Hezbollah Tests Obama's Indecision

While President Obama is trying to decide whether the Syrians foaming at their nostrils and mouths were hit by al-Assad regime chemical weapons, the first test of Obama's weak decision-making capability occurred. Lebanon's Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said Tuesday that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat President Bashar al-Assad's regime militarily, warning that Syria's "real friends", including his Iranian-backed militant group, would intervene on al-Assad's side if the need arises. Hezbollah is already backing Syrian regime fighters in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border against the mostly Sunni rebel fighters. But the comments by were the strongest indication yet that his group was ready to become substantially involved to rescue Assad's embattled regime. "Syria has real friends in the region and in the world who will not allow Syria to fall in the hands of America or Israel or the Takfiris," he said, referring to followers of an al-Qaida like extremist idology, adding that America's accusations about chemical weapons are just an excuse to intervene militarily in Syria. Hezbollah and Iran, close allies of Assad, have been accused by rebels of sending fighters to assist Syrian troops trying to crush the 2-year-old Syrian uprising that is now a civil war. Nasrallah said Tuesday that there are no Iranian forces in Syria now, except for some experts who he said have been in Syria for decades. But he asked: "What do you imagine would happen in the future if things deteriorate in a way that requires the intervention of the forces of resistance in this battle?" Hezbollah is the most powerful military force in Lebanon, stronger than the national army. Its increasing involvement in Syria is already raising tensions inside the divided country and has drawn threats from Syrian rebels. And while Hezbollah was sabre-rattling around President Obama's indecision, Hezbollah's Gaza 'cousins', Hamas, became involved in a fray between the Israeli military and the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Jerusalem area. The group is a little-known al-Qaida affiliate that has claimed responsibility for a number of rocket attacks, including the current rocket launches into Eilat, a quiet seaside town that borders the Red Sea and Egypt's Sinai desert. Israel views the Eilat attack as an escalation. It accused Gaza militants of firing the rockets, which caused no injuries, out of Egypt's lawless Sinai desert. The Israelis made an aircraft attack on a motorcycle in Gaza Tuesday, killing a man who the military said was a top militant in the shadowy group involved in a recent rocket attack on southern Israel. It was the first deadly airstrike in Gaza since an Egyptian-brokered truce was reached with Palestinian militants last November, and is the most serious test yet of the Egyptian-brokered agreement. The Israelis said the dead cyclist Mishal "has been a key terror figure, specializing in weapons and working with all of the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip." They also said he manufactured weapons and specialized in rockets and explosive devices that he sold to militant groups. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, condemned Israel but worked to maintain the truce. "We call on Egypt to put pressure on the Israeli occupation to stop these crimes and to force them to honor the truce and stop the aggression," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. He also called for a "joint and unified" effort by Gaza's various militant factions. Hamas considers the jihadi groups responsible for the recent rocket fire to be rivals, and has struggled to keep them in check. Since the cease-fire, Hamas has deployed security forces along the border areas with Israel and Egypt to help preserve the calm. Hamas, an Islamist group close to the Muslim Brotherhood now ruling neighboring Egypt, has cracked down on hardline Salafi rivals it sees as jeopardizing its control of the Gaza Strip. ~~~~~ So, dear readers, we have the peculiar situation in which Hezbollah in Lebanon-Syria and Hamas in Gaza, both terrorist groups, are doing Obama's dirty work by trying to control al-Qaida in Syria and Gaza - not to help America or Obama but to protect their own positions as regional powers. I have long since abandoned hope that Obama will do anything to protect Syrians or Israelis or Jordanians or Lebanese. But can Obama not see just how far his non-action has eroded the situation in the Middle East, leaving it open to a Hezbollah-Hamas hegemony.