Hope In Fear

 

Hezbollah are fighting a historical battle. The stakes couldn't be higher. The goal is Lebanon, the risk is relegation to fringe status. The allies are Iran, Syria and sympathizers such as Venezuela's Chavez ("To my aboriginal and indigenous brothers, we are the real owners of this land." Ahem, I can't wait to see the long faces of all those dimwits spewing the Israel-is-an-illegal-state mantra, when they realize how Chavez is modeling himself as the Arafat of the 21st century, so as to start claiming back US territories) and Cuba -- North Korea is more jealous than supportive. The list of enemies is growing. Worst of all for Nasrallah, the fat cats in Egypt and Saudi Arabia are seeing the writing on the wall: they're next.

Russia is a valid barometer for the true sentiment of those, who are now motivated by fear of losing their golden egg. Arab pride, grotesquely grandiloquent at best of times, usually prohibits even the faintest inkling of accepting Israel as a permanent state and neighbor. It thus carries enormous weight when the Saudi, Bahrain's and the Russian Foreign Minister independently talk of peace with Israel; the Bahrain official's regurgitation of the trite demands including Israel's full withdrawal from the Palestinian territory, resolving the problem of Palestinian refugees, and creating a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem shouldn't be given too much notice:

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in separate interviews with The Associated Press around the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, spoke of the urgency for an "end game" that could give a glimmer of hope to both sides in the Middle East by resurrecting a process bogged down for three years.

At a Security Council meeting later Thursday, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa called for initial negotiations between Israel and the Arabs with a concrete timeframe, as well as a report from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the best way to hold those negotiations. [...]

Lavrov said the mood is not limited to Arab countries; agreement also is growing in Russia and among other outside power brokers overseeing the peace process that it must be re-energized to stop more problems from developing.

But most telling is the easily overlooked statement but the Russian official:

Unless the world acts quickly to increase hope among Arab youth, Lavrov warned, it could lose a whole generation in the region to extremism.

That's the driving force, the writing on the wall, no Arab official will say out loud, but this is what all of them fear the most. Hezbollah's antics in Lebanon revealed to them that the genie was out of the bottle, that their pet terrorists (don't miss the video) had grown independent and disobedient. Too long have the fat cats enjoyed the  cushy feeling of absolving their Jihad duties remote control. Now the Jihadists are turning against them, for Iran is picking up the tab.

"We have found for the first time probably a consensus that is very significant about the need of restarting the peace process," al-Faisal told AP, wearing traditional Arab robes and headdress, and speaking in a hotel suite overlooking Park Avenue.

His emphasis on consensus was the strongest statement yet by an Arab nation on the need to revive efforts to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, and was echoed by the foreign ministers who attended the ministerial meeting of the Security Council.

There is only one emotion stronger in the Arab soul than 'pride', and that is genuine 'fear'. Good. I say, be afraid, be very afraid, and we may finally get somewhere.

And I don't mean just Israel, but also the long overdue denunciation of the rabidly anti-Semitic UN, for it has finally become the safe haven of all lunatics and murderers, whilst busily paving the way for their future reign of fear and genocide:

The conclusion is hard to resist that the U.N. effort is really about persuading America that it can "live with" an Iranian bomb, just as it lives with a Pakistani bomb, because the costs of economic sanctions or military strikes are supposedly prohibitive. But a glimpse of what the world will look like if Iran succeeds was provided on Tuesday by Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Cairo's heir apparent floated a proposal for Egypt to develop its own nuclear programs, clearly a signal that the largest Sunni Arab country will go nuclear itself to prevent Shiite Iran from dominating the region. And where Egypt goes, Saudi Arabia and Turkey cannot be far behind. Is the international system really prepared to live with five, maybe six, nuclear powers in the Middle East?

The media portrayed this week's U.N. speeches as a soap opera showdown between Mr. Bush and his adversaries. But in the matter of Iran's nuclear ambitions, it is not only the Middle East that is at risk, but the U.N., which is why Messrs. Chávez and Ahmadinejad felt so free to mock its evident failures.

Comments

[brian]

I think that under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, it constitutes torture to be forcibly subjected to the stupid lyrics of the stupid song, "Punk Rock Girl", much more painful to me than really loud Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are actually talented. I'm going to contact Human Rights Watch and sue Ghost for pain and suffering.

[Ghost Dansing]

The marionette by Brom. The Jester, the Trickster, the Clown as Death takes a bow...the disarmed, "nailed" Crusader, and the Heroine are imobilized...spun, twisted, tied in their own strings. Is the Jester the perpetrator of the mayhem, or is the Jester that which mayhem has wrought; the response. Jester bears the cross... but do his strings lead to the hands of God, or is the entire stage in the hands of God's fallen Angel, Lucifer? Can there ever be evil done in the service of God? Perhaps there is of God's creations one of dual nature... of good and evil; capable of magnificent love and horrendous hate... perhaps Jester's strings lead to Man... Can ever evil be done in the service of God? Cayote gazes from the fringes of the campfire's light and haunts Man's soul... what message does Cayote bring us today?

I was contemplating our predicament; a challenge... a sense of paralysis... frustration... western civilization at risk.

