The Daily Background

Some news organizations are now reporting that Israel’s government is planning to cease all offensive… “defensive” operations in Lebanon on Monday. Hezbollah already agreed to a UN-backed ceasefire provided the Israeli military also abide by it back in late July. The Associated Press reports however that for the moment violence will continue:

Israel, meanwhile, flew hundreds of commandos into southern Lebanon on Saturday, tripling its troop strength to 30,000 and sending some army units as far as the Litani River even as both sides indicated they would accept a U.N. cease-fire plan to stop the heavy fighting.

Airstrikes killed at least 19 people in Lebanon, including 15 in one village, and Hezbollah rockets wounded at least five people in Israel.

This comes after the UN finally agreed to mandate a ceasefire (the U.S. delegation was virtually the only one dragging its feet) yesterday. No American troops will likely make up the 15,000-strong force that the UN hopes to have in place to create a ‘buffer zone’ between northern Israel and southern Lebanon as soon as possible. Full article.

It will be peace a month late when it finally happens. This war never should have happened over two kidnapped Israeli soldiers who had illegally been carrying out secret operations in Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah did not start attacking Israeli civilians until the Israeli military started attacking Lebanese civilians after the kidnappings. No two soldiers could possibly be worth killing 1,000 people, wounding thousands, causing catastrophic damage to civilian infrastructure like airports power-plants roadways and hospitals, and creating one million refugees. Period.

Filed under: Middle East Crisis, Z-TDB Blog