By Michael J. Totten
Lebanon is not yet a mature liberal democracy. Syria still has agents in many high places. Iran all but dictates its foreign policy. Lebanon is partly, if not mostly, democratic even so. And now that the country has been torn apart by the unilateral actions of a warmongering street gang, the predictable backlash has begun.
Abu Kais at From Beirut to the Beltway calls Hassan Nasrallah The Decapitator. Raja at the Lebanese bloggers says ENOUGH. Rampurple goes further and tells Hassan Nasrallah to eff off. Opinion page editor Michael Young at Beirut’s Daily Star says Nasrallah is trying to turn Lebanon into a “gigantic Hizbullah barracks.” Druze chief Walid Jumblatt darkly suggests the civil war may ignite again if Hezbollah does not comply with the wishes of Lebanon.
The mood here in Tel Aviv is pretty grim, too. The Olmert government looks like it could collapse under pressure at any time. Hardly anyone in this country seems to think the air war over Lebanon was a good idea anymore. Hassan Nasrallah’s claim of “victory” sounds almost plausible after a month of hard fighting failed to produce many of the tangible promised results.
Yossi Klein Halevi at the New Republic says many of the last month’s disasters were self-inflicted and that the reckoning is already beginning. (Subscription required.) Yoel Marcus says “Never has a new government with a line-up of fresh faces and ambitious goals been entangled in so many foolish affairs within such a short span of time as the government of Ehud Olmert.” Haaretz published an absolutely devastating indictment of the government by Ari Shavit who said 2006 is “the most embarrassing year of Israeli defense since the establishment of the State of Israel.”
Israelis are far quicker to criticize their government during and immediately after a war than Americans are. Perhaps this is natural since Israel’s parliamentary system allows the people to change the political leadership without having to wait for the next scheduled election that could be years away. Maybe George W. Bush would no longer be president if Americans were able to pick someone else before 2008. It’s also possible that Israelis are just more self-critical for cultural reasons.
An even starker contrast is noticeable between Israel-supporters in Israel and Israel-supporters in America. Israel’s partisans in the U.S. often talk as though Israel rarely makes any mistakes, that because Israel is a democracy with a right to defend itself it can do no or little wrong. Israelis themselves rarely do this.
The Dish 