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Israeli prime minister accepts U.N. cease-fire deal
Yahoo News ^ | 09/11/2006 | By KARIN LAUB

Posted on 08/11/2006 3:58:31 PM PDT by garbageseeker

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed an emerging Mideast cease-fire deal late Friday, after a day of dramatic day brinksmanship including a threat to expand the ground war in Lebanon.

The agreement calls for the deployment of 30,000 Lebanese and U.N. troops along the Israel-Lebanon border. It falls short of some of Israel's demands, including a strong mandate for the U.N. forces to take on Hezbollah guerrillas.

However, the draft is the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of war that has killed more than 800 people, destroyed Lebanon's infrastructure and inflamed tensions across the Middle East.

Neither the Lebanese government nor Hezbollah has said publicly whether they would sign on to the deal, but it was widely assumed that they did not object to it. Plans to take the resolution to a vote were announced in New York shortly after U.S. Mideast envoy, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, met for a second time Friday with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Israeli officials said Israel would not halt fighting until Israel's Cabinet has approved the cease-fire deal in its weekly meeting Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether the military would expand its ground offensive in the time remaining, or would only hold existing positions.

Only six hours passed from an initial decision by Olmert to broaden the ground offensive to his acceptance of the cease-fire deal. The zigzag reflected Israel's dilemma after a month of inconclusive fighting.

Israel has been unable to defeat Hezbollah and was concerned about growing Israeli casualties, as well as international condemnation, if the war continued. However, Olmert also feared that accepting a deal that does not rein in the guerrillas could lead to another war down the road and hurt him politically.

Olmert's initial order to send troops deeper into Hezbollah territory came even as U.N. Security Council negotiations reached the final stretch in New York.

Several hours later, France and the United States reached agreement on a final draft, to be put to a vote later Friday. The draft would authorize the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon, along with 15,000 Lebanese troops, into the region "as Israel withdraws."

The Security Council, repeatedly accused of taking too long to come up with a response to fighting, would leave out several key demands from both Israel and Lebanon in efforts to come up with a workable arrangement.

"You never get a deal like this with everybody getting everything that they want," Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said. "The question is, has everybody got enough for this to stick and for it to be enforceable? Nobody wants to go back to where we were before this last episode started."

Despite Lebanese objections, Israel will be allowed to continue defensive operations, and a dispute over the Chebaa Farms area along the Syria-Lebanon-Israel border will be left for later. Israel won't get its wish for an entirely new multinational force separate from the U.N. peacekeepers that have been stationed in south Lebanon since 1978.

There is also no call for the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel or a demand for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops. Although the draft resolution emphasizes the need for the "unconditional release" of the two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by Hezbollah sparked the conflict, that call is not included in the list of steps required for a lasting cease-fire.

The ongoing fighting has killed more than 800 people — including at least 732 Lebanese and 122 Israelis.

After nightfall, there were some signs of troop movement on the Israel-Lebanon border. Battle-ready soldiers carrying heavy backpacks marched near the border as tanks assembled nearby. In south Lebanon, there were no reports of increased troop activity. Israeli officials gave conflicting assessments on whether a wider campaign was under way.

More than 10,000 Israeli troops are already fighting Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon. In the new phase, Israeli forces would push toward Lebanon's Litani River, some 18 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, attempting to capture more than twice as much territory as they hold now.

Olmert has faced growing criticism at home for the army's inability to halt the rocket barrages; Hezbollah has fired more than 3,500 rockets in the monthlong war. Polls also indicated that his initially approval rating, high at the start of the war, was slipping.

Commentators have suggested Olmert's political career was at stake, and that he might even be forced to step down. Many Israelis believe defeating Hezbollah is essential for their country's long-term security.

In Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least 15 people as ground fighting picked up intensity in the south of the country.

In the Bekaa Valley, an Israeli drone fired missiles into a convoy of refugees fleeing attacks in the southern town of Marjayoun, killing at least six people and wounding 16 others, an Associated Press photographer said.

