Arabs Opinion is Shifting In Favor of Hezbollah

According to Today's New York Times popular opinion among the Arabs has very quickly shifted from condemnation of Hezbollah to support of it in the wake of the ongoing civilian casualties. They also cite the fact that Hezbollah has managed to survive this long, an accomplishment that no Arab governments have managed in their various wars with Israel.

DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.

Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite groups leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.

The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollahs main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.

An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a new Middle East” that they say has led only to violence and repression.

With the violence continuing due to a lack of a ceasefire (there certainly is no US pressure to have one) the Arab populations are increasingly supporting Hezbollah to the point that the same moderate Arab governments winitiallyallly condemned Hezbollah are now trying to distance themselves from the United States. That is very unfortunate for the United States and any future attempts at talks in the region, or in its attempts to gather support for cooperation on dealing with Iran.

This article alludes to Al Qaeda (A Sunni group) supporting someone it usually would not Hezbollah (a militant Shia group). It reminds me of a joke I think is applicable enough to the situation and that is probably true to some extent:

Jon Stewart asked a guest almost rhetorically "president Bush said he would unite people, but doesn't it seem as if he's not uniting Americas, but that he is uniting the whole world, sunnis and shias, in opposition to the United States?" (not exact quote. From my head)

Our leaders and Israel's leaders are morons.

UPDATE: 7/28/06 8:50 PM: Via Bloomberg we learn that the standing of Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has risen due to the conflict in Lebanon. Certainly a bad turn of events and I bet moderate Arab governments are worried at this Shia leaders growing popularity among their own Shia populations.