Tuesday August 1, 2006
Column:

Because Congress understands.

Wall-to-wall, both sides of the aisle, red and blue alike, Congress understands that the war Israel is waging against Hezbollah is a prelude to their conflict with international terror. And because Congress understands, United States President George Bush is getting as close as you can get to across the board Congressional support for his policy on Israel as it confronts Hezbollah.

Bewildering? Astounding? Because the cabal called the Israeli lobby has gotten to everybody? No, it's none of the above, not when you stop to think about it.

Republicans and Democrats rarely agree on anything. Why would they choose this issue, a completely non-domestic issue, to agree upon? Because both Houses of Congress understand the real issue here. Because both Houses of Congress understand the equation.

In the matter of Israel versus Hezbollah, Israel = The United States of America and Hezbollah = al Qaeda. It's simple. It's true.

Democrats and Republicans know full well that Israel does not deliberately target United Nations posts and kill innocent civilians. They are not happy with the deaths but they understand, they know that Hezbollah is using civilians as human shields. Those casualties are a footnote, a sad and horrible but inevitable footnote of war. Democrats and Republicans know full well that Israel is confronting terror and the regimes that support terror. Israel is doing what the United States would do if the United States did not have to deal with bi-partisan politics. It is easier to get unilateral support from the United States for Israeli strikes against the terrorist enemy than it is to get unilateral support from the United States for United States strikes against the terrorist enemy. It's the political way.

As a matter of fact, there is little doubt that the arguments used by the republican Bush administration in support of Israel's continuing strike against Hezbollah are exactly those arguments that a democratic administration would have used. Some tonal differences perhaps and maybe some stylistic changes, but the same basic script would have been followed. Republican or Democrat, it does not matter.

Congress understands that this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is a mirror image - smaller but crucial to the survival of the West - of the United States' struggle against terror. Israel is not only fighting a proxy war against Iran and Syria, Israel is fighting a proxy war against al Qaeda.

It is obvious to nearly every United States elected official that Hezbollah is not just some band of hooligans with powerful weapons. They have a strong, even if misplaced, ideology. Hezbollah is an organization that wields tremendous influence in the region and throughout the Muslim world. Hezbollah is a threat not only because of the violence it perpetuates but because of the myths that it perpetuates, myths about Israel and myths about the United States, myths that anger, inflame and scare the greater Muslim world. Myths that portray the West as monsters poised to take over and destroy the Muslim and Arab worlds.

Certainly Hezbollah provides social services for adherents and followers - schools, medical care, childcare facilities and even food. But that's not what Hezbollah is really about. Hezbollah is about the destruction of Israel and the downfall of the West. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization in political clothes. Congress understands. Congress knows that Hezbollah's political attire is akin to the Emperor's new clothes.

Congress has historical memory. And Congress remembers that in the days before al Qaeda, the days when the threat of terror was distant and theoretical Hezbollah was the terror group to be feared. Hezbollah was the terror group responsible for the deaths of more Americans than any other group. Hezbollah perfected the car bomb and Hezbollah perfected the truck bomb. It was Hezbollah who sent out suicide bombers. It was Hezbollah who captured the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Terry Waite, and held him hostage for years. It was Hezbollah who, between April and October of 1983, murdered over 300 US citizens in Lebanon - 63 people in an April car bomb explosion at the United States Embassy in Beirut and 241 people in October when a truck filled with explosives drove into the US Marines barracks compound. That was Hezbollah terror.

There are very few issues upon which there is overwhelming agreement in Congress. But there is also very little doubt that Israel is properly defending itself against the forces of evil called Hezbollah.

Congress knows that Israel is on the front line of the conflict with terror and understands that the United States has a very steep learning curve ahead.
For the sake of the Western world, Israel must not fail. Congress understands.