GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE BAD NEWS. The New York Times has a perceptive article today documenting the shift in support towards Hezbollah in the Arab world. After an early moment of hope, when a variety of Arab governments condemned Hezbollah�s extra-state provocations, the sustained brutality of the Israeli response has warmed the Arab world to Hezbollah's side. Now, where Saudi Arabia began by blasting Hezbollah's actions, they're warning that the peace plan is being shredded by "Israeli arrogance." Jordan is dispatching medical teams for the victims of "Israel aggression" and al-Qaeda, a Sunni organization normally hostile to Shiites like Hezbollah, released a tape making common cause. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has become a folk hero throughout the region, raising the troubling possibility that bin Laden is no longer the only hyper-charismatic terrorist mastermind in town. Meanwhile, Condi Rice is promising to return to the region to seek an "early end" to the violence. Unless she's got some time machine technology, I've trouble seeing how she'll manage that.
--Ezra Klein
