How To Win Friends And Influence Neighbors (Poll in Beirut)

[Jacobin]

The stakes are high for Hizbullah, but it seems it can count on an unprecedented swell of public support that cuts across sectarian lines. According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February.

More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis. Lebanese no longer blame Hizbullah for sparking the war by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but Israel and the US instead.

The latest poll by the Beirut Center found that 8 percent of Lebanese feel the US supports Lebanon, down from 38 percent in January.

"This support for Hizbullah is by default. It's due to US and Israeli actions," says Saad-Ghorayeb, whose father, Abdo, conducted the poll

More: http://billmon.org/archives/002585.html


See also Christian Science Monitor article here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html

Ghassan Farran, a doctor and head of a local cultural organization, gazes in disbelief at the pile of smoking ruins which was once his home. Minutes earlier, an Israeli jet dropped two guided missiles into the six-story apartment block in the centre of Tyre.

"Look what America gives us, bombs and missiles," says this educated, middle-class professional. "I was never a political person and never with Hizbullah but now after this I am with Hizbullah."


Another Mission Accomplished. Israel and the U.S. have now completely radicalized Lebanon against Israel.

Thank you Boosh, Likud and Neo-con idiots for yet another marvelous foreign policy adventure.

[Lindacooks]

1. Yep. You are going to hate anyone who bombs your loved ones

into oblivion. That's a fundamental law of human nature. This is what those of us who were against the disproportionate response were afraid of. Terrorist organization's best recruiting tools are bombs dropped from the sky.

[Jacobin]

3. I guess I just keep having a hard time

believing that the intent of Israel and the U.S. is to radicalize Arabs even further, and in doing so, to lose more and more allies and further isolate the U.S.

But, clearly, it is their intent.

[Lindacooks]

4. I don't know if it's their intent.

But it certainly is the direct consequence. War never made any friends.

[Jacobin]

5. If its not their intent, then

the only other possibility I can think of is that they are idiots. Bush* certainly fits that description

[QuestionAll...]

8. I 've changed my mind about 'them' being idiots.

well, * will always be to me because he just fits the word so well.

but yes, this is intended, no incompetancy - the Iraq war fiasco sewed that up for me - just impossible to make so many errors.
All out war and the submission of the population on a world scale. Feudalism.

[ThomCat]

2. Nobody else is attempting to protect them, so of course

they are supporting Hizbullah.

All this talk about Israel would stop if only Hizbullah disarmed is nonsense. Israel rolls over anyone who is harmless, and attacks anyone who is not.

[Jacobin]

6. Evening Kick

Lebanese poll numbers are very telling. The neo con idea that the bombardment of Lebanon would turn the Lebanese against Hizbullah has backfired in a vicious way that will cause even further problems for decades

[magellan]

7. There was an Israeli state official on Tucker earlier

He was of the firm opinion (no matter how dubious or what anecdotes from conversations with Lebanese civilians Tucker offered) that the conflict wouldn't arouse more anti-Israel/pro-Hezbollah sentiment in Lebanon.

What can you say to such blindness? It's either an intentional denial of the truth to save face or hide ulterior motive...or the Israeli gov't is as dumb as our own. None of those are encouraging possibilities.

edited subject

[Jacobin]

9. Same mindset as 'will welcome us as liberators'

Cheney/Perle/Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld, after ShocknAwe(tm)

These people will say anything to get a war going.....even to suggest that the victims of their attacks will appreciate it.