The EU, with the exception of Britain, doesn't spend money on the military. They depend on the US to do their fighting for them, and send a few observers (NATO). Similarly, it's not surprising to see the EU respond to the crisis this way. Lebanon, they claim, cannot defend itself. It cannot confront Hizbollah. It cannot do anything. Therefore, their logic is, they are to be treated according to "humanitarian law", not the law governs what are legitimate targets in war. Under those latter laws, infrastructure IS a legitimate target, and it doesn't make a difference how inconvenienced the local population is. Further, those laws allow countries to have armies, like Lebanon does, and it requires them and permits them to defend borders, like Israel has. So, isn't it strange that Lebanon, like Palestinians, are being granted all the priviledges of statehood, without being required to tow the line of obligations? The EU attitude is patronistic. Palestinians and Lebanon are allowed to behave like children. It's akin to allowing a 17 year old murderer to do a year in prison rather than serve a lifetime because he's a "minor". The solution for Arabs will only come when they behave responsibly, like "mature" nations. Giving them a free pass as "noble savages" or "child regimes" is not good for the EU, it's certainly not good for the Arabs, and it spells disaster for the chance of peace in the Middle East and the prospect of ending this conflict. Rather, the only solution is to allow Israel to complete its military destruction of Hizbollah, even in the process destroying more of Lebenon's infrastructure and at the expense of people on both sides of the conflict, so that Lebanon will be able to stand on its own two feet without being propped up by Syria and Iran. When that occurs, when the influence of Syria, Iran and recidivists in the PA wane, there will be a prospect for peace here. Not until then.

You can not be sending international forces in Lebanon for whatever reasons without seriously asking Hizbullah to release the kidnapped Israeli soldiers, you will not achieve peace yet "first thing first".

While the IDF and US army make it look like fighting war is just pressing buttons it isn't. EU no longer spends money on their armies. In reality the EU forces will be crushed by Hizb'allah. Israel will laugh at how pathetic scandnavian forces are and how the IDF will have to come in to save their butts. So go EU, it's not as easy as you think.

Although I am the biggest sceptic when it comes to the impartiallity of international forces. In this instance I think it will benifit Israel. It may give the opportunity for the international forces to be attacked by Hizbollah, and help Israel win some firends.

Nothing, theres no reason to believe any other multi-national force would do more than UNFIL, which is at best nothing and at worst helping the terrorists. Only the Lebanese army.

Nasrallah - the sheer arrogance of a man who has no mandate in a proud country like Lebanon to take Lebanon on the instructions of Syria and Iran into a war of destruction with srael. What right has this fat uneducated slob (rumoured in Lebanon to be a sexual deviant) to start a war with a neighbour for the political gain of Syria and Iran? What was the reason? Sheeba? Lebanese prisoners? So he decided to sacrifice the entire fabric of Lebanon on his own. He acts as if he owns Lebanon! That may be but he doesn’t own the hearts and minds of the majority of the Lebanese people- Shia, Christian, Druze and Sunni. Lebanon held its breath yesterday before Nasrallahs speech in case there was some hint of sanity BUT NO he threatens further violence ratcheting up the stakes even further saying that Haifa was only the beginning. Well the chickens have come home to roost. Nasrallah You started it? You clean up the mess. YOU get your gutter friends in Syria and Iran to pay reparations to Lebanon. YOU have betrayed Lebanon. You are not a true Lebanese. You are an Iranian Syrian so go to where you belong. Lebanon does not want you. Its was a shocking eye opener to hear the Hizbollah minister when interviewed only yesterday call this tragedy A GAME! What madness is this? But whats really telling is that it wasn’t the bombs falling on Beirut that terrified these fanatics, they were safely cucooned in their bunkers and holes like rats whilst the rest of Lebanon burned. No it was the leaflet of the caricature of Nasrallah that likened him to a snake. So close to the truth it terrified him. Every single leaflet was gathered up and then a van sent out after the leaflet drop to sing the praises of the valiant Nasrallah and Hizbollah. Whatever the struggles and differences between Israel and Lebanon Nasrallah has not served Lebanon but his own power base in Lebanon and ultimately those of Syria and Iran by sacrificing innocent lives, the economic future and security of Lebanon. Looking at the interviews with TRUE Lebanese yesterday you could not fail to be moved by the quiet the stoicism, the dignity and strength of character that shone out like a beacon. They wernt berating anyone. THAT is the true spirit of Lebanon. But deep down inside you could feel the seething quiet anger and fury against a madman in their midst who is out of control. When this is over Lebanon will count the cost and rebuild but never will allow itself to be taken in by others. LONG LIVE LEBANON

http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=1826

Israel must eradicate Hizbullah before anything else or HIzbullah will rebuild within a year and another war will ultimately start. No cease fire, No release of soldiers no truce will help Israel, only the defeat and exit of Hizbullah in Lebanon will aid Israel.