The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the incident. The army noted that it had imposed a travel ban on south Lebanon, and had received no request to coordinate a convoy in that area.

Throughout the day, civilians had been fleeing fighting in the Christian town of Marjayoun in long convoys after Israeli forces entered earlier this week.

Lutfallah Daher, the photographer, was with the convoy when it was hit near the town of Chtaura, about 30 miles north of the Litani River. Israel had warned it would attack any vehicle on roads south of the Litani, assuming it was carrying Hezbollah weapons or fighters.

Daher said the convoy consisted of more than 600 civilian vehicles and others carrying a detachment of 350 Lebanese soldiers and police when it left the area around Marjayoun. He said very few of the vehicles had left the convoy when it was hit.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2006israelwar; appeasement; appeaser; ceasefire; ehudolmer; ehudolmert; idf; israel; lebanon; olmert; peaceinourtime; un; unres1701
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To: garbageseeker

I'm sure Hezbollah appreciates the chance to catch it's breath and re-arm.

Thank you UN Security Council for this UNANIMOUS vote of prolonging the inevitable.


161 posted on 08/11/2006 5:02:33 PM PDT by DakotaRed
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To: silentknight

I don't agree any more. I think Olmert probably rejects the intelligence opinion. I don't think they have any intention of going after Iran.


162 posted on 08/11/2006 5:02:41 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Peace In Our TimeĀ®)
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To: CremeSaver
ah...and what's wrong with giving the enemy a chance?
we see how many in our own country, and don't even bother counting the world that want to see America defeated.
Let us not as a nation kid ourselves into a sleepy state of contentment. Should the nation not address and ask the enemy (in the very least) to explain their positions (as if we haven't heard) and then everyone will know where each and everyone stands.....
I'm waiting on 'un' to tell me this is important????
terrible state of affairs if that's the past (?) and present.
'un'incharge.
163 posted on 08/11/2006 5:03:04 PM PDT by no-to-illegals (Israel - protecting a piece of a civilized world from rocket firing maroons 'un'peace treaties sale)
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To: IrishRainy

She smiles like the jackals at Munich in 1938.


164 posted on 08/11/2006 5:03:27 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: MikeA

Just like when they humiliated Carter for 444 days and then released the hostages the same day Reagan was inaugurated.


165 posted on 08/11/2006 5:04:23 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Peace In Our TimeĀ®)
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To: dotnetfellow
"And just what does she have to thank Annan for? She needs to bat them down. What a suck up!"

She is an adult professional this is diplomacy. Be real.

166 posted on 08/11/2006 5:05:23 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles (A)
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To: IrishRainy

Folk the UN and their "cessation of hostilities." This is total bravo sierra. Keep fighting Israel!!!!!!!! You know Hezb'allah will.


167 posted on 08/11/2006 5:06:50 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys-Reagan and Bush)
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To: ichabod1

I'm a big Patton fan, too. He was a man who knew how to wage war. Shep Smith was saying that he was hearing so many complaints from IDF members who were hurried into war just to be left sitting twiddling their thumbs. No way to treat a soldier fighting for their country's survival.


168 posted on 08/11/2006 5:08:23 PM PDT by CremeSaver (Prayers for Israel.)
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To: Luke21
I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. Every person deserves to be given a chance to prove themselves. Now, I am saying the Knesset needs to convene a emergency session to begin debating a vote of "no confidence".
169 posted on 08/11/2006 5:08:37 PM PDT by garbageseeker ("The best form of defense is attack." -Karl Philippe Gottfried von Clausewitz)
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To: Logical me
I blame Bush who instructed Rice and Bolton to ruin a chance for Israel to strike a crushing blow on the war on terror.

I strongly disagree. Their instructions would be totally different if this crushing blow on Hisbollah was delivered.

Israel conducted this war unacceptably badly – poor strategy, first of all.

