“Lebanon” on The Daily Caller

Lebanon’s southern border with Israel came very close to a military conflagration Tuesday, amidst a showdown between the international community and Iran’s regime, which continues to defiantly develop nuclear weapons. Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, has demonstrated to the West that it can trigger a wider conflict on behalf of its patron. (more)

A new poll of the Arab world unveiled Thursday at the Brookings Institute shows support for President Obama among Arabs has dropped significantly in the past year. (more)

The lack of controversy over the August 31 transition ending combat operations in Iraq is a testament to the U.S. military. Though few are willing to declare it, America won the war in Iraq. Twice. (more)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria on Thursday warned the United States to stop trying to interfere as Arab leaders try to defuse heightened tensions in the Middle East. (more)

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been on the job for 18 months now, but she doesn’t have much to show for it.  Her record of accomplishments and performance on behalf of the American people is embarrassing.  While Rice has been active in the social scene of Washington and The White House, a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991.  Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, she failed to call-out Libya when they were elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, she recently delivered an Iran sanctions resolution with the least support Iran resolutions have ever had and she called her one and only press conference with the UN Secretary General on the issue of texting while driving.  For an administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner party circuit strategy isn’t making America more secure. (more)

It’s called buzkashi, and it’s Afghanistan’s national sport. The game is simple enough: horses assemble on the side of a field, players cling to their horses with one hand, and grip their leather whip with the other. In the center of the field is a goat, lying in cold blood, with no head, covered in flies. (more)

The United States Navy is drastically shrinking due to the serious cuts the Obama administration is making to the shipbuilding budget.  As set forth in the Navy’s Quadrennial Defense Review, the service requires a minimum of 313 ships to accomplish its many missions.  Today, however, the Navy is operating just 286 warships.  Given President Obama’s plans to further cut the defense budget, the number of ships in the Navy is certain to continue to decline below even the current number with very negative consequences for the United States; one area that is significantly impacted is America’s amphibious assault capacity. (more)

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese militant Hezbollah has denounced CNN’s decision to fire a Middle East editor for posting a note on Twitter expressing admiration for the country’s late top Shiite cleric. (more)

Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor of Mideast affairs, has left the cable news network after posting a Twitter message lamenting the death of Hezbollah terrorist Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadallah. (more)

While the rest of the country was celebrating the Fourth of July, CNN’s senior editor of Mideast affairs, Octavia Nasr, was mourning the death of Hezbollah spiritual mentor and U.S. designated terrorist Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. (more)

Pro-lifers have long understood the issue of media bias. Years ago, the late, pro-choice David Shaw wrote a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times showing how biased his own newspaper was when reporting on abortion. Shaw showed that bias came through not just on stories about abortion. Shaw showed how even stories that related to surgery on unborn children were skewed or spiked to avoid anything that might have a pro-life message. (more)

CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, posted a message on her Twitter account on Sunday in which she expressed sadness at the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, described by terrorism analysts as the spiritual mentor of Hizbullah. (more)

BEIRUT (AP) — The leading Shiite cleric in Lebanon and one of the sect’s most revered religious authorities, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, died Sunday after a long illness. He was 75. (more)

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Listening to Prime Minister Erdogan’s amped-up rhetoric against the United States and Israel makes me genuinely scared for my country. I believe that people should be able to think for themselves, and to assess a situation based on the facts, not based on someone trying to make them afraid or blame some outside “bogeyman” for what’s going wrong with their lives or their country. It’s time to see those tactics for what they are: popular demagogy is a manipulative act that requires close scrutiny as people are looking toward the future to what they could become. (more)

After 17 months of diplomacy, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice was only able to get 12 of the 15 countries on the United Nations Security Council to vote to place increased sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Rice jumped to defend the Obama Administration’s lackluster performance by claiming that previous Iran resolutions were not unanimous during the Bush Administration and that there were “abstentions”. Her strategy to minimize the Bush team’s performance in order to make her own poor performance look better isn’t factual. After so much hype about President Barack Obama’s foreign policy engagement strategy, the Obama UN resolution was remarkably weak, took too long to get and received less support than Bush’s team got in producing FIVE Security Council resolutions on Iran. (more)

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As world organizations, nations and international media rally together in their favorite cause célèbre of vilifying Israel the Gaza flotilla attack, the country finds itself again on the defensive, trying to explain to the world why it instituted the blockade of Gaza and what part the terrorist organization Hamas is playing in that blockade. (more)

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese anti-aircraft guns opened fire on two Israeli warplanes that were violating Lebanon’s airspace on Wednesday, a military statement said. (more)

The Israeli army and emergency response services have been engaged this week in a 5-day exercise designed to test the home-front capabilities of a large-scale missile attack from Hezbollah, the Financial Times reported. The nation-wide test culminates Wednesday in a warning siren to be heard across the country, which signals citizens to make their way to bomb shelters and safe rooms. (more)