Our friends at RealClearPolitics have pointed us to Tony Blankley’s timely column on “Talking with terrorists.” Blankley continues the discussion of the issue raised by the role of Hezbollah in Lebanon that we took up last night. Here’s Blankley at his best, taking on Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post:
[Diehl to the contrary notwithstanding,] Hezbollah exists to oppose Israel’s right to exist. Nor do they support secular democratic government for Muslims. Moreover, it is very likely they have established sleeper terrorist cells in the United States.
They may well participate in democratic politics for the purpose of gaining power. They certainly provide food, shelter and education to poor Lebanese.
So also, Al Capone set up soup kitchens during the Depression. And the Nazis provided social services to poor and starving Germans in the 1920s and early ’30s. But they both kept killing until, respectively, the FBI and the Allies put them both out of business.
Hezbollah is certainly a ruthless band of cutthroats, but there is no evidence that they are insincere in their beliefs, or that they are open to changing their minds and joining the Women’s League of Voters. If, at their heart, they oppose our objectives, then either they have to be defeated or we do.
Any political party
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