Middle East developments

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28arabs.html
July 28, 2006
Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 — At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.
Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.
The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.

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After reading this very discouraging news in the NY Times, I was struck by the pandering behavior of these Middle Eastern leaders and their similarity to the pandering leaders of the U.S. - it seems like leaders in Saudi Arabia and Jordan are doing exactly what Bush and many Republican Congressional representatives are (so successfully) doing, which is catering to and encouraging the most ill-informed members of our society. These citizens use the most simplified logic to draw conclusions and respond to the simplistic slogans and messages offered by their leaders. Of course, I believe this is bad for the Middle East, just as it has been bad for the U.S. As the "man on the street" in Arab countries starts to see Hezbollah as the triumphant underdog, the governments must respond with their support - even if they know this course is disasterous. Similarly American leaders (like John McCain) pander to right-leaning constituencies who have a simplistic understanding of the cause and effect of important issues (like the invasion of Iraq), partly because our leaders have encouraged our ignorance. No doubt public ignorance is the used to greatest advantage by leaders in the Middle East as well. Rather than using their position to educate their citizens, all these leaders just allow their countrymen to react from their gut and don't engage their higher faculties. And the world suffers for it.