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August 12, 2006

Confused Americans for Truth - Peace of a Sort in Lebanon

by Ferdinand T Cat

Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah have all agreed to the terms of the UN cease-fire resolution. The Israelis will probably continue to push extra hard in the next twelve hours so they can destroy as much of Hezbollah's weaponry as they can before the UN moves in.

This cease-fire is not nearly all it's cracked up to be.

First off, it establishes a demilitarized buffer zone in southern Lebanon. This makes sense in Korea, where the goal is to keep North Koreans from expanding their territory at gunpoint. It will have no effect on Hezbollah, however, because they will still be able to kill Israelis with medium-range rockets.

The biggest problem, however, is the following paragraph, which Bruce has found verbatim in most news reports of the cease fire.

Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said his militia would abide by the cease-fire blueprint, but said the guerrillas would keep battling Israeli troops while they remained in Lebanon, calling that “our natural right.”

Since Israel retains the right to defend itself if attacked, Nasrallah can restart the war at any time in the next few weeks by attacking Israelis still in-country.

Slightly less awful but still upsetting is that the the text of the UN resolution discusses the fact of Lebanese terrorists in Israeli jails but makes no mention of the Israeli soldiers kidnapped from Israeli territory.

That's insane. Consider that the one Lebanese prisoner named by Hezbollah since this mess began is multiple murderer Samir Kuntar. To give you an idea of Kumar's importance to the terrorists, it was to secure Kuntar's freedom that a group of PLO terrorists led by one Abu Abbas hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship.

The point is, the UN resolution is concerned about the fate of a multiple murderer but doesn't even mention the two Israeli soldiers. That's a bad sign, because in spite of all Hezbollah's losses, if they get Kuntar back it's a huge victory for them. Nasrallah will be more popular than ever, and that means he'll be able to raise more money for weapons and equipment.

This peace plan is as fragile as glass.

UPDATE: An alert reader points out that the UN statement does call for the release of the Israeli soldiers. That's a hopeful sign, so maybe this thing will work after all.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Sat 11:02 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (1) | More Confused Americans for Truth | Tags:

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Comments

You might want to read it again:

PP3. Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers,


Posted by: JohnJ at August 13, 2006 11:21 AM

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