Add the Battle for Lebanon to the Dried Manure Pile of Failed UN Resolutions against Rogue Nations!
December 9, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Long ago I remember a practice of going through the fields with a wheel barrow and picking up the many individual dried piles of cow manure to fertilize the corn fields for the next year.
I know in India they stack dried piles of manure to burn as fuel as it is needed. The United Nations has built up a large pile of it in the form of failed resolutions since 1967, and some of it is still very fresh.
I also remember an old joke about a drunken man walking through a cow field in the blinding darkness of night when his hat blew off in the midst of the pasture. They say he tried on 42 hats before he found one that fit. The UN hasn’t found one yet in Lebanon that fits.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
The Battle for Lebanon
THE JERUSALEM POST
The assassination of Pierre Gemayel is a reminder, if any was needed, of whom the West is dealing with. This was a classic Mafia-style hit to accompany Syria’s standard criminal tactics: spread murder and mayhem in the hopes of extorting support for dictatorial rule.
According to the Economist, Syria would be pleased to accede to calls from some, such as James Baker, to “engage” with the US, and already has its list of demands
prepared: an end to the Hariri investigation, a US guar
antee not to undermine the Assad regime, a return of Syrian influence in Lebanon, and Israel handing over the Golan Heights. In exchange, presumably, Syria would pledge to stop fomenting terrorism in Iraq.
The shakedown, then, has already started. The choice before the US and Europe is straightforward: fight or submit. In truth, there is no choice, because only someone ignorant of history would fall for the notion that submission to such blackmail will buy quiet, rather than spurring more murders, terrorism and demands.
The latest Gemayel assassination, following the murders of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, prominent journalists Samir Kassir and Gibran Tueni, Pierre Gemayel’s uncle Bashir, and many other anti-Syrian figures, shows that Syria wishes to renew Lebanon’s civil war, revive its domination of the country, or both. The recent resignation of Syrian-backed ministers in the Lebanese government also illustrates the lengths Syria will go to attempt to block the UN tribunal being organized to try suspects in the Hariri assassination.
Obviously, this trial should go forward with even greater determination and urgency, but
this is not enough. Now is the time to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, rather than standing by as it is added to the pile of tattered resolutions defending Lebanese independence.
Since the war
in Lebanon ended in August, Syria has been rearming Hizbullah in direct violation of the embargo imposed in Resolution 1701. That embargo lacks minimal monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, which should now be created – better late than never.
For example, the resolution stipulates that UNIFIL can only deploy on the Lebanese-Syrian border if Lebanon so requests. The weapons that are flowing across that border directly threaten the Lebanese government, yet that government does not feel it is strong enough to defy Syria and request UNIFIL’s presence and other enforcement mechanisms.
What may seem like increasing boldness of Syria and Iran, as shown by events in Lebanon and Iran’s defiant acceleration of its uranium enrichment efforts, may actually reveal that these regimes regard Western sanctions as more potent than the West does itself. If they were as impervious to sanctions as defeatists in
the West often claim, why are they working so hard to intimidate the West into abandoning the effort?
End Jerusalem Post Article
Begin Haaretz Article
Hezbollah leader accuses Siniora of working with Israel during war
December 7, 2006
By The Associated Press
BEIRUT – Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah accused Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora of conniving with Israel during the July-August war, alleging that he ordered the Lebanese army to confiscate Hezbollah’s supplies of weapons.
“Didn’t the prime minister of Lebanon work to cut off the supply lines?” Nasrallah said in his sharpest attack on Siniora since a United Nations brokered cease-fire halted the fighting in August.
In a rousing speech delivered on huge screens in two central Beirut squares, Nasrallah called for a committee of Lebanese or Arab judges to investigate the government’s actions during the war.
The Hezbollah leader vowed that the opposition’s protests would continue until it achieved a bigger share of the Lebanese cabinet, but he also said he was prepared to negotiate, and that violence was not an option.
The Western-backed Siniora, who is supported by the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, has repeatedly refused to resign and has rejected the demand by Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies for a veto-wielding share of the Cabinet.
Nasrallah told his thousands of supporters that they would eventually achieve their goal of bringing down Siniora’s government.
“We are a people that will not be defeated in the battle of wills,” he said.
“Negotiate with us and we will talk to you,” Nasrallah said, addressing what he called the “illegitimate government.”
“But in the name of all those gathered here, we will not leave the streets before achieving the goal that saves Lebanon,” he said, to roars of approval from the crowd.
It was only the second time since the August cease-fire that Nasrallah had spoken live to a mass rally. The first time – in September – he appeared at the rally in southern Beirut. On Thursday night, he did not appear for security reasons, but spoke via video link to huge screens set up in Riad Solh Square and Martyrs’ Square.
Hezbollah and its opposition allies have staged daily protests for the past week in a bid to force the government’s resignation. Siniora has been holed up in the main government office complex, which is ringed by troops, riot police and barbed wire.
Nasrallah referred to warnings from politicians from all sides, as well as the commander of the national army, that the mass protests could turn increasingly violent and drag the country back to the sectarian civil war of 1975-90. One young Shiite Muslim was shot dead in a riot in a predominantly Sunni Muslim area Sunday night.
“We will not lift our weapons in the face of anyone. We don’t need weapons to defeat you,” Nasrallah said, adding that Hezbollah would use its arms only against Israel.
“We will defeat you with our voices,” he said.
The speech seemed to be an attempt to prime the opposition for the massive demonstration that it plans to convene in central Beirut on Sunday. In a statement published Thursday, the opposition called on its supporters to take part in “a historic and decisive” demonstration that aimed to replace “one-color government with a national unity government” – Hezbollah parlance for a cabinet in which it and its allies have a third of the seats.
Earlier Thursday, Siniora said he would stand firm and the Cabinet was
“constitutional and legitimate.”
Siniora’s allies, meanwhile, have accused Hezbollah of being influenced by Iran and Syria, which they claim want to destabilize Lebanon by supporting the militant group’s plans to oust the government.
Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon last year under heavy international pressure after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Syria’s Lebanese opponents blamed it for the killing, a charge Damascus has denied.
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