Thursday, July 27, 2006

Suddenly, Nasrallah doesn't seem so bad after all

Lead article in the New York Times for tomorrow: voices from the Arab nations, after a period of condemning or at least scorning Hizbollah's instigation of a war that spills innocent Arab blood, are starting to change their tune. Note in particular the warning issued by the Saudi royal court. It seems that Israel's diplomatic capital - which is dependent on anti-Hizbollah sentiment - is quickly drying up.

1 comment:

Amos said...

Noah, I think you were mistaken in interpreting the sudden support for Hizbullah among Arab leaders (not just the population) as being related to civilian deaths caused by Israeli attacks. I think the shift can be more properly attributed to Hizbullah's (alleged) successes against the Israeli military. At the beginning of the war, many Arab leaders believed that Hizbullah would be quickly crushed - many (such as the Saudis, e.g.) condemned the group not for its attacks on Israel per se but for provoking an attack that would lead to defeat.