I’m sorry to say this--I’m a March 14 supporter, too--but I’m a bit less surprised,...

I read the article Michael and I get your support for March 14th. But you better get this, their support of an animal like Samir Kuntar tells the rest of us what we need to know. It paints YOU with a brush as anti-Semite that you may not want. You just took an express elevator to the basement in my opinion of you. I will now have to apply the correct filters to everything that you write.

But rampant antisemitism is there - in the Eu, the Balkans and now it appears the US media. That is really no news.

This whole thing makes me sick. Of course we still want to support the Lebanese who want peace, independence, and political/economic freedom. But now that support must be attended with suspicion.

This isn't just anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, it's anti-Zionism as insanity and depravity.

their support of an animal like Samir Kuntar tells the rest of us what we need to know. It paints YOU with a brush as anti-Semite that you may not want.

George "you're either with us or against us" Bush just announced an increase of over $32 million in aid to the Lebanese army, supporting March 14th. Does that make him anti-semitic?

March 14th activists have been harassed, threatened and murdered for their opposition to (notably anti-semitic enemies of Israel) Syria and Hezbollah. However, Israel is talking about negotiating with Syria. Israel also negotiates with, and tries to see the better side of Fatah, a terrorist organization that has murdered many Israelis. They negotiated with Hezbollah. Does that make Israel more or less anti-semitic than March 14th?

The Middle East is an insoluble mess right now because most of the major players are using the British method of negotiating with both sides while playing them against each other to deal with terrorism. When we all use this method, the sane voices in any organization are drowned out by the crazies. Every organization is tainted, all alliances are confused.

Does the British method bring peace and happiness? Take a look at India and Pakistan. Look at the small, soggy, Emirates-owned remains of the British empire and judge for yourself.

Robohobo: It paints YOU with a brush as anti-Semite that you may not want.

Oh, for God's sake. Give me a break.

March 14 is a coalition of sects, parties, and factions. Obviously I do not support the retrograde factions or I wouldn't have written that article.

March 14 also includes the pro-Israel and pro-peace and pro-American and pro-democracy factions. I cannot oppose them.

Do you know that Jews from Europe are buying condo apartments in Israel now by the bushel full? Ashqelon has grown 3 fold in 10 years. Because they have a place to get away and a safe place to run to if they need it. That is according to the locals here who might know a thing or two. Antisemitism is at an all time high in the EU, the worst it's been since the 30's. Need to be reminded?

That Olmert is still in power is amazing to Israelis - you know the garden variety working guys. They expected his government to collapse months ago.

The angst over the Kuntar/Hezbollah prisoner exchange for the bodies of Goldwasser and Regev is unbelievable. People are very angry that things have gone the way they have. The video of the Lebanese government with Kuntar, the Hezbollah terrorists and Nasrallah is all over the news here. The current government in Lebanon is Hezbollah for all practical purposes.

And as for Bush, well, I supported the fool for as long as I could. But lately he seems to have lost his marbles and is too caught up trying to secure some kind of legacy. All he is going to be for many years is reviled thought he did do a lot of things correctly in my view. Why he has derailed so badly is beyond me.

March 14th may have once been what you say but the landscape has changed.

I have always supported you, Mr. Totten. I have even been one of those to go to bat on your site against the trolls. So your high dungeon is not fitting this time.

Robohobo: your high dungeon is not fitting this time.

You're getting it anyway.

You called me an anti-Semite, which is a disgusting slander and libel. I certainly wouldn't be writing for COMMENTARY if there were even a scrap of truth to what you said to me.

If you posted that scurrilous accusation on my blog, you would be instantly banned without warning.

You owe me an apology.

I mean, really, Robohobo, it takes some nerve to tarnish me with the Kuntar love-fest when I condemned it using stronger language than I have ever used in that magazine.

My original title, by the way, was The Ugly Truth About March 14. The editors scrapped the word "ugly," which is fine, but it should be obvious to just about everybody but you how I feel about what just happened in Lebanon.

your high dungeon is not fitting this time

And the term is 'high dudgeon.'

Michael,

Sadly it sounds as if we will soon be teated to another Lebanese civil war, which Hezbollah will probably win. After that there will probably be another war with Israel. Tell me I am wrong. I want to be very wrong.

Ooops, that should be "treated."

Corvan,

I don't think you are wrong, but I wish you were. Another war with Israel may come first, though.

There will be war in and around Lebanon as long as Hezbollah exists, because Hezbollah is interested in war with every single religious sect near them that isn't Shia - Sunnis, Druze, Christians, and Jews. They hate literally everybody, and there can be no real peace until they are disarmed or destroyed.

Okay, Michael, you say you are not an anti-semite and demand a public apology. You have it.

I was wrong about the slur.

But the question remains is how can you even say you support the movement when it and Lebanon have been co-opted by Terrorists? Genocidal ones at that? BTW, the editors should have left the title alone.

The sad truth that I think many miss is that wretchards 3 conjectures are operational. It is not a war on a tactic but a war on a religion that declares openly it's genocidal intents. We have clear choices - submit, die fighting or wipe them out. What the West will have to do to survive this one will change us forever.

I think Lebanon already had it's civil war and the bad guys won. If Hezbollah has any part in any government it is over for that country. They are much too ruthless.

As far as a war with Israel, that is also in the cards.

Come on Robo, i'm no expert on Lebanon (if such a thing even exists) but if there is one thing certain of its that there is no such thing as unanimity in that nation. Nothing even close.

What would you have any of us do? Wash our hands of Lebanon? Fine, but it wont help matters, wont make it go away. Perhaps none of the parties involved are perfect, but some are FAR less perfect than others.

If you think a genocidal campaign to essentially wipe Lebanon clean and start from a smoking crater is the 'best' solution, fine, say so. But otherwise we need to work with what is there. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and lest we forget Israel has tried some semblence of the military solution more than once and it has made matters worse.

Robohobo: I was wrong about the slur.

Thank you. It is forgotten already.

But the question remains is how can you even say you support the movement when it and Lebanon have been co-opted by Terrorists?

Because most of the movement has not been coopted.

There are...God knows how many parties and factions in the March 14 movement.

Everything I've read suggest only a small portion of March 14 has any affection whatsoever for Samir Kuntar. None have any affection for Hezbollah.

This piece by Michael Young in Beirut explains why Jumblatt did what he did.

Lebanon is very very very complex.

Mark - I can see where you may have thought that I am advocating genocide but I am not. I said:

It is not a war on a tactic but a war on a religion that declares openly it's genocidal intents. We have clear choices - submit, die fighting or wipe them out.

I am not the one that advocates genocidal solutions, Hizballah is.

Hizballah is dedicated to liberating Jerusalem and eliminating Israel, and has formally advocated ultimate establishment of Islamic rule in Lebanon.

We are told repeatedly by the various organs that support Jihad against the West that this is their intent. When do we begin to show that we believe them and act accordingly?

I think that the West are the Romans in this little aside - High Risk Behavior and Knowing Where You Are - Barbarians in Rome

That is, we do not recognize the rules that Hizballah operates under and when those rules smack us in the face as recent events have, we refuse delivery of the very clear message. Under Islamic rule anywhere, the non-Muslim has three operational choices - submit, die fighting or be victorious. But because the dedicated Muslim who practices true Jihad is willing to die rather than submit to our authority (which is what winning a war means) then all we have left is to kill him. His situation is win/win while ours is win/lose.