I was reflecting and idly mousing-over the lyrics of "Punk Rock Girl", by the Dead Milkmen. Interestingly, the Talking Heads were blasting "psycho killer" into my earbuds from my XM Radio... some of the lyrics looked like this...

One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead
I met a girl there and she almost knocked me dead

Punk rock girl
Please look at me
Punk rock girl
What do you see?
Let's travel round the world
Just you and me punk rock girl

I tapped her on the shoulder
And said do you have a beau?
She looked at me and smiled and said she did not know

Punk rock girl
Give me a chance
Punk rock girl
Let's go slam dance
We'll dress like Minnie Pearl
Just you and me punk rock girl...

We got into her car away we started rollin
I said how much you pay for this
Said nothin man it's stolen

Punk rock girl
You look so wild
Punk rock girl
Let's have a child
We'll name her Minnie Pearl
Just you and me
Eat fudge banana swirl
Just you and me
We'll travel round the world
Just you and me
Punk rock girl

Just as the heads pass "qu’est-ce que c’est?" the second time it hit me!

The poor bastards don't have a chance against us... there's no way they can compete! What we lack in intelligence, we more than make up for by our sheer potential for violence!

The poor bastards don't have a chance!

[Kenny]

Nofate,

My thoughts seem to be running along the same lines as yours vis-a-vis moderate Islam. Still, I hope Alexandra is right about this. And one of the places I disagree with people like the Ghost is in their opinion that in removing Saddam as a counterweight to Iran we have done something bad -- I personally think that the increased clarity of the situation is highly salutary, and that it is an extremely good thing for us that it is much more clear now than formerly that the domination of Islamofascism over the Middle East will necessarily mean the domination of Iran over the Arab world.

Alexandra, Dessie is back and with a truly exhilarating and exciting report on how things are going over in Kazakhstan. We set out with a vision three years ago that was rather unusual and we find now that we are much closer to seeing that vision fulfilled than we would have dared hope. So I'm in a very good mood, and hopefully will cease my shameless neglect of my excellent friends here at ATB.

[Jeremayakovka]

A forceful reading of events. Daring, too!

[brian]

Excellence continues at ATB, no suprise there.

The world will ignore this, because it reinforces the position of the Bush Cabinet. Unfortunately, I remain convinced that this Iran situation will be transferred from Rice to Rumsfeld and Cheney some day in the not so distant future.

Negotiations at the U.N. will produce nothing but backstabbing 180's from our "allies", and ridicule from our enemies. Bolton will give way to B-2 Spirit, B-1 Lancer.

Sadly, JDAM's and Bunkerbusters will have to do our talking, because that is all that Armageddonjihad will take seriously. If he thinks he can close the Straits of Hormuz, he's got a nasty reality check from the U.S. Navy coming.

[gringoman]

[gringoNote: This is a 'manual' Trackback, as the regular Trackback to ATB seems not to be working.]

"Mahomet in Hell" Text by Dante Alighieri, illustration by Salvador Dali, logistics by Penguin Books, shrieking and rioting by the Umma, quasi-apologies by Pope Benedict XVI, cybercasting by gringovision....Read on via gringoman........Trackback: With "Hope in Fear" Alexandra at ATB again looks at some "now" manifestations of the Prophet's legacy, focusing on holy Hezbollah, holy Sunnis, holy Shia, holy mullahs, holy al-Quaeda, holy Taliban, not-quite-holy Middle East rulers etc ad Islamum. (With her usual tact, discretion and Christian sensibility, Alexandra avoids holy mackerel....)

[nofate]

Alexandra: as usual, you are looking at aspects of the situation that I had not even thought of. But it seems as if it is a small hope, although, as Lincoln said at Cooper Union, "right makes might". I can hear the revisionistas singing even now, sending out the PC patrol.
Maybe I've become too immersed in reading about these Islamist groups to have a lot of faith in the "moderate muslim", as Ibn Warraq & Daniel Pipes have. Turkey seems to be more and more undermined by Iran, Lebanon doesn't seem to be very hopeful, the hezbos/Iran have infiltrated the U.S. and South America. Then there is al-Qaeda, biding its time, shifting it's financial network off system into the Muslim Brotherhood's underground system, thanks to the NYT tipping them off.
Ahma...'s speech, following on the one last year where he was illuminated by a green light, was absolutely chilling, as was the almost complete antique media silence, as if it never happened. The similarities between pre-WWII and now continue to be striking, down to the stature of those dangerous clowns, Ahma...(Hitler) and Chavez(Mussolini). I don't know how far the analogies can go, but the left is acting as if nothing is wrong except Bush's insane desire for power, when just the opposite is true. The alternative universe in this country continues to be intact and the alternate patriots still control the majority of the discourse. Searching for coverage and analysis of Ahma...'s speech is like looking for water in the desert if you are looking for the antique's take on it.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to rain on your post, I'm a glass half full type of person, but it's getting harder and harder to be optimistic about the ultimate conclusion of this sequence of world events. Although it doesn't sound that way, I still hold out hope for a minimally confrontational conclusion.