The Good Rabbi's Blog

Well, it's happened again. The middle east has proven the iron law of its own geography: just when you think things are at rock bottom, they can always get worse. It started with some expatriate Hamas fighters ambushing an Israeli military unit, and capturing an Israeli corporal as a prisoner (presumably for use as leverage in negotiations to release militants). Then, on the northern border, Hizbullah militants (who admittedly, are just trying to stay relevant in a new Syria-free Lebanon) attacked a military base, killed a few soldiers and took a couple of hostages (presumably for the same purpose). What's more, they ran out of Falafel in the north country.

The activity in the north is surely the handiwork of either Syria, Iran, or both. This is why Ehud Ohlmert's reaction is both irresponsible and foolish. The attacks in the north were perpetrated by Hizbullah, and not by the Lebanese government, who likely is unable to control Hizbullah (especially since they're awash in Syrian and Iranian money), not to mention that they really can't stand Hizbullah (they represent the Syrian and Iranian influence in Lebanese society). Personally, I believe that it's a coincidence that this activity happened around the time of the G8 summit, and that it happened around the time of the Gaza issues. This seems to represent more of the same from this part of the world, and the only thing that's clear is that all parties are to blame, and all parties must work to apply the brakes to this conflict.

An excellent analysis of how this has come up, and where it's going can be found courtesy of The Head Heeb, who generally has some very good perspective on the way things work in that part of the world.