Allow me to paint a picture here:
Israeli Military Intelligence, as reported in the Post, now indicates that, for the past four months, long range missiles and advanced anti-tank missiles have been smuggled to Hezbollah, coming over the border from Syria into Lebanon at night. (As I reported a while ago, UNIFIL troops don’t operate at night because it’s "dangerous."). The IDF had destroyed Hezbollah’s long range missiles — including the Iranian Fajr and the Zelzal — in the course of the war this past summer. Right now there is concern about Hezbollah using anti-aircraft weapons to attack Israeli planes flying over Lebanon for intelligence gathering. There is also expectation of a broader scale war about to be unleashed by Hezbollah, likely not too far in the future; if Hezbollah takes over the country, it is expected that the multinational forces operating under UNIFIL will simply withdraw.
Hezbollah is now forced to hide its operations because of the presence of UNIFIL. But those operations are continuing. The multinational forces do not create an "obstacle" to this, says Military Intelligence, as Hezbollah is using camouflaged underground systems, which are designated "closed military zones." Army training goes on within these systems as well as storage of weapons.
During the war, the IDF recommended going into Lebanon with considerable force. Olmert resisted, over-riding this recommendation. He, and his loyal sidekick Livni, protested that the way to deal with this was "diplomatically" and they were encouraged by the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon and the presence of an enlarged multinational force under UNIFIL.
We now see the fruits of that "diplomatic effort."
~~~~~~~~~~
Today Olmert went before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to explain why he vetoed the IDF recommendation that there be a military response to launching of Kassams from Gaza.
Olmert had the unmitigated gall to say: "We want to create a momentum which will lead to a diplomatic process, and are not looking for excuses to violate the ceasefire."
This is breathtaking, and I confess quite readily that I am choking on rage.
Maybe, maybe if we hadn’t just had the above described experience in Lebanon, Olmert might have some legitimate, if frail, hope of "diplomacy" working in lieu of military actions. Maybe if Hamas weren’t ruling the day. But now?????? He is preventing us from defending ourselves for the sake of international approbation. To say that being fired on by Kassams — Kassams that have already killed Israeli civilians and have the potential to do so again — would be no more than an "excuse" to violate the ceasefire is an outrage.
Members of the Committee responded with anger: Yuval Steinitz and Effi Eitam said Hamas had blackmailed Olmert; Eitam charged, "You are experimenting with humans [i.e., those at risk from the Kassams]."
~~~~~~~~~~
This posting can be found at: https://41k.82b.myftpupload.com/current-postings/2006/12/4/posted-december-4-2006.html
