With bombs and rockets falling and civilians getting killed in three countries, it is hard to see any good news in the Mideast. But amid the carnage, there is hope. Like a ray of sunshine piercing the darkness, some Muslims are beginning to awaken to the danger of the Islamic extremists in their ranks.

A handful of Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, are openly criticizing Hezbollah for starting the war with Israel. In the annals of Arab versus Jew, it is rare for any Arab country to publicly air the family’s dirty laundry, especially during a war. Yet that is what Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and several smaller Persian Gulf countries are doing. The Saudi foreign minister, speaking at an Arab League conference, called Hezbollah’s attacks “inappropriate and irresponsible” and warned they “will pull the whole region back to years ago and we cannot simply accept that.”

The awakening is even spreading to Iraq, where The New York Times reported that Sunnis, the fiercest opponents of our troops, now say they want Americans to stay to protect them from other Muslims. Some Sunni leaders want us to send more troops, according to The Times, which recounted this scene at a Baghdad mosque: “When an American convoy rolled in recently, a remarkable message rang out from loudspeakers of the Abu Hanifa Mosque, where Saddam Hussein made his last public appearance …

“‘The American Army is coming with the Iraqi Army – do not shoot,”‘ the voice said … “‘They are here to help you.”‘

Wow. Say it again: The Americans are here to help. That’s music to my ears.

Of course, there is no guarantee the Arab masses will “get it,” as illustrated by the mayhem in Iraq yesterday. The suicide bombers and death squads went about their grisly work in Iraq on the same day the United Nations reported that sectarian violence there left nearly 6,000 civilians dead in the last two months.

Nor are pure motives always behind those joining the anti-terror brigade. Saudi, Jordanian and Egyptian officials are alarmed by the rise of Hezbollah largely because it is a Shiite organization and closely allied with Iran and Syria. They don’t want unrest spreading to their own populations and they don’t want Iran and its madman president to be a dominant regional power.

Whatever their reasons, the converts are welcome to the good-guy movement. Indeed, as the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That is doubly true in the Mideast, where religion, tribe and sect create ancient layers of loyalty and conflict.

Our failure to understand this lethal mix accounts for much of our trouble in Iraq.

But if scattered self-interests can become common interests, then all may not be lost. Especially since Israel is willing to do the hard work of smashing Hezbollah, condemnation from the usual suspects notwithstanding. Does France ever get tired of lecturing the rest of the world?

One result of Israel’s courage is that sensible people from the Arab world are speaking up. One is Ahmed al-Jarallah, the independent-minded editor of the Arab Times, a Kuwaiti paper that publishes in Arabic and English and online. In a recent commentary, Jarallah cited Hamas and Hezbollah as Arab problems, not solutions, then made a stunning declaration: “Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of ‘these irregular phenomena’ is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community.”

Take that, France. And the rest of us should take heart.