When they amassed their armory on the Lebanese border, I was expecting the real first and decisive air strikes to be delivered onto the Hez supplying and communications lines along the Syrian border, followed by something like distractive deployment of some airborne troops there. The carnage there would lure the Hez fighters from their holes in the South Lebanon, and then it would be a shooting range for the IDF…

I’m afraid that Bolton and Rice now just help Israel to get out of the mess with some dignity.

170 posted on 08/11/2006 5:08:40 PM PDT by Neophyte (Nazis, Communists, Islamists... what the heck is the difference?)
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To: ekwd
So Bush gave the Israeli's only a month to start the offensive before he concluded that the Israeli government was just going to keep on piddling on themselves? Of course, it's all Bush's fault. How illogical of me to think otherwise.

Who said it was Bush's fault. Can't you read. What I said is that the current resolution was built by France and the US. It is the resolution that is the problem. Of course, Israel under the leadership of the hard left did not conduct the war as they should. That is easy to figure out. It is our part of the current resolution is a shame. The US should have stayed out of the resolution making so the Israel people would still have the feeling we are with them. Instead we supported their defeat in the war which was just and Israel should have won.

171 posted on 08/11/2006 5:08:58 PM PDT by Logical me (Oh, well!!!)
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To: garbageseeker

Hezbollah won't quit shooting so the "cease fire" will be moot.


172 posted on 08/11/2006 5:10:56 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: 1st-P-In-The-Pod; A_Conservative_in_Cambridge; af_vet_rr; agrace; albyjimc2; Alexander Rubin; ...
What does Israel get out of this? Hezbollah has not agreed to stop shooting rockets, the kidnapped soldiers remain missing. I can't think of a single benefit that they gain from this.

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

173 posted on 08/11/2006 5:12:08 PM PDT by Alouette (Psalms of the Day: 83-87)
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To: the invisib1e hand

Never underestimate hezbollah's propensity to overreach, and snatch defeat from the UN jaws of victory.


174 posted on 08/11/2006 5:12:25 PM PDT by AdvisorB (For a terrorist bodycount in hamistan, let the smoke clear then count the ears and divide by 2.)
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To: Mr.Smorch

at this point one can only......wait.


175 posted on 08/11/2006 5:14:58 PM PDT by no-to-illegals (Israel - protecting a piece of a civilized world from rocket firing maroons 'un'peace treaties sale)
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To: Mr.Smorch

Thanks for your support. When fight a war, you fight to win and smash the enemy to bits. This may include the bombing civilian areas. In WWII, the United States and Britian never apologized for bombing civilian targets.It drove me nuts when Israel apologized for bombing civilian positions. I thank you and the people out there for agreeing with my positions.


176 posted on 08/11/2006 5:15:03 PM PDT by garbageseeker ("The best form of defense is attack." -Karl Philippe Gottfried von Clausewitz)
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To: garbageseeker
Israels should not be negotiating with terrorists who wish to see her destroyed.Israel should not be negotiating with countries who harbor terrorists.

That's exactly the point! Israel is negotiating with Lebanon not Hezbollah ... Bolton has made it clear that we will only deal with Lebanon not Hezbollah.

So if Lebanon turns this down because of Hezbollah it will become apparent.

So for those upset that Israel is willing to accept this settlement, it is a mute point.

177 posted on 08/11/2006 5:15:52 PM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: drlevy88

Your right. Hezbollah will never abide by the cease fire.


178 posted on 08/11/2006 5:15:56 PM PDT by garbageseeker ("The best form of defense is attack." -Karl Philippe Gottfried von Clausewitz)
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To: silentknight
Where are the soldiers that were taken????????????

Tony Snow just said on Fox that their release will be addressed in a SECOND resolution. WTF????

179 posted on 08/11/2006 5:15:57 PM PDT by IndyTiger
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To: IndyTiger
don't buy it Israel
for the 'un' is about to do you wrong.....
180 posted on 08/11/2006 5:19:40 PM PDT by no-to-illegals (Israel - protecting a piece of a civilized world from rocket firing maroons 'un'peace treaties sale)
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