Lebanon Play Acts At Being A Grown-Up
At first, watching Lebanon grow up into a precarious teenage Arab country - full of newly found confidence and braggadocio - was kind of cute:
Lebanon is so psyched to actually have an army that kind of sort of matters. They've gone so far as to rattle their sabers in Israel's direction, and they're threatening to attack the IDF. That would be mind-bogglingly stupid idea on their part - if they don't understand why, we're sure that Syria can explain the relevant details to them.
But now this whole 'we can send our army to almost anywhere in our country' thing is starting to go to their head. To extend the metaphor, they're like 14 year olds trying to act like adults. And so what's at least normal coming from uncouth Syria or Iran is just kind pathetic and annoying coming from Siniora:
Siniora: Israel endangering ceasefire. Lebanon's prime minister tells EU Parliament 'in order for ceasefire agreement to survive, Israel must withdraw from Lebanon without delay.' It is not enough to solve crisis between Israel and Hizbullah, but entire Palestinian problem must be solved too, he adds... Siniora called on the European Union on Wednesday to put pressure on the United States to play a more constructive role in achieving peace in the Middle East. Siniora said the Arab and Muslim worlds were at a crossroads that could either lead to peace or further extremism.
Blaming Israel for endangering a ceasefire that he's already explicitly broken... check.
Issuing not-very-veiled but nonetheless-very-vague threats about what will happen if Israel breaks the ceasefire that he's already explicitly broken... check.
Dragging in 'the Palestinian issue' even though every single other thing that he's committed to was done on the pretext that he was acting as a Lebanese Prime Minister and not a grand Arab defender... check.
Ignoring the fact that it's the Palestinian government that refuses to make peace - and therefore de facto justifying endless war against Israel but blaming it on the refusal of Israel to make peace... check.
Calling on the US to become "more constructive" by accepting that all of these totally loony ideas are actually true or reasonable... check
Making said call as a plea to the EU... check
Pretending that if pressuring Israel to make itself vulnerable to attack will yield some sort of peace dividend from an Arab and Muslim public that shows absolutely no inclination to provide said dividend (and that is killing nuns and burning churches for reasons that have nothing to do with Israel)... check
And to think, just two months ago he didn't really have anything that he could call "Lebanese sovereign territory" without someone in the audience smirking. Just look how fast he's grown up.
Lebanon is so psyched to actually have an army that kind of sort of matters. They've gone so far as to rattle their sabers in Israel's direction, and they're threatening to attack the IDF. That would be mind-bogglingly stupid idea on their part - if they don't understand why, we're sure that Syria can explain the relevant details to them.
But now this whole 'we can send our army to almost anywhere in our country' thing is starting to go to their head. To extend the metaphor, they're like 14 year olds trying to act like adults. And so what's at least normal coming from uncouth Syria or Iran is just kind pathetic and annoying coming from Siniora:
Siniora: Israel endangering ceasefire. Lebanon's prime minister tells EU Parliament 'in order for ceasefire agreement to survive, Israel must withdraw from Lebanon without delay.' It is not enough to solve crisis between Israel and Hizbullah, but entire Palestinian problem must be solved too, he adds... Siniora called on the European Union on Wednesday to put pressure on the United States to play a more constructive role in achieving peace in the Middle East. Siniora said the Arab and Muslim worlds were at a crossroads that could either lead to peace or further extremism.
Blaming Israel for endangering a ceasefire that he's already explicitly broken... check.
Issuing not-very-veiled but nonetheless-very-vague threats about what will happen if Israel breaks the ceasefire that he's already explicitly broken... check.
Dragging in 'the Palestinian issue' even though every single other thing that he's committed to was done on the pretext that he was acting as a Lebanese Prime Minister and not a grand Arab defender... check.
Ignoring the fact that it's the Palestinian government that refuses to make peace - and therefore de facto justifying endless war against Israel but blaming it on the refusal of Israel to make peace... check.
Calling on the US to become "more constructive" by accepting that all of these totally loony ideas are actually true or reasonable... check
Making said call as a plea to the EU... check
Pretending that if pressuring Israel to make itself vulnerable to attack will yield some sort of peace dividend from an Arab and Muslim public that shows absolutely no inclination to provide said dividend (and that is killing nuns and burning churches for reasons that have nothing to do with Israel)... check
And to think, just two months ago he didn't really have anything that he could call "Lebanese sovereign territory" without someone in the audience smirking. Just look how fast he's grown up.
