AP: Olmert Sets Conditions on Blockade's End

[Eugene]

Olmert Sets Conditions on Blockade's End


Tuesday August 22, 2006 6:46 PM

AP Photo JRL812

By JOSEF FEDERMAN

Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel will lift
its air and sea blockade of Lebanon once an international peacekeeping force
is deployed along Lebanon's borders.

The remarks came during talks with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen and hours after
the Lebanese foreign minister called on the international community to force Israel
to end the blockade.

"Olmert said deploying the force at border crossings to Syria and at the airport
will allow the lifting of Israel's sea and air blockade and contribute to the
implementation" of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire agreement, said a statement issued
by Olmert's office.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6031104,00.html

[Submariner]

1. There's an oil spill to rival the Exxon Valdez spill

that Israel caused when they blew up the shoreline oil tanks. I expect they will help clean up the ecological disaster they caused....without another U.S. handout.

[zreosumgame]

4. I wish you were joking...

[endarkenment]

2. The UNIFIL mandate here is not a directive.

"Accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the South, including along the Blue Line, as Israel withdraws its armed forces from Lebanon;"

and

"Assist the Government of Lebanon, at its request, in securing its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel. "
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/mandate.html

At Lebanon's request, not Israel's demand. Olmert is attempting to rewrite the agreement that he has also directly violated and has asserted that he will violate again.

The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of war. Israel does not appear to want peace on any terms other than its own.

[theanarch]

3. amen, bro'...n't

[PointAndLaugh]

5. Face saving tactics from Olmert.

He has to give Israelis some kind of feeling that something was accomplished. That Israel and IDF made a difference somewhere.

Pretty hard to do when your tanks are burning in the fields and hills of south Lebanon and you are suffering hundreds of casualties weekly, all in front of cameras of pretty much every major news agency on the planet.

Those warships will leave, slowly, one by one. They don't want to give the impression of running with tails between their legs. This is pretty much all they got left. Well, at least until Hezbollah gets some superior anti-ship missiles.