Israel Matzav

Good news: Hezbullah to be part of next Lebanese government

I'll bet you thought that Hezbullah lost the June election in Lebanon. Sorry to say, but you may be wrong. Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is insisting that Hezbullah will be part of the next Lebanese government.

Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad Hariri said on Wednesday Hezbollah will be part of the next cabinet "whether Israel likes it or not," as his bid to form a government entered its eight week.

"The national unity government will include the (ruling) March 14 alliance, and I also want to assure the Israeli enemy that Hezbollah will be in this government whether it likes it or not because Lebanon's interests require all parties be involved in this cabinet," Hariri said at an Iftar feast to break the Ramadan fast on Tuesday night.

Israel has threatened that if Hezbullah joins the government, the Lebanese government will be held responsible for any attacks on Israel initiated by Hezbullah.

Back in the days when Western leaders were made of different stuff, Hariri, who is supposedly pro-Western and anti-Syrian, would be taken aside and told that if Hezbullah is made part of his government, his government will not benefit from any Western support. Now that the putative leader of the Western world has decided that all countries are equal and all ideologies are equal (except for Israel and Judaism, of course), the odds of Hariri receiving that kind of threat are somewhere between slim and none.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:44 PM