White House "declines to criticize" Israel's violation of cease-fire

[Human Torch]

Annan: Israeli Commando Raid Violated Cease-Fire
Saturday, August 19, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that an Israeli commando raid deep in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Saturday violated the U.N. brokered cease-fire deal, putting the six-day cease-fire with Hezbollah guerrillas to a critical test.

Israel said the raid was launched to stop arms smuggling to the militant Shiite fighters, but Lebanon said the operation violated the U.N. truce agreement. One Israeli officer was killed fighting Hezbollah guerrillas, and two were wounded, one seriously.

"All such violations of Security Council resolution 1701 endanger the fragile calm that was reached after much negotiation and undermine the authority of the Government of Lebanon," Annan said in a statement on the United Nations website. "The Secretary-General further calls on all parties to respect strictly the arms embargo, exercise maximum restraint, avoid provocative actions and display responsibility in implementing resolution 1701." According to the statement, UNIFIL forces in the area say that there have also been several air violations by Israeli military aircraft.

The White House declined to criticize the Israeli operation, noting that Israel said it acted in reaction to arms smuggling into Lebanon and that the U.N. resolution calls for the prevention of any weapons resupply for Hezbollah.

"The incident underscores the importance of quickly deploying the enhanced UNIFIL," White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209419,00.html

[theanarch]

1. no surprise here...

...as Uri Avnery (co-founder of Israel's peace movement) observed a long time ago, no government of Israel ever entered into any kind of agreement with an Arab state or entity (Fatah, etc) that it couldn't find an excuse to bomb it's way out of...this is just the latest example thereof. All PM Olmert has done (by authorizing or allowing these attacks and other violations) is continue Israeli's long and sorry tradition of thumbing its nose at any international agreement it finds inconvenient, however convenient it was to agree to them only days before. These displays of lawless unilateralism may play well to domestic politics (however much doing so won't help Olmert or Kadima), but tend to worsen the situation by ratcheting up the levels of distrust for Israel by the world community, and hatred towards Israel by the actual victims. Nor is it any surprise that Junior's junta would endorse (by refusing to condemn) these attacks, given their role in events thus far.

I did find it typical that the story refers directly to "arms smuggling" without the more journalisticly honest qualifications of "suspected" or "alleged", stating the matter as a given fact, instead of the propaganda of one side. More interestingly, it seems Hezbollah has been replaced by 'militant Shite fighters', perhaps because mentioning Hezbollah merely reminds everyone of who won, especially now that they are giving FEMA a graduate-level, hands-on tutorial in how to recover from (un-)natural disaster. (One can only imagine how many Katrina survivors now wish they had Hezbollah to rebuild their communities and protect them from Blackwater Int., the La. Stasi and the National Guard.) It may also presage a broader M$M perception/opinion-management shift, away from a specific organization (which more people admire, however grudgingly, than not), to the more free-floating, nebulous and vague concept of 'Islamofascism' (less accurate, more scarey), just in time for the Sept. roll-out of their All-Terror, All-The-Time fall campaign.

Finally, for those who would contend that these raids are consistant with Israel's right to defend itself, regardless of any accord or agreement they just signed, please explain why: the Lebanese military shouldn't be given a similiar right to shoot down every supply plane flying into Israel to replenish the IDF's stocks of weapons, munitions and spare/replacement parts.

[Igel]

2. A couple of points.

Israel, at least so far, hasn't bombed it's way out of the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. So there are two counterexamples to Avnery's claim of "every" such agreement being trashed.

Moreover, the agreement that Lebanon and Israel referred to makes no demands concerning the arming or disarming of a state's army. Just of a non-state militia. You appear to confuse a cleric with an elected official, a sectarian militia with a state army, and a religious party with a state government.

Lebanon apparently acquiesced to this agreement, but immediately said that "withdrawal north of the Litani and disarmament" of Hezbollah were juridically equivalent to "let them stay and keep their arms as long as they don't display them." No mention of disarmament, except that Lebanon promptly said they dispatched soldiers to 'monitor' border crossings. Presumably to help call Red Cross/Crescent folk if any Hezbites get hurt.

[gratuitous]

3. I'm so old . . .

I remember a time when an alleged violation of a UN resolution was sufficient for the current administration to launch a full-scale invasion of the offending country. And this was even after 9/11. I wonder what's changed?