Victory For Hezbollah
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701 Friday evening, calling for a cessation of hostilities between Hizbullah and Israel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will recommend to the cabinet that it accept the UNSC resolution at its weekly meeting Sunday.
The resolution authorizes the deployment of 15,000 UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon in support of Lebanese army forces, which are to move into the region and replace Hizbullah in parallel with a withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Israel is not required to withdraw until the deployment of UN and Lebanese forces begins.
The new UN peacekeeping force, still under the auspices of UNIFIL, will, according to the resolution, be enhanced “in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operations.” The 15,000-strong force will be charged with helping the Lebanese government to implement its sovereignty “over all Lebanese territory,” including that previously been under the de facto authority of Hizbullah.
So UNIFIL forces will be in charge of disarming Hezbollah? Would that be the same UNIFIL forces that are actually deployed with Hezbollah? To the point where they actually fly their flags right next to each other and share water/telephones?
Yeah, those folks are going to be real effective against Hezbollah.
I’m not convinced that any UN force or the Lebanese force has the will, let alone the capability, to disarm Hezbollah and take back the land they occupy. It just won’t happen. These forces will be deployed, Israel will pull back and we’ll all forget about what happened until Hezbollah is rested and re-supplied to the point where they can resume attacks on Israel.
Like I’ve said before, the only lasting solution to this conflict is to let the two sides fight until one side loses.



