Posted on 08/19/2006 5:19:02 AM PDT by Clive
France has not stepped up as hoped to man the UN's ceasefire force in Lebanon, pledging on Friday to send just 200 soldiers, rather than the 2,000 or more expected. They will join another 200 soldiers France already had there as part of the previous UN peacekeeping force. Germany will not send combat troops, just ships to patrol offshore and perhaps some customs agents and border police. Denmark will send a frigate, but no ground forces.
Muslim countries, however, have been only too eager to step up to the plate. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia have together committed 6,000 soldiers, nearly half the planned UN contingent of 13,000 to 15,000. But not one of these countries recognizes Israel's right to exist, and all have blamed the recent war on "Israeli aggression."
Israeli officials have rightly asked whether troops from these countries can really serve as neutral peacekeepers. Can they be counted on to disarm Hezbollah and keep the terror organization from re-establishing itself as the de facto government of south Lebanon, if their political masters share at least some of the terrorists' views about the war and the eradication of the Jewish state?
The UN resolution that led to the cessation of fighting -- 1701 --calls for a complete disarmament of Hezbollah, including its remaining 9,000 rockets, its automatic rifles, mortars and grenades. The motion also requires the Lebanese army, and the UN peacekeeping force that is expected to be on-site in the next two weeks, to push the terrorists almost 20 kilometres north of the Israeli border to keep them from launching attacks on northern Israel.
Yet on Thursday, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah agreed the country's army would confiscate only those Hezbollah arms it "found" in the area. And on Friday, Elias Murr, Lebanon's defence minister, told Lebanese television, "The army is not going to the south to strip Hezbollah of weapons and do the work Israel did not." He also explained that his definition of "found" meant only those arms being brandished in public. There would be no effort to hunt down Hezbollah's Katyushas or to destroy its network of 700 or more hardened bunkers in the borderlands.
Nor will Mr. Murr and his Lebanese cabinet colleagues lift a finger to stop Hezbollah from reasserting control over the governance of south Lebanon. With the financial backing of Iran, Hezbollah announced on Thursday it would rebuild every residence and business bombed during the month-long war with Israel and provide one-year's rent or mortgage. Instead of Lebanese police and troops restoring civil order, Beirut has permitted Hezbollah fighters to take the lead in clearing rubble, guarding damaged businesses, dismantling unexploded bombs and directing traffic on public roads choked with returning refugees. Hezbollah, too, controls the inflow of humanitarian supplies and medical aid, and has already resumed making welfare payments.
It is no wonder most southern Lebanese look to Hezbollah for protection rather than to their country's democratically elected parliament. Even most Lebanese soldiers recognize Hezbollah as the true power south of the Litani River. One veteran sergeant told the National Post's Matthew Fisher on Thursday that it was a pipedream to think he and his comrades could disarm Hezbollah, even if they wanted to, which they did not. "Hezbollah and the army are united. We are one," he admitted. "My brother is in Hezbollah, so why would I want to take his weapon?"
UN peacekeepers -- especially those from Islamic states -- cannot be expected to take a harder line than Lebanon itself. Nor is there any sign their governments want to. At a recent meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur, all three Muslim countries that have offered to patrol in Lebanon called on the UN to end the war of "Israeli aggression," and urged their fellow Muslim nations to "discontinue their overt and covert ties with the Zionist regime immediately." Separately, Bangladesh went further, calling Israel's defensive actions "state terrorism."
It seems highly unlikely either the UN or the Lebanese government, then, will do anything to stop Hezbollah from re-establishing its terrorist statelet within easy striking distance of Israel's northern cities and farms. With such a scenario, a resumption of hostilities seems inevitable, perhaps within months.
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Wellll Golleeee!! SUPrise Suprise!!!!!!
Yawn.....France sucks.
Looks like the UN has conspired to place a Muslim Army on Israel's northern border.
On a related note, France declared today its intention to remove the troublesome red and blue from its flag.
This is really pretty weird.
The only people willing to send troops are other Muslims. Heres the way that works. The troops they send in will be Muslim troops previously paid by Muslim countries, that will now be paid by the UN. Thats relieves those countris of paying their troops.
In actuality these troops will be reinforcement for Hezballah. They make great shields wearing their little blue bonnets while really protecting terrorists.
I give credit to the terrorists they were pretty slick in thinking this one up. The Froggies and the US played right into their hands by stopping the fighting. Olmert has practically given Israel to terrorist by not pressing the war when he ahd the chance. This will go down in history as one on the most bungled operations ever to have seen the light of day.
Now with Iran and the Turks poised on the Northern Iraq border we will see what happens there.
[The UN resolution that led to the cessation of fighting -- 1701 --calls for a complete disarmament of Hezbollah,]
Who believes this? No one at all but fools. The cease fire is but a ploy of Islamic and world fascists to regroup, rearm and return Hezbollah to the south of Hezbollahland (formally, Lebanon).
A child can see this ploy, but foolish adults and politicians are blind.
[Looks like the UN has conspired to place a Muslim Army on Israel's northern border.]
Amen. The same UN that stole money from American taxpayers to fund murderers and fascists? The same U.N. that is some 2/3 composed of desoitic nations that murder and destroy their own people and tramples on their own people's human dignity and rights that God expects of human government? The same U.N. headed up by a black racist and anti semite and thief and liar name Kofi Anan?
What a shock!
Israel shouldn't even issue a warning when they start shelling the area again. Don't even bother showing up France......
France, collectively (how appropos) has been all bluster and nothing but since the end of WWI. It has been totally undeserving of the prominent position it has had at the UN and in the EU. It has used its position to flail it arms and shout reflexively in criticism of others positions while offering nothing but mere talk and weakness as strengths.
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