BAD SIGNALS FROM SOUTH LEBANON

In parliamentary elections in southern Lebanon Sunday, Hezbollah won all 17 contested seats.
Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel.
Largely pro-Syrian and militantly anti-Israel, Hezbollah has been linked to terrorist attacks in Israel and has taken credit for any number of attacks.
Hezbollah is largely a Shiite Muslim movement and campaigned on a policy of keeping its weapons handy and retaining a belief that Israel must be removed from the regional map.
This development sends disturbingly bad signals from the Middle East. Most of the Hezbollah candidates won their parliament posts with margins exceeding 80 per cent over all opposing parties.
It would seem that in order for Hezbollah to be seriously challenged in Lebanon, a new Death to Jews Party needs to organize and present candidates. Maybe a third party called The Suicide Bunch could be thrown in for good measure. Faced with such stern opposition, Hezbollah's margin of victory might plummet to 70 per cent.
The bottom line is that in southern Lebanon, and we suspect in most of the rest of the Islamic world, the hunger to exterminate Jews and destroy Israel remains at the forefront. Israel has long known this to be true. The question is whether or not Condoleeza Rice and the rest of the Bush administration have figured it out. The latest news from Lebanon should help them if they haven't.