national review online August 07, 2006 Dealing with the Devil A diplomatic disaster in the making. By Anne Bayefsky Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on the brink of handing President Bush the worst diplomatic disaster of his presidency. She is poised to agree to two United Nations resolutions that will tie the hands of both Israel and the United States in the war on terror and, in particular, inhibit future action on its number one state sponsor — Iran. The catastrophe is the brainchild of Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has effectively turned the United Nations into the political wing of Hezbollah. In the last three weeks, a multi-headed hydra of U.N. actors has risen to defeat Israel on the political battlefield in an unprecedented disregard of the U.N. Charter’s central tenet: the right of self-defense. But how did the U.N. respond to the aggression against the U.N. member state of Israel, which was launched once again from Lebanese territory and which continues to the present hour? By accusing Israel of murder, mass genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, the deliberate attack of children, and racism. U.N. actors have even denied that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and analogized it to anti-Nazi resistance movements... The Geneva Conventions clearly state that combatants are prohibited from using civilians as human shields, but if they do so, the presence of civilians does not render the area immune from military operations. Israeli soldiers and civilians are paying with their lives daily as a consequence of Israel’s efforts to avoid disproportionate action — a dramatic exercise of restraint taken in order to reduce Lebanese civilian casualties... The United Nations seeks to: (1) protect Hezbollah from further Israeli attacks; (2) produce a political win for Hezbollah by giving them the territorial prize of the Shebaa Farms ; and (3) increase U.N. presence, oversight, and control of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It calls for renewed involvement of UNIFIL, the U.N. troops that stood and watched Hezbollah rearm and plan its deadly assault on a U.N. member state for the last six years. Such an international force is to be authorized under the first-ever Chapter VII resolution — a legally binding resolution that can be implemented through sanctions or the use of force — in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In other words, Secretary Rice has approved of a U.N.-authorized and monitored force that has its sights set on Israel too, coupled with a claim that Israel is currently engaged in “offensive” operations. The very U.N. that accuses Israel of murder and heinous violations of international law is now to be charged with judging compliance with a legally binding instrument purporting to define the terms and conditions of Israel’s self-defense... There will be only one sure result of this move — the empowerment of terrorists whose ultimate target is the United States and all democratic values. Secretary Rice’s belief that there is a serious convergence between the United Nations agenda and American foreign-policy needs in the age of terrorism is a profound error in judgment for which democratic societies everywhere will be forced to pay a heavy price. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODQyMGNlYWM5NzIzZGFhOTNlZDAxMmM2YTRkOWRjYzE=

Was Shimon Peres high on crack when he praised this resolution? The return of our soldiers is mentioned only in a preparatory paragraph--it is not a condition of the ceasefire. The disarming of Hizbollah, if that is actually enforced under Resolution 1559, will only be south of the Litani. Their long range rockets will still be able to hit Israel from that line. And now the jihadists have plainly seen that the current government is incapable of conducting a military operation successfully. Our soldiers have died for nothing. Olmert should have to go to each of their homes and tell their families that. Oppostion leaders must call for a vote of no confidence now before Kadima allows rockets to fall on Israel from Judea and Samaria as well as from Gaza and Lebanon.

Finish them off ISRAEL. Don't cave in to world opinion. You are 100% in the right. Israel is the only country in the world under a state of constent threat,surrounded my enemys, sworn to ISRAELS destruction. Please ISRAEL unleash all your might on these cowardly pigs! Do the civilised world a favor & show them how a real country takes care of buisness. GOD ALMIGHTY is with you. You can't be defeated.

Jeanette: if you don't love Israel, shut up. For those who do it is our obligation to speak out about what we believe is in its best interest. Was Oslo the right decision? Was it wrong for people to have voiced their opinion? No. For those who think (I'm definitely not one) that the settlement enterprise was wrong, should they not have voiced their opinion about that? I have a sneaking suspicion you would not have told them to move or shut up. If you think posters on Ynet might damage Israel's morale, consider what Olmert, the UNSC and the rest of the world has done. Abandoned Goldwasser and Regev, and lost or ruined the lives of hundreds of Israelis and now we are in a worse position than when the fighting began. That is demoralizing. R 1559 already required just about everything this new one does and look how well that worked. You are right about one thing: ignorance causes death. And shoving your head under the sand with your fingers stuffed in your ears and wishing for peace is a pathological form of ignorance.

What's wrong with you ppl!! Did'nt you read the resolution? It clearly say's that both soldiers should be returned right now! So b4 givin an opinion, do some reading first! Oh and by the way, israel lost! and it'll gonna loose more if groud operations continue!

How long have you been taking narcotics? This resolution is the prelude to a larger war!

To 53, you and BUSH are also connected. Your IQs are zero, nicht, ,sifr, 0. Don't you wish they were connected.?

Apparently YOU didn't read the resolution. PP3 states, "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 uncondtional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers..." This is not a statement that they must be released. Read it carefully. It says the "NEED TO ADDRESS...including the unconditional release." That means this is a matter to be taken up later, not an obligation to be carried out now. Definitive language demanding the release would be in an operational paragraph and would look something like this: "Affirms that Hizbullah must immediately and without conditions return the soldiers it kidnapped, the event which precipitated this conflict." Do you see this language in any operational paragraph of this resolution? No you don't. Why? Because their return is not a condition of the ceasefire!

Intervention by powerful U.S. EU and UN has given victory to global terrorists whose jihad war is against the whole earth. Israel's defeat through the U.S. EU and UN is a massive defeat for the free world.

is the wh..re and servant maid of arabs,I think I was not wrong . And Israel,since oslo,became the slaves of theirs wh...res politics ,who have sold Israel to bush,un,eu! they will pay!sooner or later!

you moved Hizbullah away from borders, but you didnt disarm them. this whole operation was to disarm hizbullah but you ended up considering moving hizbullah from borders as a triumph. Congrats!!!!

Since Olmert and Condi gave us this! http://www.republicanrantz.com/sitebuilder/images/ANNAN-NASRALLAH-600x431.jpg

Lebanon was a Christian country until Muslims achieved a majority through an extremely high birthrate. The jihad against Lebanon's Christians was savage and barbaric. The IDF was the only hope for the embattled Christians. Click on Photo gallery: http://www.free-lebanon.com/ 20,000 Christians handicapped by PLO atrocities. PLO terrorists were rewarded for their savagery and mass murder of Christians by implanting them into Israel as TERRORIST "peace" partners through Oslo to continue the bloody, barbaric jihad against Israel's Jews. The Christians of Damour, Lebanon treated Muslims from surrounding areas free of charge in their hospital. The PLO and other terrorists repaid the Christian kindness with barbaric savagery: The Massacre and Destruction of Damour 'The attack took place from the mountain behind. It was an apocalypse. They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting 'Allahu Akbar! God is great! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad 'And they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children.' Whole families were killed in their homes. Many women were gang-raped..." http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/psa/psa.html Satanic acts were perpetrated on Damour Christians.

Have you noticed that in the text of the UN resolution the word Terror has vanished. In the next resolution may be it will appear stuck to the name of Israel. And you say Israel did not lose!! Israel is now of no use to the USA.