By Ted Belman
Jpost has an editorial Lebanon tipping-point? in which it reviews the deteriating situation in Lebanon. I thought I would review how Livni sold Res 1701 to Israelis just as Olmert “sold” Israelis that the Lebanon War II was a success.
When Foreign Minister Livni addressed the Cabinet in Israel just after it was passed she couched her embrace of it with these words.
– “resolution is good for Israel and, if implemented,”
– “I am aware of the fact that not every resolution is implemented. I am aware of the difficulties, and despite all this I say with complete confidence that the Security Council resolution is good for Israel.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “It is important to state that, from the beginning, when we understood that, in fact, these goals had to be achieved by political means, and because it was obvious to us that the entire international community understood the cause of the recent incidents and that it was necessary to implement Resolution 1559, we ourselves acted to initiate the procedures and resolutions that would promote the goals we had set ourselves.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “and assuming that it is implemented – compared with the situation that existed before, could create a dramatic change in southern Lebanon.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “Even in the last hours before passage of the resolution, we wanted to ensure that this embargo would be enforceable and substantive, preventing the transfer of arms from these countries to Hizbullah, in fact, to anyone other than the Lebanese army. Now the embargo is part of the UN resolution and the terms and formulation of this article are acceptable to Israel and express our opinion – a proper embargo.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “And it is important to say that, one way or the other, responsibility has been imposed on the Lebanese government to ensure that arms do not enter in order to prevent the rearming of Hizbullah.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “The question has been asked about whether everything is now dependent on decisions or requests from the Lebanese government with regard to the international forces, … From our standpoint, any entire process that involves placing power in the hands of the Lebanese government so that it can enforce its sovereignty is a positive one which, of course, creates a genuine change in the situation in Lebanon.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “It is also clear that the entire process is intended to lead, in the end, to the disarming of Hizbullah, not just to the Lebanese army moving southward, not just to an embargo, but to a process completed by the disarmament of Hizbullah, as was required from the start in the previous resolutions, but today we are also creating the way to enforce this process at a practical level.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “regarding the international force – should it become apparent that the forces that were decided upon are not adequate, the resolution opens the way that will allow for improving the mandate and creating a proper force so that it will be more effective, with a broader mandate than this one. This is already determined in the resolution.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “Israel, of course demanded that the kidnapped soldiers be returned to their families as this was and still is our goal. This statement now appears in the Security Council resolution. True, it appears in the preamble, which is referred to as the “declarative section,” but the soldiers are mentioned as the cause of the dispute for which the citizens of Israel and some of the citizens of Lebanon have paid dearly and which created the urgent need to deal with the factors that led to the current crisis, including releasing the kidnapped Israeli soldiers unconditionally.” TOTAL FAILURE
– “In my estimation, especially due to the events of the past month, the international community as well as the Lebanese government understands that Israel will no longer accept a situation whereby a terrorist organization sits on its border and fires Katyushas at Israeli citizens or, alternatively, attacks Israeli soldiers whenever it wants to. … we have attained most of the goals in the Israeli initiative which, in effect, we placed as the first draft on the table of the international community.”
I didn’t intersperse comments here other than highlighting certain words that convey the message.
Before and after the resolution was passed, I wrote the following
The ceasefire resolution doesn’t require anyone to disarm Hezbollah
August 14, 2006
The UN resolution doesn’t contain any obligation to disarm Hezbollah. What are 30,000 soldiers for? Window dressing to sell the resolution.
A “Robust International Force” is a Crock
August 7, 2006
A strong independent, international fighting force in Lebanon will never happen, and drafters of the resolution know it.
No ceasefire is better than a bad ceasefire
August 5, 2006
The prosecution of his war by Olmert’s left-leaning government has been a disaster, based on its overwhelming desire to avoid another occupation.
IN FACT EVERY GOAL LIVNI SET FOR HERSELF WAS NOT ACHIEVED.
WHAT RIGHT DID SHE HAVE TO ASSUME ANYTHING?
HOW CAN WE LET LIVNI NEGOTIATE FINAL STATUS ISSUES?
