain that some “civilians” have been hit? Would not they prefer to lionize “martyrs” who helped to store their arms? It’s a win-win-win situation for them. They get to cower behind the human shields, they get to play the victim card to the print and television media and they get to send martyrs to paradise.

I have a question or 3 no one else seems to be asking: What nationality are the Hizb’allah fighters? Are not at least some of them Lebanese? If so, does the Lebanese government not bear a bit more responsibility for not reining them in than it is currently facing?

Uncle Guido,

I found yours a good question, and poking around just a little, found the following; indicating that this is a Shia group, from Lebanon, but, as always, there is inter-terrorist group training, and who knows? This
about Hezbollah. Also this: CFR

This
suggests Iranian support.

How strong is the Lebanese government? Not very. It looks to me like Iranian support for Hezbollah would not necessitate direct Iranian involvement.

I hope Hanson is right, too. David Warren says:this.

...reading the things that the terror lords are not saying and observing the things that they are not doing.

Take a look at this MEMRI article, at some of the things Nasrallah IS saying (and reading between the lines):

"As for some of the Arab positions - this is, of course, something new....We would accept it if they were neutral....And if they do not want to be neutral - brother, let them treat Israel and us equally.... But for them to participate in spilling the blood of the victim, and to provide cover for the crimes of the hangman - I tell you that we did not expect this. Of course that Nasrallah sees himself as the victim is no surprise, but he’s acknowledging that he sees the Arab nations as supporting Israel in this war and he seems to be setting up his excuse for losing.

"I told them (the Lebanese government) that we must resolve the issue of the prisoners, and that the only way to resolve it is by abducting Israeli soldiers." So, at least according to him, the government of Lebanon knew what he was about to do and did not, perhaps could not, stop him. I don’t want to mention names now, but when the time comes to settle accounts, I will. He seems here to be talking about attacking Lebanese government representatives who let him kidnap the Israeli soldiers. This certainly sounds as if he thinks this war is a fiasco for Hezb’allah.

Anywhere in the world - show me a country, show me an army, show me a war, in which two soldiers, or even civilian hostages, were abducted, and a war was waged against a country - and all for two soldiers. Nasrallah seems to have missed the news about Israel going into Gaza after Hamas for kidnapping one soldier. He is quite obviously astonished at the fact that he’s at war.

"It is true that I did not inform the Lebanese government, but I did not inform my closest allies either. Syria and Iran did not know. He’s contradicting himself about notifying Lebanon, but, as I speculated above, he apparently did not consult with Iran or even Syria before jumping into this hornet’s nest.

So striking Hizbullah now would weaken, rather than strengthen, Iran on the nuclear issue." He got that right and this supports the theory that Iran did not want this to happen now. The war has begun before the Iranians wanted it to.

If the resistance survives, this will be a victory.

I am starting to hate Israel for their arrogance, and their military superiority.
They are using it to control the people (Mulim and Christian) to further their occupation of their lands.
Give it a few more years and there won’t be any Palestinians.

Jonathan,
Look at a map. Better yet, examine a globe, noting Israel and neighbors. Then tell me about big, bad Israel beating up on Hezbollah (shooting bombs from Lebanon)and Hamas (blowing people up in Israel) and all of their kindly, non-arrogant neighbors. Next, read a history of the region in the years since WWII. See what the UN decided to do about Palestine, and look at a map of the division of Palestine while noting which people groups were to live where after said division.

Do not neglect to read the literature of the Islamic opposition to Israel, and then tell me who intends to wipe out whom.

No, I must have misunderstood. Jonathan, are you making a joke?