Those 40,000 soldiers have begun moving across the Lebanese border, even as the UN is trying to stop Israel from finishing the job.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the IDF on Friday to send ground forces into Lebanon and up to the Litani river, some 30 kilometers from Israel.
The UN is failing to achieve anything remotely approaching the disarmament of Hezbullah. Try not to be too shocked.
The decision to go ahead was reached after it became evident that a UN resolution would not include the disarmament of Hizbullah. In any case, officials stressed that the ground operation could come to a halt at any time if an acceptable cease-fire resolution is put on the table.
Ehud Olmert is extremely unhappy with the proposed UN resolution.
Friday’s diplomatic advances followed Lebanon’s objection on Thursday to a U.S. and French proposal to enlarge a U.N. peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon and give it the authority under a provision of the U.N. Charter, known as Chapter 7, to use force to implement its mandate.
Friday morning, the U.S. and France settled on a compromise that would grant U.N. peacekeepers a somewhat less forceful mandate to restore calm and help thousands of Lebanese soldiers take control of a buffer zone between the two countries.
[…] The breakthrough in negotiations with France came after the United States dropped its demand that Israeli troops be allowed to remain in southern Lebanon until a muscular international force is in place with a tough mandate to ensure that Hezbollah could not mount attacks on Israeli towns. Washington also agreed to scrap a provision that the force be explicitly authorized to disarm Hezbollah.
Gee. Can’t understand why the Israelis would be unhappy with that. No, wait, I really can. That sentence was sarcasm. Just in case you didn’t pick up on it.
Well, it’s going to be a busy weekend for me, so don’t expect hourly updates. I’ve got friends from out of town coming. But I’ll be sneaking in a post or two.
and stops.Olmert must be hung by the balls.Head must roll.Worst defeat since 1948
This is a bad situation for Israel. And I fear it shall only get worse with Olmert as the head man.
This is pretty poor results for the US too, outmaneuvered in diplomacy and our client state prevented from finishing the job. Condi looks worse and worse all the time. It’s like she got the appeasement mindset just from breathing the air in Foggy Bottom.