The other day, I answered a commenter with the remark that Hamas, Hezbollah, the two-state solution are meaningless. Maybe I spoke too soon.

According to Ha’aretz, Abbas (with Egypt’s help) is trying to get Hamas to back down on the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Abbas’s reasoning is interesting: he fears that associating themselves with Hezbollah will mean very bad press (at the least) for the Palestinians.

Palestinian sources said that over the past several days, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has tried to convince the Hamas leadership that it is important to prevent the creation of a link between Shalit’s abduction and Hezbollah in the mind of the international community.

He therefore tried to persuade Hamas officials that they must present a different position than that of Hezbollah with regard to negotiations with Israel over a prisoner exchange. 

Reportedly, Abbas isn’t getting anywhere with Hamas. But I am far more interested in his calculations. The way Abbas sees it, Hezbollah is not winning and will not come out of this a winner. And the winner will be determined by perceptions, not only by arms.
Smart thinking.

There is a lot of ignorance about and misunderstanding of the current conflict in the Middle East, none of which is being alleviated by media coverage.

I don’t blame the MSM particularly. This conflagration erupted without warning (except to those who have been following events abroad). Americans in general—including, unfortunately, its media representatives—are blissfully ignorant of things that happen beyond their country’s borders. When they do focus elsewhere, they tend to see things through their own perspective or to force their perspective—one might call it their blindness—on situations that cannot be understood by their worldview, experience, values, paradigms, habits, and traditions.

A few observations:

• Israel is involved in a fight for its existence, not a tit-for-tat “cycle of violence,” as the lazy storytellers of the MSM call it. Israel is being deliberately disproportionate, because it wants to destroy its enemy. This is war, not like other “skirmishes.”
• Israel is, at the moment, the frontline in the War on Terror. That is why there has been no pressure by the U.S., the UN, and the EU to force a cease-fire on Israel.
• All of them want this war, because they all want to neutralize Hezbollah and to send a clear message to Islamist nihilists, theocrats, madmen, and other enemies of life. The message is: “You are doomed.”
• The term “resistance” is meaningless. Hezbollah is “resisting” the existence and legitimacy of the State of Israel. Hezbollah must be discredited.

The three fronts are: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the media.