Losing Lebanon

Obama team bungles again

By BENNY AVNI

Last Updated: 7:38 AM, December 17, 2009

Posted: 1:00 AM, December 17, 2009

The Obama administration is effectively siding with America's enemies in Lebanon.

Sure, President Obama said all the right things after his Monday meet-and-greet with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. But Suleiman is aligned with Syria -- and thus, by proxy, with Iran and the Hezbollah terrorists.

Hezbollah, recall, is responsible for killing 220 US Marines in 1993 and for the murder of scores of innocents in places as far as Argentina.

Meanwhile, the administration in the last few months has told the heads of the Western-allied Lebanese factions -- who used to visit Washington to discuss ways to confront Iran, Syria and Hezbollah -- not to bother, because no one would see them.

Suleiman: Pal of US enemies met with prez.

Sure, Obama noted Monday that "President Suleiman and I aren't going to agree on every issue with respect to how Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinians, Syria, are interacting." He also called for an end to arms smuggling to Hezbollah and repeatedly called Lebanon's place in the region "critical."

But simply by holding the meeting -- when he has yet to schedule one with Lebanon's pro-Western prime minister, Saad Hariri -- Obama was sending a message about who America sees as important.

The Suleiman visit comes after years when the White House avoided hosting any Lebanese officials. The invitation was extended months ago as part of Obama's signal to the region that President George W. Bush's go-it-alone era is being replaced by "engagement."

Note, too, that the visit came soon after the Beirut Cabinet gave its seal of approval for Hezbollah to keep its vast arsenal: On Dec. 2, the government declared that the southern Lebanon-based "resistance" organization (which is only second to al Qaeda on America's list of terrorist groups) can remain armed to the teeth, so it can "liberate" Lebanese lands from Israeli control.

Never mind that Hezbollah remains an illegally armed militia: The accords that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war were supposed to strengthen existing UN Security Council demands to disarm the terror group. (Ironically, law-breaking Lebanon will join the council Jan. 1.)

The Bush administration may have turned its back on Lebanon after initially supporting its attempt to become independent and democratic. But at least it always made clear to everyone in the region where it stood and what were its aims. The Obama team, by contrast, let the Lebanese president come calling shortly after the Lebanese government publicly thumbed its nose at what officially remains US policy.

And what tops Suleiman's shopping list? He wants Washington to increase military aid to his country. I'm told he might even get some -- if not the helicopters or fighter jets that he really wants.

Meanwhile, we're fast losing Lebanon. With Washington AWOL, the people who bravely shook off the Syrian occupation during the mid-decade Cedar Revolution have now fallen prey to Syrian and Iranian influence. The Shiite Hezbollah dominates the nation's politics.

Last month, as Hezbollah gathered for its yearly general conference, its activists spewed the usual anti-US and anti-Israeli hatred, but also put on a show of independence from Iran. Western analysts bought it -- dutifully reporting that Hezbollah is now completely "Lebanonized."

The reality is exactly the opposite: As Shimon Shapira of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs notes, Lebanon is now more "Hezbollahized" than ever.

Iran is laying low for now, keeping its ties to Hezbollah behind the scenes, but Tehran is still the puppet master. It's smuggling advanced missiles and other hardware to Lebanon, arming Hezbollah to the teeth and waiting for the right time to unleash its proxy army against Israel.

Nor has Hezbollah dismantled its worldwide terror organization that could strike anytime -- again at Iran's command -- from bases in Latin America and elsewhere.

America, therefore, should reject any Lebanese Army request for arms. In Lebanon's current reality, it's as good as sending arms to Hezbollah.

Most important, the administration should end its neglect of Lebanon. The country is fast reverting to its '70s role as a favorite base for terrorists affiliated with some of our worst enemies -- but today's terrorists can do far more harm.

Further negligence could see the Land of Cedars go the way Afghanistan went after the victory over the Soviet invaders. And we all remember how badly that turned out for us.

beavni@gmail.com