A good editorial in today’s Washington Times (thanks to Sr. Soph): “Tehran, Hezbollah and a ‘ceasefire'”:
While Israel continues fighting to secure its northern border, the Iranian government barely makes an effort to hide its support for Hezbollah. Yesterday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the United States and Britain “accomplices of the Zionist regime in its crimes in Lebanon and Palestine” and declared that, by going to war against Hezbollah, Israel “pushed the button of its own destruction.” In Tehran, the government, which provides Hezbollah upwards of $100 million a year, has put up billboards paying tribute to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and declaring that it is the duty of Muslims to “wipe out” the Jewish state. And, over the weekend, in a display worthy of Hitler or Stalin (or Saddam Hussein in happier times), the Associated Press reported that Iranian officials in the city of Shiraz organized a demonstration by Iran’s tiny Jewish community praising Hezbollah and calling for Israel’s destruction.
With this ugliness as a backdrop, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in the Middle East today for meetings aimed at ending the violence in the region, with the primary focus on finding a viable plan for Lebanon’s future. Thus far, the administration has performed admirably in fending off well-intentioned but utterly misguided calls for a premature ceasefire that would leave Hezbollah’s military capabilities in place. Over the weekend, unconfirmed reports in the Israeli press suggested that Washington wants Israel to end its military campaign in Lebanon within one week. We trust that this is disinformation, and that Miss Rice and President Bush will quickly knock down such foolishness.
Some object to the Bush administration’s approach, arguing that America should instead be an “honest broker” between Arabs and Israelis. But we need to be intellectually honest. The United States is not a neutral party; we are Israel’s friend and ally in the war against radical Islam. That doesn’t mean we agree with Israel all the time. But we cannot be neutral when Israel is fighting on our side against Islamofascism.
Any ceasefire that leaves Sheikh Nasrallah and his confederates in place as a serious fighting force capable of targeting Israel would be a defeat — not only for Israel, but for the United States as well — and Hezbollah would emerge emboldened and more dangerous.
Yes. Read it all.