Israel is executing Resolution 1559
The Washington Post reports today that talks of an Israeli ceasefire are stalled at the UN.
... deliberations at the United Nations quickly became tangled in a dispute between the United States and France over the right approach.Bush insisted that any cease-fire plan establish Lebanese control over its territory, dispatch a multinational force to create a buffer zone, and require Iran and Syria to stop backing the Hezbollah militia, which is firing rockets at Israeli territory. He made no demands on Israel a day after Israeli bombs killed at least 57 people in a Lebanese village, mostly women and children, and he again rejected calls for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire.
"Stopping for the sake of stopping is -- can be okay, except it won't address the root cause of the problem," Bush said in an interview with Fox News while on a domestic political trip here Monday. The deaths of Lebanese civilians in the village of Qana on Sunday, he added, were "awful. I understand that. But it's also awful that a million Israelis are worried about rockets being fired from their neighbor to the north."
As a bit of an aside, please note that the President of the United States is referred to simply as "Bush," while the head Hez is referred to as "Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah" (other WaPo examples here and here, and here he is referred to as "Hezbollah's astute leader").
The Associated Press and Washington Post may not think our leader is very astute, but I'd say he's marvelous. Not only is what he says true and ethically sound, but it looks like he may be maneuvering to give Israel time to do what has to be done.
And what is it that Israel is doing? Beyond restoring its own security at the border with Lebanon, Dore Gold today noted that Israel is - ironically - in the process of fulfilling UN Security Council Resolution 1559.
1559 "supports the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory" and explicitly calls for "all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon" [NB: Israel had withdrawn four years prior, in 2000] and for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias."
This is especially ironic given that the UN has been for years acting in complete contradiction to its own aims as stated in the Resolution by going out of its way to lend legitimacy to Hezbollah, elevating their status ... as evidenced in this now infamous photo of The Secretary General of the United Nations meeting with the Hez head (June 20, 2000).
Just two months before this photo was taken, Nasrallah declared on HezTV that
"All great disasters that have befallen the region originate from the existence of [UN member state] Israel. As long as there is a state and its name is Israel, these disasters will persist. This is a cancerous presence in the region."
A year before, Nasrallah had publicly declared, "There is no life and no co-existence with Israel; there is only one slogan: Death to Israel.”
And Kofi Annan shook Nasrallah's hand for the cameras. And let him build up a fearsome arsenal in Lebanon. And let him use that arsenal to attack the sovereign state of Israel.
Now we'll just have to wait and see how quickly and effectively the UN can act when it wants to ... to bring the execution of its own Resolution to a grinding halt.
Posted by: Jakesgramma | Wednesday, 02 August 2006 at 02:15 AM