Thank you, Brigitte Gabriel (pictured left), who has written an essay clarifying the history of Hiz'b'allah in Lebanon. Gabriel is a Lebanese Christian, one of thousands who left Lebanon after the civil war between Muslims and Christians facilitated by the PLO and Yasser Arafat. The most interesting passage for me is:

The Lebanese army has less than 10,000 military troops. Hizbullah has over 4,000 trained militia forces and there are approximately 700 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. So, why can't the army do the job? Because the majority of Lebanese Muslims making up the army will split and unite along religious lines with the Islamic forces, just as happened in 1976 at the start of the Lebanese civil war.

It interests me because this passage explains why the Lebanese are not capable of routing Hiz'b'allah (Hiz=the Party, b'=of, allah-God) by themselves. Hence the call from Tony Blair and others to send in an international team to disarm Hiz'b'allah.

It all boils down to a war of Islamic Jihad ideology vs. Judeo-Christian Westernism. Muslims, who are now the majority of Lebanon's population, support Hizbullah because they are part of the Islamic ummah - the nation. This is the taboo subject everyone is trying to avoid.

No matter how much the West avoids facing the reality of Islamic extremism in the Middle East, the West cannot hide from the fact that Hamas and Hizbullah are of the same radical Islamic ideology, which has fomented carnage and death through terrorism, that America and the world are fighting. This is the same Hizbullah that Iran is threatening to unleash in America with suicide bomb attacks if America tries to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. They are reported to have cells in over 10 cities in the United States. Hamas has the largest terrorist infrastructure on American soil. This is what happens when you turn a blind eye to evil for decades, hoping it will go away.

Read the Hamas Covenant here.

And a neighbor of mine is concerned that some US Senators get together and pray before sessions! Oy vey! Theocracy's on its way!