To be sure, Obama has done a lot to embolden groups like Hezbollah and fan the flames in the ME. However, the chance for Lebanon to finally rid themselves of this disease came and went after the assassination of Rafiqi and the 2006 conflict.....before Obama was even a candidate.
At the beginning of hostilities, Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman told his Lebanese counterpart that the time was now for Lebanon to choose between peace and terror. He was on MTP in July 2006 and said the following:
I still remember Lebanon 30 years ago as a thriving, vibrant, fun-loving entrepreneurial country. It’s been taken hostage by the Syrians in the north and by Hezbollah in the south. It’s been strangled. And what we’re seeing today is a direct result of the horrors which Lebanon is experiencing because it has allowed the Hezbollah to fester within itself.
True then and worse today.
Hizbollah and before them FATAH were/are festering sores feeding off the host country, Lebanon. Their whole reason for being is to attack Israel from someone else's sovereign territory. That is what they live for and invest all their resources in. Of course in the warped Arab Muslim mentality, they call their actions the “RESISTENCE” and that keeps them in the firm position of being the “protectorate” of the south Lebanese population who are mostly Shiites.
I been there and it is/was a gorgeous country with a great people who are captive to their own internal weaknesses.