Monday digest

- While Israel's resolve is firm, Syria is offering to help Americans trapped in Lebanon find safe passage home to the States. Perhaps the President's profanity was taken as a message to the Assad regime that they are clearly in the US' sights and so now they're trying to play nice, which would isolate Iran. I also think that putting an international force on the ground there would be a bad idea, since peacekeepers would have no peace to keep. The way out of the impasse is simple: lean on Hamas and Hezbollah to hand over the Israeli soldiers.

- Hillary has come out four-square behind Israel, but for some reason, I don't think she's going to face the type of challenge that Lieberman is.

- The guy who emerged from the shadows last week to admit his role in the recent Toronto arrests, Mubin Shaikh, is an odd cat. Here's a guy who is a Sharia-law activist, pro-Taliban, and also goes to the press after having helped uncover an alleged terror plot. What I think is most troubling, though, is that certain members of the Muslim community, like Ali Hindy, infer that he was somehow working against Islam and his community by assisting the authorities.