by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n P<\/span>essimism is now the conventional wisdom about the wars in the\u00a0Middle East\u00a0, and, indeed, it is hard to find any good news in the recent ceasefire.<\/p>\n Syria\u00a0and\u00a0Iran\u00a0stage celebrations as news emerges from the ruins of southernLebanon\u00a0revealing just how well-armed Hezbollah was \u2014 and how impotent the Lebanese \u201cgovernment\u201d really is. The only suspense remaining is whether the United Nations peacekeeping force or the Lebanese army will prove the most craven in giving Hezbollah a green light to rearm and terrorize.<\/p>\n The old Arab agenda of recapturing \u201cstolen\u201d land has been superseded by a new Islamist jihad that is as fanatical as it is inhuman. The Islamists care not a whit for ground, but only for the abject destruction of the Jewish state and to finish the Holocaust that they claim did not take place. Few of the pundits now clamoring for \u201cengagement\u201d care to recall that\u00a0Syria\u00a0probably murdered Rafik Hariri, or that\u00a0Iran\u00a0promises to wipe\u00a0Israel\u00a0off the map.<\/p>\n The near criminal indifference of the international community is cause for greater depression still. No one says a thing about horrific Arab racism and anti-Semitism that brazenly offer the world pictures of our Secretary of State as a primate and constant hate speech of Jews as apes and pigs. And here at home, a celebrity actor, the staff of a failed congresswoman in Georgia, and a crazed Muslim with a gun in Seattle all shout about the evils of the \u201cJews\u201d \u2014 a good cross-section of just how insidious is the growing anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n T<\/span>he globalized media is absolutely discredited after the coverage of\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0. Reuters has destroyed its reputation, gained from 150 years of world reporting, by releasing doctored pictures and tolerating staged photo-ops. Almost all the Western media outlets failed to distinguish Lebanese civilian from military casualties \u2014 as if the Hezbollah terrorists they never filmed and never interviewed never died.<\/p>\n Indeed, thanks to the unprofessional reporters abroad, and their disingenuous chiefs back home, the world never saw the killers who sent the rockets nor many of their civilian victims on the ground in\u00a0Israel\u00a0. Nor did the reporters apprise their audience of the different landscapes in which they worked: candor in\u00a0Israel\u00a0might win loud disagreement; truth in\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0meant death. It would be as if Reuters, AP, or the New York Times embedded its reporters within the Waffen SS, beaming daily reports back home about the great morale and noble suffering of the Wehrmacht as it advanced into the snowy Ardennes.<\/p>\n T<\/span>here was greater lunacy still. Hezbollah bragged of the deadliness of its antitank rockets purchased with Iranian petrodollars \u2014 as if weapons that it can\u2019t fabricate or even maintain are signs of its own expertise.<\/p>\n In the world of southern\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0, terrorists celebrate their victory in the ruins of their bombed-out hideouts by setting off fireworks \u2014 as if to remind themselves of the fiery spectacle of more Israeli bombs. And then that craziness was topped by the Lebanese defense minister reminding the world that the Lebanese planned to renege on their responsibilities to disarm Hezbollah, whining that if\u00a0Israel\u00a0couldn\u2019t do it, how could the Lebanese \u2014 as true as it was surreal to confess.<\/p>\n N<\/span>asrallah, Assad, and Ahmadinejad blabbered ad nauseam about their newfound sense of \u201chonor\u201d and \u201cpride,\u201d as if they were talking heads in some stale Viagra infomercial. Once more, the pathetic obsession of the\u00a0Middle Eastwith lost manhood is explicable by a society immersed in gender apartheid, patriarchy, and tribalism. It is as if the\u00a0Middle East\u00a0fundamentalist and dysfunctional family has been elevated to the national government, and then its resulting adolescent insecurities are aired for the long-suffering world.<\/p>\n Iran\u00a0promised relief aid to Hezbollah \u2014 and, of course, immediately sent thousands of chadors.<\/p>\n Mike Wallace interviewed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pronounced him charming, but never quite got him to explain his promises to wipe Israel off the map, much less his role in the 1979 storming of the American embassy in Tehran, his conversations with the lost imam, or whether Osama bin Laden was ever given sanctuary in Iran. Instead, the fascistic Iranian president proved he\u2019s attuned to left-wing politics inside the\u00a0United States\u00a0: Howard Dean-like, he mouthed tired complaints about mythical high American unemployment and our poor health care!<\/p>\n Y<\/span>et, all is not lost, since lunacy cuts both ways.\u00a0Iran\u00a0and\u00a0Syria\u00a0unleashed Hezbollah because they were both facing global scrutiny, one over nuclear acquisition and the other over the assassination of Lebanese reformer Rafik Hariri. Those problems won\u2019t go away for either of them \u2014 nor, if we persist, will the democratic fervor in\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0and\u00a0Iraq\u00a0on their borders.<\/p>\n We still don\u2019t know the extent of the damage that Hezbollah suffered, but it perhaps took casualties ten times the Israelis\u2019 \u2014 losses \u2014 not to be dismissed even in the asymmetrical laws of postmodern warfare. Hezbollah\u2019s leaders were hiding in embassies and bunkers;\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s were not. For all the newfound magnetism of Nasrallah, he brought ruin to his flock, and fright to the Arab establishment around\u00a0Israel\u00a0.<\/p>\n A surprised\u00a0Israel\u00a0now has a good glimpse of the terrorists\u2019 new way of war, and probably next time will attack the supplier, not the launcher, of the rocketry. And when the Reuters stringers go away, the \u201ccivilians\u201d of southern Lebanon, off-camera, might not be so eager to see more real fireworks lighting up their skies \u2014 or far-off, pristine Syria and Iran in safety praising the courage of the ruined amid the rubble. Note how Hezbollah already is desperately racing around the craters to assure its homeless constituency that it has enough Iranian cash to buy back lost sympathies.