Israel's Enemies Opt Out of International Obligations
News came this weekend that Lebanon has admitted to allowing Syria to delivery (presumably Iranian) arms to Hezbollah:
The Lebanese government publicly admitted recently, for the first time, that it had permitted the delivery of a convoy of arms from Syria to Hezbollah... this is the first time that the Lebanese have publicly admitted the existence of these convoys, much less that it has been authorizing arms deliveries to Hezbollah. The convoy's passage was apparently approved by the office of Defense Minister Elias Murr, in coordination with the office of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud... The ministry added that the army permitted the transfer of weapons to the "resistance" forces - i.e. Hezbollah - in accordance with a decision made by the Lebanese government.
Don't try to figure out how exactly Hezbollah is "resisting" anything. It's not supposed to make sense - it's what Arab governments always say when justifying violence against Israeli civilians.
More importantly, this act of giving weapons to terrorist militias would seem to be in tension with Lebanon's obligations under UNSC Resolution 1559, which binds Lebanon to taking away weapons from terrorists. That brings us to: how the practice of international law is used to undermine Israeli security.
Of course, not fulfilling signed agreements and obligations with Israel is par for the course for its enemies - even Abbas is shocked at how blatantly Hamas is violating treaties that the Palestinian government is ostensibly bound to. We're not sure why he's shocked - pocketing Israeli concessions and then demanding more before fulfilling Palestinian obligations is something that Arafat did for the better part of a decade. At least Hamas and the Lebanese government are honest about it (which we don't actually think is as much of a virtue as much of the right side of the blogosphere, but so it goes...)
The Lebanese government publicly admitted recently, for the first time, that it had permitted the delivery of a convoy of arms from Syria to Hezbollah... this is the first time that the Lebanese have publicly admitted the existence of these convoys, much less that it has been authorizing arms deliveries to Hezbollah. The convoy's passage was apparently approved by the office of Defense Minister Elias Murr, in coordination with the office of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud... The ministry added that the army permitted the transfer of weapons to the "resistance" forces - i.e. Hezbollah - in accordance with a decision made by the Lebanese government.
Don't try to figure out how exactly Hezbollah is "resisting" anything. It's not supposed to make sense - it's what Arab governments always say when justifying violence against Israeli civilians.
More importantly, this act of giving weapons to terrorist militias would seem to be in tension with Lebanon's obligations under UNSC Resolution 1559, which binds Lebanon to taking away weapons from terrorists. That brings us to: how the practice of international law is used to undermine Israeli security.
Of course, not fulfilling signed agreements and obligations with Israel is par for the course for its enemies - even Abbas is shocked at how blatantly Hamas is violating treaties that the Palestinian government is ostensibly bound to. We're not sure why he's shocked - pocketing Israeli concessions and then demanding more before fulfilling Palestinian obligations is something that Arafat did for the better part of a decade. At least Hamas and the Lebanese government are honest about it (which we don't actually think is as much of a virtue as much of the right side of the blogosphere, but so it goes...)
