From Cox and Forum:
From FoxNews: Israeli Cabinet Approves U.N. Cease-Fire Deal Amid Military Push.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the cease-fire agreement would ensure that “Hezbollah won’t continue to exist as a state within a state.”
“The Lebanese government is our address for every problem or violation of the agreement,” Army Radio quoted him as saying. …
The deal was seen at best as a draw with Hezbollah, and some felt Israel — unable to subdue a guerrillas force — had lost.
Neither the Lebanese army nor U.N. forces can be counted on to challenge Hezbollah and prevent the Iran-supplied guerrillas from rearming, military experts and commentators said.
The deal buys a period of calm, at best, and sets the region up for the next war with Tehran’s proxy army, critics said. The truce will be “a time-out until the next confrontation, and maybe not even this,” commentator Nahum Barnea wrote in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot daily.Regarding U.N. forces … From Reuters: Hizbollah says it will abide by ceasefire. (via LGF)
The U.N. resolution authorizes up to 15,000 U.N. troops to move into Lebanon to enforce a ceasefire. France is widely expected to lead the force, which will expand the existing U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but have a stronger mandate. …
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that the mission of the larger UNIFIL would not include disarming Hizbollah by force.
“We never thought a purely military solution could resolve the problem of Hizbollah,” he said. “We are agreed on the goal, the disarmament, but for us the means are purely political.”Regarding the Lebanese army … Dafka posted an interesting July 30th letter by a Lebanese who described Lebanon’s culpabilty in this war, in particuar how his country completely failed to disarm Hezbollah under the last U.N. resolution: A Lebanese Speaks Out.
[O]ur army, reshaped over the years by the Syrian occupier so it could no longer fulfill its role as protector of the nation, did not have the capacity to tackle the militamen of the Hezb [hezb-Allah : the party of Allah. Translator’s note]. Our army whom it is more dangerous to call upon – because of the explosive equilibrium that constitutes each of its brigades – than to shut up behind locked doors in its barracks. A force that is still largely loyal to its former foreign masters, to the point of being uncontrollable ; to the point of having collaborated with the Iranians to put OUR coastal radar stations at the disposal of their missiles, that almost sunk an Israeli boat off the shores of Beirut. …
It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims. We know full well how to get others to pity us and to claim that we are never responsible for the horrors that regularly occur on our soil. Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council’s Resolution 1559 – that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land – was voted on 2 September 2004.
We had two years to put implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children but we did strictly nothing. Our greatest crime – which was not the only one! – was not that we did not succeed but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.
Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut.And naturally Iran doesn’t want its proxy disarmed … From Reuters: Iran says disarming Lebanese Hizbollah “illogical”.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday calling for a “full cessation of hostilities” and for the implementation of a previous U.N. resolution requiring the disarming of armed groups including Hizbollah.
“We are happy for the ceasefire in Lebanon. But the resolution is not balanced,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.
“It does not condemn the Zionist regime (Israel) and its crimes in Lebanon.”
Asked about the call for disarming Hizbollah, Asefi said: “This is a totally unreasonable demand. It is illogical.”
“Let us not forget that as long as there is occupation there is resistance,” he added.As I said before, the only party to benefit from the cease-fire is Hezbollah, and by extension its sponsor, Iran.