Hezbollah’s Hot Seat
• Worth reading: YNet‘s Ron Ben-Yishai assesses what Hezbollah’s up to and why. This snippet speaks volumes about who we’re dealing with and the destructiveness we’ll see in the next war with Lebanon:
It purchased lands on the outskirts of the villages, built homes on these lands and offered them to poor Shiite families at bargain prices (to rent or buy), on the condition that at least one rocket launcher would be placed in one of the house’s rooms or in the basement, along with a number of rockets, which will be fired at predetermined targets in Israel when the order is given.
• A Boston Herald staff-ed weighs in on the EU’s reluctance to designate Hezbollah a terror group:
The careful parsing of expression by European leaders makes us fear that action of the European Union or its members will be calculated to seem strong to the European public, but avoid the designation of “terrorist.” Such timidity always encourages the evil-doers.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Colin Rubinstein (The Australian).
Arab Spring Winter
• A Wall St. Journal staff-ed (click via Google News) takes President Obama to task for rejecting proposals from his key security advisors to send arms to Syrian rebels.
By doing nothing, Mr. Obama has guaranteed that the rebels will be supplied by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Saudis who don’t mind arming Sunni Salafists. That’s one of the lessons of “leading from behind” in Libya, but in Syria we aren’t even following from behind.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• A nice piece of journalism from The Guardian‘s Harriet Sherwood, who managed to get a rare inside look at the dwindling, reclusive Samaritan community. An influx of Ukrainian brides is — literally and figuratively — bringing fresh blood to the Samaritans.
• Worth reading: The dilemma of Al Jazeera English for American journalists
The Qatari-owned cable news operator is almost the only US media outlet hiring. But should reporters take the emir’s riyal?
• Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation. Two Mideast-related headlines.
- As pope steps down, chief rabbi lauds Israel-Vatican ties
- Abbas thanks Pope for supporting Palestinian UN bid
(Image of Kadiev via YouTube/one, Samaritans via Flickr/Flavio~)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream .
