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Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb
The Price of Taking a Bullet for Palestine
[Daily Star-Lebanon] Michael Young - Hizballah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday signaled growing coordination between Hizballah and its comrades in the militant Palestinian groups, particularly Hamas. Whether Hizballah can persuade Lebanese Shiites to again become Palestinian cannon fodder remains to be seen. Syria is at the heart of a network of destabilizing developments in the Middle East. The Syrian regime hosts Hamas' Khaled Mashaal, arms Hizballah, ferries combatants into Iraq, irks the Jordanians, and tries to undercut Lebanese sovereignty. For Assad, exporting instability is compulsory in order to impose domestic quietude. An illegitimate regime like his needs outside volatility to justify repression at home and to generate political polarization that displaces popular Syrian frustration elsewhere.