Posted on 08/16/2006 4:37:09 PM PDT by mojito
Despite the public reappearance of armed Hizbullah gunmen in southern Lebanon, senior IDF officers said Wednesday that Israel would uphold the cease-fire and begin to gradually withdraw its forces ahead of the planned deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, scheduled to begin on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese cabinet approved a plan to deploy troops south of the Litani River and to extend government authority over the region, a key provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended 34 days of fighting. But the cabinet said soldiers would not "chase" or "take revenge" on Hizbullah guerrillas in a bid to disarm the fighters.
"There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hizbullah... That is not the army's mission... They are not going to chase and, God forbid, exact revenge," said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi after the two-hour cabinet meeting.
Senior Hizbullah official Hassan Fadlallah said that the issue of his organization's disarmament was not on the agenda.
According to Fadlallah, who spoke with al-Jazeera, Hizbullah will not evacuate its operatives from southern Lebanon since they are the ones who populate the region. "Any such withdrawal means the evacuation of southern Lebanon," he said.
Despite the Lebanese government's clear announcement that it would not work to disarm Hizbullah, the IDF said it was going ahead with the transfer of Lebanese territory to UNIFIL and eventually to the Lebanese army.
On Wednesday, the IDF began handing over small pieces of southern Lebanon to the existing UNIFIL force.
"We will go ahead with the transfer of the territory to the new UNIFIL force," OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam said following a meeting with the head of the UN force, French Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini at Rosh Hanikra Wednesday night.
The UN peacekeeper said he believed his 2,000 member force, soon to be upgraded to 15,000 observers, would complete its deployment by the end of next week.
"We know that this will be a long process and that Hizbullah will not be disarmed immediately," said one high-ranking officer in the IDF Northern Command. "But we still plan to be out of Lebanon by the end of next week."
Meanwhile Wednesday, the IDF completed the withdrawal of reservists and the reformation of a security zone in southern Lebanon.
The Golani, Nahal and Paratrooper Brigades, backed up by the Armored Corps, replaced the reservists and were holding positions on the outskirts of villages in preparation for the full withdrawal, which IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz also said would be completed by the end of next week.
He warned, however, that the IDF would halt its withdrawal if the Lebanese army did not deploy to the area within the week.
"If the Lebanese army does not move down within a number of days to the south we must stop our withdrawal," Halutz told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Wednesday.
A senior member of the General Staff added that the IDF might be in Lebanon for "months and not weeks," as the military would not completely withdraw until an international force was deployed and in control of the area.
"The deployment of UNIFIL troops in southern Lebanon is likely to take several months, the timeline is not clear. Until then the IDF must stay in the field," said the officer.
Halutz, who has faced increasing criticism asking why the IDF continued its operations in Lebanon in the final 48 hours before the truce, said that he had not been aware that a cease-fire was imminent.
Something else is up. Maybe something bigger.
Whats to stop Lebannon from just dressing up 10000 Hezbollah in army fatigues and send them south?
I've seen this sentiment expressed many times on similar threads. As much as I wish it were true, I believe it is time to accept the fact that we are witnessing an Israeli defeat. Pure and simple.
God willing, things will be different the next time, but this one is in the books.
Israel loses.
Like I said, unless on verge of a political defeat the coward won't resume the war no matter what happens to his own citizens.
A political defeat isn't out of the question, but it's not yet imminent.
Major Terror plot is thwarted in Britain (Iran), Syria masses on Israeli border(Iran), The Moo of Iran is to give some kind of announcement Tuesday. It looks like to me Iran is in neck deep in all of this. Maybe the Israelis were alerted to something big coming?
And another failure of the so called "Bush Doctrine"?
Israel's 'Vietnam'
Its no accident that the French will lead the multinational force going to Lebanon.
Whats happened to Israel? Have they lost their minds in the government? They are on the road to a major disaster.
The Moo of Iran talks his crap every day. The day he doesn't make threats is when I would start to worry.
"Something else is up. Maybe something bigger."
This is also my guess... hope, maybe a showdown with Iran!
Israel seems too willing to give up this fight. Thre may be bigger fish to fry soon.
Hezbollah is nothing without Iran/Syria.
This is the Munich agreement. I read a wonderful book about Churchill's experiences in the 30's and I got the exact same enraged feeling of frustration and injustice that I'm getting right now. We're watching the appeasement process all over again.
"Something else is up. Maybe something bigger."
What I'm hoping happened is that some time in the 4th week of the conflict... Israeli military strategists realized that Syria was the real target to strike and worth the extra risk. However, I have reasons to believe that is not the case, I think Israel just needs alternative leadership NOW.
"Whats to stop Lebannon from just dressing up 10000 Hezbollah in army fatigues and send them south?"
Not one thing!
If so, they defeated themselves. Very depressing.
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