Humiliating Lebanon.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has weighed in on Israel's blockade of Lebanon. Annan says it's an "humiliation" that must be stopped. (Here.)

Shame words get used a lot to describe events in the Middle East. Everything is so humiliating. The Americans had to liberate the Iraqis because they couldn't do it themselves. The presence of Americans in Iraq is a continuing humiliation. The American bases in Saudi Arabia were humiliating. Israel's treatment of Palestinians is a humiliation. Iran won't be humiliated by giving up their nuclear program under international pressure. Now Israel's blockade of Lebanon is humiliating. Never mind that the blockade is in place to prevent Hezbollah from receiving weapons from Iran or Syria. Something Lebanon and the UN supposedly favors.

What ought to be humiliating for Lebanon is the infection of its body politic by the Hezbollah virus.

Hezbollah is a state within a state. It's got its own armed militia that is so strong Lebanon's army is reluctant to take it on. The UN is reluctant to carry out the mandate of the ceasefire and disarm the Hezbollah paramilitary force. Hezbollah operates at will within Lebanon and without regard to the interests of the Lebanese government. It dragged Lebanon into a war with Israel when its paramilitaries crossed the border and killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers. It has shot rockets from Lebanon into Israel and the Lebanese government was unable to do anything about it.

Hezbollah's presence and strength within Lebanon shows the world that the Lebanese government does not control its own destiny and does not rule its entire country. For a government, it doesn't get much more humiliating than that. But don't hold your breath waiting for any Arab or Moslem leader to put the situation in those terms. Apparently only the actions of Crusaders or Jews are humiliating.

-tdr

Technorati: Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, United Nations.

Republished once to fix Technorati links.