A Yuletide Apocalypse

From an article in the L. A. Times on the conflict; Iman Hamdi, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo:

“The decision by President Bush not to support the Lebanese government’s plea for a cease-fire, even though that government has been backed by the United States, has dealt a further blow to public feelings about the U.S. in the region.

Members of the governing bloc in the Lebanese parliament, led by Saad Hariri, “are the most pro-American Arabs in the Middle East. They have promised, ‘America will protect us if we stand against Syria,’ ” said Joshua Landis, a Middle East expert and professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Now Israel is “blowing the hell out of them, and America isn’t taking one step to protect them,” Landis said. “The whole Arab world is going to look and see that Hariri has been sacrificed on the altar of Israeli power. For the Arabs, this just rips the face of democracy right off.”

Oh joy. (emphasis added)

And some more:

Arab governments “are in a kind of Catch-22 now,” said Labib Kamhawi, a political scientist in Amman, the Jordanian capital.

“If we uphold democracy, the opposition will bring to power the fundamentalist forces. And if we don’t, this will play into the hands of underground extremism,” he said.

“And the military arrogance of Israel, the fact that Israel is bombarding a helpless country like Lebanon, destroying its infrastructure, dismantling the state, is making people more and more angry.”

…

“I’m a democrat. I’m not anti-American. I like the American nation,” said Mouaffaq Farhat, who until recently managed the Mercedes dealership in downtown Damascus. “But the Americans who are supporting the Israelis now have to understand that Hezbollah is fighting for what they believe are their rights. And people nowadays unfortunately know only the language of force.”

Seems at least the Americans are shooting their cause in the foot.