What A Shock! "groundswell of support in the Arab world for Hezbollah"

[leftchick]

who could have predicted this?

<snip>

A groundswell of support has grown in the Arab world for Hezbollah, which many regional governments initially criticized for provoking the conflict.

In remarks published Saturday, Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa — one of the country's most influential religious leaders — described Hezbollah raids on Israel as "defense of its country and not terrorism." Egyptian cleric Sheik Youssef el-Qaradawi, one of most prominent Sunni religious scholars in the Arab world who lives in Qatar, on Thursday issued a religious edict saying support for the guerrillas was "a religious duty of every Muslim."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060729/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

Support for Hezbollah growing in Mideast

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mideast_fighting_arab_response

CAIRO, Egypt - Rising Arab anger over the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah appears to have pushed conservative rulers in the region to refocus their criticism away from the Shiite guerrillas and onto Israel.

The most dramatic turn has come from Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally whose king initially rebuked Hezbollah for carrying out "uncalculated adventures" with a cross-border raid that captured two Israeli soldiers. This week, however, King Abdullah warned that "if the option of peace fails as a result of Israeli arrogance, then the only option remaining will be war."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, an important mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict for the last 25 years, now mixes his condemnation of Hezbollah's move with sharp criticism of Israel's response.

It was "disproportionate, to say the least," Mubarak said in remarks posted Friday on Time magazine's Web site. "Israel's response demonstrated a collective punishment against the Palestinians and the Lebanese. The bloodshed and the destruction caused by the Israelis went way too far."



A young girl flashes victory sign as others wave a Quran over their heads outside a Cairo, Egypt, mosque Friday, July, 28, 2006. Thousands of demonstrators chanted anti-Israel slogans and vowed support for Hezbollah, part of protests across the Muslim world on the Islamic day of prayer. (AP Phot/Hasan Jamali)

[bullimiami]

1. noone could have ever predicted....

[prole_for_peace]

7. what he said... n/t

[burythehatchet]

2. Isn't that the point

Declare evil, demonize, make the killing morally justified.

[mom cat]

3. The killings on both sides is immoral. Hezbolla has agreed to

the EU Peace Proposal. Why isn't Israel signing on?????

[marmar]

8. Exactly...you've gotta think this is precisely what BushCo wants....

Why does this man
Defy the storm and burn us all
Each time his hand waves
The sun, it sets on lonely graves
Haven't we read this page before
We're gonna lose the war
Put down the glory flag
Nothing will be the same
This is the world he wants
Pray for the brave and the young
And won't bring them back again
Sadness, you know that it reins supreme
And suffocates our only dream
Lovebirds don't sing here, they've flown away
They didn't even say, when they would be back again
Will they come back again
Unleash the hounds of hell
Weather be fury wind
Hidden inside his storm
This is the world he wants
Prayed for the brave and the young
He knows that they're not coming home
Now, do you ever get the feeling, get the feeling
This is the world that he wants
You ever get the feeling, ever get the feeling
This is the world that he wants

- "World That He Wants" by Jamiroquai

[Blackhatjack]

4. It is dangerous to do that which consolidates your enemies ....

Which I think Israel is beginning to realize. This was no shoot from the hip reaction out of Israel. You can bet that the US helped plan it, finance it, and provide technical support for it. And sooner rather than later, the Arab world is going to hold the US responsible especially in light of the lack of any US foreign policy efforts to garner a ceasefire.

The US is in it up to our necks.

[leftchick]

6. Israel would never have started this

without approval from the neocons.

[snappyturtle]

9. Exactly!

Let's see....who visited the U.S. this past Spring? Olmert.........Netenyahu (sp?)...but you have the picture.

[scarletwoman]

5. Wouldn't it be ironic if the Israeli attack on Lebanon leads to some sort

of reconciliation between the two rival sects of Islam? Long shot, I'm sure -- but think of the enormous impact that such a reconciliation could have in the Muslim world.

sw

[leftchick]

10. Juan Cole suggested that is exactly what is happening

it was in one of his columns this past week.

[originalpckelly]

11. Instead of Sunnis and Shi'as killing each other in Iraq...

they would try to kill Americans together.

Don't think that won't happen either. This action by Israel is going to have profound consequences for our country. It doesn't take a very smart person to know that either.

These people hate our guts already, and now that Israel is providing them with more propaganda, these groups will be able to send off more young people to die in terrorist attacks. It is so sickening that terrorists exist, whether they be terrorist groups or states.

[leftchick]

12. sitting ducks

think of our trooops as sitting ducks now in Iraq. :(