38-8. . .

. . .no sports score that pair of numbers. They indicate support in the latest Beirut Center poll measuring Lebanese feeling that the U.S. supports Lebanon. In January of this year 38 per cent of Lebanese felt the U.S. supported Lebanon. Now only 8 per cent feel that the U.S. supports Lebanon. (Source: The Christian Science Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html?s=hns). When I looked at the front page of today's New York Times one headline shouted, "Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah" (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28arabs.html?hp&ex=1154145600&en=00302b87a267fb0d&ei=5094&partner=homepage). The photo captured an aerial view of a large demonstration in Cairo.

The U.S. prides Egypt as one of our closest Arab allies. Egypt is also an autocratically-ruled state. Another track record of the U.S. is that it backs autocratic regimes when it is to its advantage. How will the U.S. and this Administration in particular respond to our Arab allies?

Israeli hatred is beginning to beget calls for more and harsher military retribution in Lebanon. Are not the two--Israeli hatred and U.S. arrogance--related to turning the turning tide of Arab opinion? Will both dance around the issues involved instead of addressing them honestly and openly? Will the U.S. continue to flout the morality inherited from Christ Jesus? Not only will more innocent Lebanese (Christian, Muslim and Druze) and Israelis (Arabs and Jews) be harmed and killed. Even the opionion of privileged, educated, moderate Arabs in the region will continue to change against the U.S. One example is Dr. Ghassan Farran.

Dr. Ghassan, a physician "and head of a local cultural organization, gaze[d] in disbelief at the pile of smoking ruins which was once his home. Minutes earlier, an Israeli jet dropped two guided missiles into the six-story apartment block in the centre of Tyre.

"'Look what America gives us, bombs and missiles," says this educated, middle-class professional. "I was never a political person and never with Hizbullah but now after this I am with Hizbullah'" (Source: The Christian Science Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html?s=hns).

That, too, is a victory for Hizbollah.