HOW CAN WE ELECT LIVNI AS OUR NEXT PRIME MINISTER?
Ed: in a parlimentary democracy it is the primary function and responsibility for the opposition to topple the sitting government. You say BB just had to sit back and wait for others to do his primary political obligation.. Would you want or expect him to behave in a similar fashion as PM? people don’t change and
B’s mistakes had more to do with his lack of good character that just common errors in judgment. He has already spelled out hid policy direction which is not mush invariance with Sharon and Olmert. I call BB Olmert with differential nuance.
Like what weapons are we talking about that we get or can’t make or buy from other countries other than America?
In any event we don’t need expensive hi-tech weapons for terrorists napalm is good enough and for Arab Armies, time to declare our nuke capability and state red line casus belli. Tactical nukes would work quite well and more effective than sacrificing thousands of our kids.
In resonse to Yamit, perhaps Bibi did not nail Olmert and Kadima to the cross was the fact he understood that they were nailing themselves to the cross. Bibi only had to wait.
Now I understand that Bibi made some bad mistakes during his realm; however, I believe that he has learned from his experience as PM and would correct those mistakes this time around and make new mistakes as I know that you and all of us would. He has a very good relationship to Washington because after all, the major weapons we get from the US are not made and can not be made in Israel for many years to come.
Yamit and I aren’t speaking, because he thinks that I, as an American without a Jewish mother, am a Christian and therefore continually plotting against Israel and the Jews; so I won’t respond to his post.
That said, if I were an Israeli Jew with qualms about Netanyahu, I would simply vote for Benny Elon, the rabbi with a head on his shoulders, and his party or coalition or whatever he and his buddies manage to pull together before elections. In the last election, they nearly out-polled Likud; and they will almost certainly be major coalition partners in the next government if Elon doesn’t get gravely ill or die.
I used to back Bibi as the only “viable” alternative to that den of indicted and convicted criminals known as Kadima; and if Likud does get more votes than the other right-wing parties, Bibi or Sharansky or some other Likudnik will probably head the government. But Lieberman or Elon or some other leader might just pull off a surprise; and since I would have nothing to lose in voting for them anyway, why would I want to waste my time tearing down Netanyahu? The last time right-wingers engaged in this fruitless pursuit, they voted for Ariel Sharon. Some good they did for themselves then!
So quit the kvetching, vote for the good guys and support whoever is willing to help — that’s what I would do; though of course I’m not an Israeli Jew, and I speak as I shouldn’t.
Enter BB the leader of the Loyal(sic) opposition. Where was the opposition during all of this . Why were they not yelling bloody murder and treachery. Where were all those right wing likudniks? home watching TV? Why didn’t BB nail his protoge to a bloody cross at least verbally? In this sense the opposition is as guilty as the government when they keep quiet and allow the government to do what they please without a good fight? Cowards and Amoebas all. Maybe we just don’t deserve better leaders?
email rec’d
All UN resolutions and interventions are meant to harm Israel. While 1701 was supposed to stop Hezbollah from smuggling arms into Lebanon, it actually put them on the fast track to increase weapons caches that are being delivered on a routine and regular basis from Russia, Iran, and Syria.
The UN has allowed Lebanon to become another Islamic terror state and the UN is responsible for tipping the balance of power in favor of Hezbollah and facilitating the complete coup d’état that has changed the leadership for good in the country – selling Christians and moderates down the toilet.
I don’t know who in Israel is/was responsible for being blindsided once again by UN deception and complicity with terrorists, but now that Lebanon is just a western province of Iran-Syria, it will be necessary to blow up the military installations and huge amounts of stockpiled weapons before the Hezbollah/Iran/Syria decide the time and place of the next war with Israel.
email rec’d
What you say is true but Livni was responsible for this resolution. If I knew what was wrong with it, I’m sure she did. Yet she ran cover for it rather than to turn it down.
We are not in the Hasbara business if it means only putting Israel’s best fact forward. We are in the business of educating the public to the facts and the law and our rights. The Government is a failure at this.
We are also in the business of advocating policies we think best and the politicians who espouse them.