BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Hezbollah head Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, described the militant group's clashes with Israel as a "victory" for Islam.

And former President Jimmy Carter:

(SPIEGEL) No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon.

So, if the logic of “a=b, and b=c, then c=a” holds.. Iran and Jimmy Carter feel the same way about Israel?

Well, maybe Mr. Carter at least thinks the people of Israel don’t need to be wiped off the face of the earth?

I am so sick of American and European nation’s political leaders acting like our entire influence in the Mid-East doesn’t have direct ties to the strength of Israel, and that an attack on Israel is a direct attack on the very foundations of western style society in the region. I’m getting irritated with people that are ready to blame Israel for all the violence, but readily forget that they were attack first by the entire Arab region, and stand every day under direct threat of total destruction by all their neighbors.

I think some Americans need to remember that 90% of the time Israel is the victim… because every time we try to paint them as the bad guy, it’s the equivalent of saying that the girl who was mugged by five guys is wrong for using her can of mace to get away.

Get serious about it and quit totting party lines. Iran, Syria, Joradan, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman would rejoice if the Israel were to suddenly disappear, and four of that list were complicit in the war that caused Israel’s “occupation”… yet we still want to point at them as the “reason” for the violence?

Good Grief.