Via Thought Theater I come across this article:

Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."

In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."

"It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahri said. "We will attack everywhere." Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims for more than seven centuries until they were driven from power in 1492.

He also called for the "downtrodden" throughout the world, not just Muslims, to join the battle against "tyrannical Western civilization and its leader, America."

"Stand with Muslims in confronting this unprecedented oppression and tyranny. Stand with us as we stand with you against this injustice that was forbidden by God in his book (the Quran)," al-Zawahri said.

Kamal Habib, a former member of Egypt's Islamic Jihad militant group who was jailed from 1981 to 1991 along with al-Zawahri, said the al-Qaida No. 2's outreach to Shiites and non-Muslims was unprecedented and reflected a major change in tactics.

"This is a transformation in the vision of al-Qaida and its struggle with the United States. It is now trying to unite Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims and calling for non-Muslims to join the fight," he said.

An important point is the death of al-Zarqawi. See Zarqawi believe in sectarian warfare - Sunni vs Shia. Bin Laden and Zwahiri have generally championed pan-Islamism - that Shia and Sunni must work together to defeat the Crusaders. Bin Laden and Zarqawi had a sharp disagreement on this issue, but Zarqawi was both popular and in charge in Iraq (and a major reason why there's now a civil war, because he wouldn't stop attacking Shi'ites despite what appear to be unambiguous instructions to do so.)

So when you hear rumours that Zarqawi was sold out by al-Q'aeda, this is probably why... It was time for Zarqawi to do one last service for al-Q'aeda - become a martyr and get out of the way of effective strategy, thanks.

Hezbollah was really stealing al-Q'aeda's thunder and that meant they had to do something. Trying to attach their struggle to Hezbollah's is the smart thing to do from their point of view. I wonder if Hezbollah appreciates it, however - they have been very careful in the last few years to disavow terrorism against non Israeli targets. I would be surprised if they would change that strategy unless the US actually directly attacks them. Hezbollah wants legitimacy. Allying themselves with al-Q'aeda will deny them that and it's not something I can see them doing unless they feel they hae absolutely no other options.