HEZBOLLAH’S MARSHALL PLAN

Hezbollah and Iran didn’t mean to flatter the United States by imitating its Marshall Plan, they are simply using a technique that has proven to work by handing out money to Lebanese residents whose homes were ruined in the month of fighting with Israel. The perplexing thing is why the United States and its allies, who are trying to create a “new Middle East” didn’t jump in first.

Members of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that kidnapped Israeli soldiers setting off the fighting in July, have for weeks been handing out cash to Shi’ite residents whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombs. Israeli and U.S. officials have raised alarm that Hezbollah will encourage such residents to support them.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora this week said his government planned to pay $40,000 dollars to families whose homes were destroyed. He is currently at a conference in Stockholm asking countries and organizations to contribute funds to pay for reconstruction and other work. The European Union has already contributed $54 million for short-term recovery work such as removing unexploded bombs and rebuilding ruined roads. U.S. officials plan to formally pledge the $230 million that President Bush offered last week.

While rebuilding funds are necessary, compensation to individuals from the Lebanese government may come too late to win the allegiance of the Lebanese public.

Here’s how Secretary of State George C. Marshall explained the post-World War II redevelopment plan that came to bear his name: “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.

“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist,” he said.

What he didn’t say is that support from the United States and its allies was also meant to ensure that countries left desperate by the war would not fall under the sway of communism. By 1953, the United States had devoted $13 billion to Europe under the plan.

Now, Hezbollah, presumably with the financial backing of oil-rich Iran, is doing the same thing. Hamas has long done it in the Palestinian territories. Hamas, considered terrorists by Israel and the West, gained popularity by offering social programs such as day care, medical clinics and payments to families that have lost fathers. Then, it took over the Palestinian parliament.

Arguments over what countries will provide troops for a United Nation’s peacekeeping force are important. But, so is providing incentives for Shi’ites to support the Lebanese government. Sending cash may be more important than sending troops.