Defense officials: Resolution 1701 'on the verge' of collapse

I'm sure you will all be shocked - just totally shocked - to hear that 'defense officials' warned on Tuesday night that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is 'on the verge of collapse.' The reasons are what you might expect: Syria and Iran continue to re-arm Hezbullah. Am I allowed to say "I told you so" yet?

Defense officials said Israel's only course of action at present was to attempt to place pressure on diplomatic officials from European countries that contribute to UNIFIL.

"Syria is rearming Hizbullah at a rapid pace and this is proof that 1701 has completely failed," one official said.

The peacekeeping force's mandate will be up for renewal next month and Israel is looking to see if it will be possible to make changes that will give the force more freedom to prevent Hizbullah's rearmament.

You've got to be kidding. Now that Hezbullah controls the Lebanese government and no one has it by its you-know-whats (as we did two summers ago), does anyone really think that Lebanon is going to agree to 'changes that will give the force [UNIFIL] more freedom to prevent Hezbullah's rearmament?' And even if they would agree to 'changes,' it would be like closing the door of the barn after the horses, the cows and every other animal on the farm has escaped.

And the Olmert-Barak-Livni-Yishai government is telling us that the 'only course of action' is 'diplomatic pressure.' That ought to work real well....

But here's the most ironic part of the whole story: The architect of the failure that is Resolution 1701 - Foreign Minister Tzipi Feigele the Failure Livni (the woman who would be Prime Minister who thinks she's Golda Meir) - visited Israel's northern border on Tuesday with Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, and announced to the world that Israel must 'disarm Hezbullah now.' And how is she going to do that? Through 'diplomacy?"

"Hizbullah must be disarmed," she said. "We now have an opportunity to disarm Hizbullah, and we must not lose it… if we do not do it now, it will be much more difficult later on."

The foreign minister went on to say that a situation which "allows a terror organization to be a member of a government that is perceived as legitimate is intolerable. While claiming to be a government coalition member, Hizbullah had to explain to the Lebanese residents of these villages why they had to pay the price they did, and in the weeks to come - when I hope we will complete the prisoner exchange - they will have to explain it to them again."

"Hizbullah does not represent the interests of the people of Lebanon," she emphasized.

Kind of like Hamas doesn't represent the interests of the 'Palestinians' even though the 'Palestinians' elected them, eh? As to our 'opportunity' to disarm Hezbullah, that was blown two summers ago when Livni and her friends Ehud K. Olmert, Comrade Peretz and Dan Halutz didn't have the you-know-whats to bomb southern Lebanon back to the stone age. At least Peretz and Halutz have paid for their incompetence. Olmert and Livni continue to pretend that 'twas a famous victory.'

But wait because it gets even better. Livni's incompetence and sheer chutzpa know no bounds.

"Unfortunately decision 1701 was not completed by the Lebanese side and I hope that during the next few days it will be implemented with the return of the kidnapped soldiers," Livni said.

Huh? Forget for a minute that the only mention of the kidnapped soldiers in Resolution 1701 was not in an operative paragraph, and therefore - contrary to Livni's claim since Day One - it did not bind anyone to do anything. Forget for a minute that the 'return of the kidnapped soldiers' is coming from Hezbullah, which wasn't even a party to 1701. Let's look at what the non-binding preparatory paragraph that dealt with the kidnapped soldiers said about them:

PP3. Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers,

Note those magic words: "UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE." The 'exchange' being made with Hezbullah is anything but an 'unconditional release.' It's a trade. It has conditions - hundreds of them - that are going to make Israel pay dearly for the dead bodies of those soldiers. Israel could have made that trade the day after Goldwasser and Regev were kidnapped and spared the lives of 150 other IDF soldiers who were killed in the fighting! If Israel had achieved something in the fighting, the government could look those fallen soldiers' families in the eyes and say that their sacrifice was worth something. But the war achieved nothing, because Olmert and Livni and Peretz and Halutz had no courage, no initiative and no fighting spirit. And they've demoralized the entire country as a result.

Anyone still wonder why I am absolutely livid at the idea that Livni the incompetent boor could simply take over Kadima and give us more of Olmert without the corruption?

UPDATE 12:29 PM

Israel Radio reported at Noon that Hezbullah now has some 40,000 missiles in southern Lebanon pointed at Israel. That's three times the number that it had when the war started two years ago Saturday.

Israel Radio also reported that only one cabinet minister voted against UN Resolution 1701 when it was presented to the cabinet in August 2006. That minister said - correctly - that it wasn't worth the paper on which it was printed. Who was that minister? Hint: Not Livni and not Olmert.

It was former IDF Chief of Staff and Defense Minister - and current Transportation Minister - Shaul Mofaz.

UPDATE 4:54 PM

Aaron Lerner reminds us that just last week, the UN rejected Israeli claims of a military buildup by Hezbullah. This is stunning:

Sources in UN headquarters said Tuesday that the members of the UN Security Council were aware of the real situation on the ground, but noted that the Security Council has to act in line with the reports submitted to it.

The UNIFIL forces stationed in Lebanon, under the command of Italy's Major-General Claudio Graziano, have yet to report any Hizbullah efforts to arm itself, thus preventing the UN Security Council from taking any action.

Moreover, several Security Council members are also part of the UNIFIL force currently deployed in Lebanon – and therefore are unable to rate their performance on the ground.

A UN source told Ynet in response to the report that several incidents which have taken place in recent weeks prove that southern Lebanon is not free of arms. The source said everyone is aware of this reality, yet the UN cannot admit that Israel's claims are true, as this would show the UN has failed.

And the Olmert-Barak-Livni-Yishai government wants a UNIFIL-like force for Gaza?

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.