Newsflash: The International Community Will Not Keep Its Commitments to Israel (Disarming Hezbollah Edition)
It's Lebanon's responsibility:
"The building of the force, setting its mandate and defining its standard operational procedure are in the making," one official said. "There are ups and downs." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the force would not be responsible for disarming Hizbullah. That would be the responsibility of the Lebanese, Rice said in an interview with USA Today. She said that in the past, the Lebanese government had been unwilling or unable to disarm Hizbullah.
Except not so much:
Thousands of Lebanese soldiers were set to head south today to take over territory seized by Israel in its war with Hezbollah. But Lebanon said its army wouldn't be disarming the militants or searching for their weapons.
As always, the frustrating thing is not necessary that Arab countries aren't keeping their obligations in exchange for Israeli concessions - it's that everybody always knew that the promises were hollow, but diplomats went right on acting as if they didn't know that - and insisting that Israelis do the same.
"The building of the force, setting its mandate and defining its standard operational procedure are in the making," one official said. "There are ups and downs." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the force would not be responsible for disarming Hizbullah. That would be the responsibility of the Lebanese, Rice said in an interview with USA Today. She said that in the past, the Lebanese government had been unwilling or unable to disarm Hizbullah.
Except not so much:
Thousands of Lebanese soldiers were set to head south today to take over territory seized by Israel in its war with Hezbollah. But Lebanon said its army wouldn't be disarming the militants or searching for their weapons.
As always, the frustrating thing is not necessary that Arab countries aren't keeping their obligations in exchange for Israeli concessions - it's that everybody always knew that the promises were hollow, but diplomats went right on acting as if they didn't know that - and insisting that Israelis do the same.
