Continued from It ain't over till it's over, and it ain't over yet.

Iran gives Hezbollah “unlimited budget” to rebuild Lebanon
Allahpundit

According to an anti-Syrian Lebanese MP who claims he was told by Hezbollah capos themselves. It figures that the one time the west actually wants to see an Arab government propped up with Sunni cash, the Egyptians, Jordanians and even the Saudis are asleep at the wheel. And Nasrallah’s taking full advantage:

Hezbollah’s reputation as an efficient grass-roots social service network — as opposed to the Lebanese government, regarded by many here as sleek men in suits doing well — was in evidence everywhere. Young men with walkie-talkies and clipboards were in the battered Shiite neighborhoods on the southern edge of Bint Jbail, taking notes on the extent of the damage.

“Hezbollah’s strength,” said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a professor at the Lebanese American University here, who has written extensively about the organization, in large part derives from “the gross vacuum left by the state.”

Hezbollah was not, she said, a state within a state, but rather “a state within a nonstate, actually.”…

[...]

It is a coup d’etat, in slow motion. Debka says they’re using the community services crap as cover to redeploy to their bases in the south before the Lebanese army and UNIFIL peacekeepers get there. A “symbolic” contingent of national troops is moving in today, equipped with obsolete weapons; Haaretz says foreign journalists in Lebanon are calling it “a joke.” The French commander of UNIFIL told Le Monde yesterday that it might take a year — a full year — to deploy the entire 15,000-man force, and even so, the responsibility for disarming Hezbollah will lie “primarily” with the Lebanese. The U.S. is begging Kofi Annan to make them deploy sooner, but the best Kofi can do is hope there’ll be 3,500 troops there within the next two weeks or so. Israel’s northern commander says he wouldn’t be surprised if Hezbollah coopts the Lebanese troops by joining/infiltrating their ranks.

As for disarmament, Nasrallah and Siniora were working on a compromise yesterday morning by which Hezbollah would be allowed to keep its weapons provided it kept them hidden from public view — a sort of “concealed carry” exception to the UN resolution, if you will. ...

Israel says if they don’t disarm, the IDF is going back in;  ...

[Read the whole thing.]

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Curt at Flopping Aces says This Cease Fire Will Not Last

Dan Riehl: Ceasefire A Mess: Rice Doesn't Get It

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 16, 2006 at 01:05 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Iran, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon | Permalink

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