Despite the demand from the Islamic Conference emergency meeting in Malaysia for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, despite the tireless efforts of France at the United Nations to get agreement on a truce, it is likely to be Monday at the earliest before a resolution is put to the UN Security Council and approved. Progress at the UN is stymied because of arguments between the French and the Americans over whether an international force should be dispatched immediately after the vote to southern Lebanon (which is what the US wants) and whether Israel should pull out straightway or wait until that force arrives. The French, who are expected to lead the force, understandably do not want to have to fight their way in against either Hezbollah or the Israelis. They want peace to be established first.
This wrangling is vile. Every hour that the Israeli offensive is allowed to continue means more innocent Lebanese being killed. The second stage of solving the Lebanese conflict is crucial — no one denies that — but it cannot be used to delay a cease-fire. Agreement on the makeup and deployment of the multinational force can wait a few days more. A cease-fire cannot. It is absolutely vital that the bombardments by both sides stop immediately. Washington’s insistence on a “durable” cease-fire is simply unacceptable. It is difficult to believe that the delay is not deliberate. President Bush has made it clear that he supports Israel’s tactic of “crush Hezbollah first, cease-fire afterward”. The delay certainly suits the Israelis. They are intent on grabbing as much territory as possible before a cease-fire vote, regardless of the casualties. It is like a macabre football match with players desperate to score before the referee blows his whistle — except that this is for real. Yesterday’s violence, with some 23 Lebanese farm workers killed and 30 injured in an Israeli airstrike and no letup in Hezbollah’s missile attacks against Israel and two Israeli civilians killed, is indicative of what is going to happen every day until there is a cease-fire.
Hezbollah has said that it will stop its missiles if the Israeli stop their assaults. It may have been a somewhat hesitant offer, couched amid defiant threats to strike Tel Aviv. But the fact that they made it speaks volumes — and they can be made to keep to their word. They know that if they start launching rockets once the Israelis pull out, the Israeli bombardment will start up all over again and there will be few Lebanese to thank them for that. It is the Israelis, though, who are out of control. They think they have Hezbollah on the run; they almost certainly see its offer as an admission of weakness and the threat to strike Tel Aviv as a bluff. Ehud Olmert has said that Israeli troops will not withdraw until a multinational force of at least 15,000 foreign troops arrive and that even then Israel would reserve the right to respond to any attacks by Hezbollah. What hope of a cease-fire then? While the Israelis remain in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah will attack — which means the Israelis will continue the bombardments. The cease-fire would be dead before it starts. It is the Israelis who have to be reined in. There is only one country that can do that. But does it want to?
