Even the Daily News Figured it Out

The good guys lost

A determined terror group gains ground - & will never surrender

The "birth pangs" are over. This was the term used by Secretary of State Rice to describe the war between Israel (supported by the United States) and Hezbollah (supported by Iran). If she is right, let us see what has come out: a defeat for the good guys, a victory for the bad guys (the "Islamic fascists" of President Bush's formulation) and some clear lessons. This has been a very hard birth.

It has been particularly hard for the Lebanese, of course, but no fun for Israel, either. While Hezbollah has, as they say, been downgraded, it has nonetheless emerged as the fighting force with the best rep in the Middle East. Not only did it stand up to the supposedly invincible Israeli Army, but the proximate cause of the war - those two kidnapped Israeli soldiers - remain unreturned, either still captive or dead.

It was one thing for Israel to fight apathetic and hapless Egyptians, Iraqis, Jordanians, Syrians and Lebanese. Those armies consisted of the indifferent: Sure, these Arabs opposed Israel, but they were mostly unaffected by it and would rather live with it than die fighting it. Even the Palestinians proved to be not much of a foe.

This has not been the case with Hezbollah or, in Iraq, the various groups of fanatics who would blow themselves up for reasons that we could not begin to fathom. "If you are waiting for a white flag coming out of the Hezbollah bunker, I can assure you it won't come," said Israeli Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan.

This zealotry, this ideology, this religious fervor is not something we in the West - and that includes Israel - know how to deal with. No longer is the fight over territory - the West Bank, Gaza - but about the very existence of Israel.

Democracies are in a fix.

If your enemy will gladly die for his cause while you wouldn't think of dying for yours (not that you even know what it is: freedom? liberty?) then clearly the fight is not tothe swift but to the suicidal.