<\/p>\n Even the ceasefire can come back to bite the Islamists and their supporters. Hezbollah won\u2019t be disarmed as promised, much less stay out of Katyusha range of the border. And that defiance will only reveal the impotence of the Lebanese and the U.N., reminding both that they have talked themselves into a corner and now are responsible to keep caged their own pet 7th-century vipers. This can only work to\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s favor when the next rockets go off, since no one then will be proposing an \u201cinternational\u201d solution \u2014 although it will be interesting to see whether Jacques Chirac talks of the \u201cnuclear\u201d option once his soldiers begin to be picked off by Hezbollah.<\/p>\n I<\/span>n a larger sense, the foiled\u00a0London\u00a0terrorist plot won\u2019t endear either Islamists or their appeasers to millions in the world who face travel delays, cancelled flights, and body searches \u2014 on top of paying billions more to the Arab oil producers who in response whine even more in their victimhood.<\/p>\n As the clich\u00e9 goes: the\u00a0Middle East\u00a0needs to wake up and disown Islamic fascism. Otherwise, insidiously the entire world is turning against it, as radical Islam proves to be every bit as frightening an ideology as German Nazism or Soviet Communism \u2014 whether this is ascertained from the use of human shields, tribal lynchings and beheadings, Joseph Goebbels-like propaganda, Holocaust-denial, racist rants, or primordial hatred of Jews.<\/p>\n Three years ago no one was talking about profiling at airports. Now the British are exploring how best to do it. Indeed, one of the stranger developments in recent memory is now taking place the world over: Young, Middle-Eastern, Muslim men are eyed and studied by passengers at every airport \u2014 even as governments still lecture about the evils of the very profiling that their own millions are doing daily. Muslims can thank al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and an entire culture that won\u2019t condemn terrorism for such ostracism, which only increases with each suicide bomber, human shield, hijacking, kidnapping, and macabre reference to genocide and Jew-killing.<\/p>\n In an amorphous war of self-induced Western restraint, like the present one, truth and moral clarity are as important as military force. This past month, the world of the fascist jihadist and those who tolerate him was once again on display for civilization to fathom. Even the most timid and prone to appeasement in the West are beginning to see that it is becoming a question of \u201cthe Islamists or us.\u201d<\/p>\n In this eleventh hour, that is a sort of progress after all.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A reluctant world begins to confront reality. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Pessimism is now the conventional wisdom about the wars in the\u00a0Middle East\u00a0, and, indeed, it is hard to find any good news in the recent ceasefire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[771],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-112","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5547,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/inside-the-cease-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":0},"title":"Inside the “Cease-fire”","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"U.N.'s looming failure reveals West's moral confusion by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers With every crisis in the war against Islamic jihad, the West displays a suicidal appeasement that heartens the enemy and lessens any chance of victory. The absurd \u201ccease fire\u201d the U.N. recently hammered out between Israel and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3915,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/worry-about-the-west-not-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":1},"title":"Worry About the West–Not Israel","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The reactions and media coverage coming out of the West regarding this latest war in the Middle East are as bewildering as they are instructive. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., for example, recently said, \"I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah or for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2006"","block_context":{"text":"August 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/august-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5553,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-resolution-at-all-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":2},"title":"No Resolution At All","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the U.N. can't solve the problem of Hezbollah by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror. According to the resolution, the current impotent U.N.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5142,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-resolution-at-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":3},"title":"No Resolution At All","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the U.N. can't solve the problem of Hezbollah. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror. According to the resolution, the current impotent U.N.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3933,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-vocabulary-of-untruth\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":4},"title":"The Vocabulary of Untruth","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Words take on new meanings as Israel struggles to survive. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online A\u00a0\u201cceasefire\u201d would occur should Hezbollah give back kidnapped Israelis and stop launching missiles; it would never follow a unilateral cessation of Israeli bombing. In fact, we will hear international calls for one only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2006"","block_context":{"text":"July 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/july-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2053,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/shameless-islamist-doublespeak-rages-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":5},"title":"Shameless Islamist Doublespeak Rages On","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media \u201cAl Qaeda\u2019s Zawahiri Accuses Obama of Trying to \u2018Enslave\u2019 Arab World.\u201d So reads the headline of a recent\u00a0Fox News\u00a0[1] report, which goes on to quote Zawahiri saying things such as \u201cObama\u2019s policy is nothing but another cycle in the Crusader and Zionist campaign to enslave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3910,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions\/3910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}