MaxedOutMama
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Hezbollah Says "No" To Ceasefire
BBC:
Hezbollah still seems intent on continuing this, and the Lebanese government is too weak to stop them. The unfortunate people of Lebanon are held hostage to a bloodthirsty militia, which will not abandon its base of operations and is continuing to attack another sovereign state. I think the UN resolution has already failed, because Hezbollah will stop at nothing and cares only about itself. It is prepared to destroy Lebanon to protect itself.
Update: See YARGB:
It doesn't appear that Israel will be safer. Many think this will be just a prelude to a much bigger war and it will give a confident Hezbollah time to rearm. And what will Israel have to concede for this temporary peace, the Shaaba Farms, the West Bank, the Golan Heights? It is extremely disappointing that Israel was never ever able to solve the Katushya Rocket problem. Just today another 250 were launched. What is to prevent Hezbollah from launching longer range and more deadly rockets from behind the Litani River?
Oraculations, quoting a Pakistani Muslim living in the US who describes the conditions in the madrassas (including rape of the kids there):
SC&A on the UN. A must-read. It is all posturing, and no one really cares about Lebanon. They have crafted a resolution which leaves the situation in Lebanon unchanged but can now represent themselves as peacemakers:
The Israeli cabinet has endorsed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to fighting in southern Lebanon.Can the UN forces even deploy under these conditions? The cabinet is refusing to authorize deployment of Lebanese forces (see Ouwet.com's post here about the manpower problem). Another BBC article:
...
A Lebanese cabinet meeting to discuss the disarming of Hezbollah under the ceasefire has been postponed.
"Hezbollah had some observations over... the discussion of their disarmament," a government source told Reuters news agency.
Hezbollah, a member of the government, says it has the right to continue attacks until the last Israeli soldier has left Lebanese soil.
Lebanon's cabinet indefinitely postponed its meeting.The Lebanese government has to authorize the deployment of the UN forces and the UN forces were only supposed to be a supplement to their own force, under the terms of the UN resolution:
After five hours of discussions on Saturday, it had agreed to accept a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution with reservations.
The second gathering was meant to consider the details of implementation.
However, the issue of Hezbollah's disarmament and its military presence in southern Lebanon continues to cause major tensions within the fragile government, our correspondent reports.
He says that without a meeting and an agreed plan, it seems that the deployment of 15,000 Lebanese army troops to the south is unlikely to go ahead.
Welcoming the unanimous decision by the government of Lebanon on 7 August 2006 to deploy a Lebanese armed force of 15,000 troops in south Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws behind the Blue Line and to request the assistance of additional forces from Unifil as needed, to facilitate the entry of the Lebanese armed forces into the region and to restate its intention to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces with material as needed to enable it to perform its duties;I can understand why Hezbollah won't want all this to happen, but it appears that nothing has changed. The deployment of UN forces won't begin until all is quiet and the Lebanese government sends the military in. According to the resolution, Israel doesn't have to withdraw until the government troops arrive.
...
1. Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;
2. Upon full cessation of hostilities, calls upon the government of Lebanon and Unifil as authorised by paragraph 11 to deploy their forces together throughout the South and calls upon the government of Israel, as that deployment begins, to withdraw all of its forces from southern Lebanon in parallel;
3. Emphasises the importance of the extension of the control of the government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006), and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon;
Hezbollah still seems intent on continuing this, and the Lebanese government is too weak to stop them. The unfortunate people of Lebanon are held hostage to a bloodthirsty militia, which will not abandon its base of operations and is continuing to attack another sovereign state. I think the UN resolution has already failed, because Hezbollah will stop at nothing and cares only about itself. It is prepared to destroy Lebanon to protect itself.
Update: See YARGB:
Yesterday at the Lebanese Council of Ministers’ meeting the following positions were taken:Mover Mike:
* Mohammad Fneish (Minister of Energy, and one of two Hezbollah in the cabinet): The position of Hezbollah is NOT TO DISARM in any part of the country until the Shebaa farms are liberated.
*Fneish then challenged both the Government and Lebanese Army to search and destroy Hezbollah’s weapons by force — ‘If you are men!’
* Michel Sleiman (General of Lebanese Army) stated that the Lebanese Army will not deploy one soldier until Hezbollah agrees to the whole political and deployment schedule.
It doesn't appear that Israel will be safer. Many think this will be just a prelude to a much bigger war and it will give a confident Hezbollah time to rearm. And what will Israel have to concede for this temporary peace, the Shaaba Farms, the West Bank, the Golan Heights? It is extremely disappointing that Israel was never ever able to solve the Katushya Rocket problem. Just today another 250 were launched. What is to prevent Hezbollah from launching longer range and more deadly rockets from behind the Litani River?
Oraculations, quoting a Pakistani Muslim living in the US who describes the conditions in the madrassas (including rape of the kids there):
The willingness with which British-Pakistanis are committing suicide-attacks, entering war-zones where they are most likely to be killed, is that same suicide impulse. These kids are steeped in a sort of meaningless nihilism with no way of getting out. Nihilism can be defeated with Belief. However, the only form of belief thaty are drawn to, is the murderous kind. The post-modern Nihilism of these youth meets the regressive Nihilism of Islamic Fanaticism.Hezbollah's purpose is war, and it has no existence without it. This is nihilism in action, and it cannot be opposed with UN resolutions. We all ought to look at what is happening in Lebanon and make the larger extension to such organizations in other countries.
SC&A on the UN. A must-read. It is all posturing, and no one really cares about Lebanon. They have crafted a resolution which leaves the situation in Lebanon unchanged but can now represent themselves as peacemakers:
In the post blah blah blah of the UN Resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, each representative gravely announced on behalf of their respective nations, that they each had wished there could have been an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Of course, not a single UN Ambassador appointed to the Security C ouncil, was instructed by his government to table a resolution at the UN till last week- and even then, it was understood that the US and France would hammer out the arrangement, no matter how long it took.
...
Lebanon and the Arab world need to consider why things unfolded why they did. In fact, even a cursory look at the UN Security Council over the last month reveals that the Security Council acted with remarkable unanimity of purpose.