The european "free pass as noble savages or child regimes" to mohammedanic jihadists is not a less racist and dumb european behaviour as their notorious antisemitism is. Europe has the most blood on its hands and this will worsen, once they will be even more infiltrated with their mohammedanic junior partners, which is the intention of Dhimmi Sheik Faques Chirac (of Chateau de Bity) the Vikings and others. By the way, Lebanon was thought a save heaven for christians that managed into some kind of dhimmitude to avoid bestialic annihilation due to mohammedanic envy and plight to kill "infidels".

... not that they were enormously effective anyway :(

The UN's UNIFIL forces in Lebanon openly abetted the terrorists. UN force's elsewhere in the world have been both incompetent and shameful in their own behavior. The UN is corrupt through and through. It is the world epicenter of Judeophobia. It is the enemy of Israel. Perhaps once the Hezbollah have been driven out of Lebanon, then if the government of Lebanon is still not able to control its own territory, there might be an international force, but from only a few rigidly selected countries. Never never from the UN or from the wretched EU.

hizbullah will call the foreigners 'occupiers' and will kill any infidel who would prevent them from doing whatever they want. the poor europeans will be, at worst, terrorized and, at best, ignored. the day one EU soldier tries to interfere with hizbullah is the day that jihad will be declared on the 'peacekeepers'. i'd hate to be one of those poor targets.

it would spread dangerously and deadly(G'od forbid) into Israel. Israel MUST have to have STRONG lawyers to defend their right to defend themselves. What is happening by now,in an unprecedent form,all over Israel ,is a clear sign that enemies MUST BE DEFEATED. Blair and cia.are desgusting devil wh...es! Israel can not cede ,because its 7 MILLION PEOPLE are in a GRAVE danger,which can be contained only for a short period,if it is not extirpated DEFINITIVELY! If Peretz and Olmert are not competent enough ,they should resign,at least temporarely,giving place to much strong and experienced leaders.

Kofi monkey has his own UN people playing again the usual - Cut and Run boy what great heros France and the UN are

UN Security Council resolution 1559 and subsequent resolutions demand that the Lebanese government disarm the terrorist group Hezbollah, but no steps have been taken. To the contrary, the Lebanese government has included Hezbollah in their government and they are represented at the ministerial level. Hezbollah's actions are a direct threat to the authority of the Lebanese government, to the rule of law and order, and to the well-being of Lebanese citizens.

Even if everyone agrees that deployment of new peacekeepers or more peacekeepers in or around southern Lebanon is a good idea, no one should allow Kofi Annan near the project. Just remember that the Rwanda and Srebrenica massacres occurred with U.N. peackeepers on the ground - and on Annan's watch as head of U.N. peacekeeping operations. There is good evidence that he even ordered the head of the U.N. forces in Rwanda to stand down from taking action that might have somewhat thwarted the genocide. In any event, no one should be impressed with U.N. Peacekeeping forces. They don't seem to do much but look on while people are slaughtered. They are only good for protecting themselves. The erruption of violence where they are deployed only seems to result in more talk from the U.N., followed by speeches, much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, and then, possibly, yet another U.N. resolution. The whole organization is getting quite useless and irrelevant, really.

It has not been announced yet where the international military deployments that will deployed in Southern Lebanon will come from but it is very likely not to include British and American contingents and most likely to include contingents from muslim countries. It is doubtful whether any deployments in Southern Lebanon will be actually able to stop rocket attacks on Israel’s territory because the range of capability of the Hezbollah rockets exceeds the reach of Lebanese territory that will come under the limited jurisdiction of an international deployment there. Therefore what can be achieved with an international military deployment? Well, depending on their strength and mandate they might be able to police the area that otherwise should be policed by the Lebanese army. Perhaps the international deployments will make it possible for the Lebanese army to eventually and ultimately find the courage and determination to police what is otherwise their own territory. There was a multi-national deployment of military powers into Lebanon twenty-five years ago and very little was achieved by it and there is very little chance that anything more can be achieved again now. Moreover, the deployment of an international presence in Southern Lebanon will make much more difficult for Israel to take military actions on land and by air. That will mean it will be easier for Hezbollah to attack Israel by rocket strikes. Twenty-five years ago the world failed to bring peace and harmony to the area because they did not employ a serious and conscientious mass media campaign to educate and enlighten people into the definition of Universal Human Rights and the conflict has continued because of that failure in the general strategy employed by international players. There are three main components to the conflict: (1) martial Islamic fundamentalism; (2) Palestinian refugee camps; (3) the question of who has the commercial interest in what was hitherto the rebuilding of Lebanon. These three things are inter-related and everyone concerned needs to learn about the definition of universal human rights before there can be any sustainable basis for progress over peace and harmony. If there is no progress over manifest suggestions of peace and harmony there can be no progress on the concerns of these three and the concerns of Israel. Now is the moment for the world community, and particularly the international players soon to be deployed there, to act to inspire the mass media to bring the definition of universal human rights to the terror groups, to the Palestinians and to everyone there because everyone can and would benefit socially and spiritually and materially from such an initiative. The international players should co-ordinate their initiatives in the context of the United Nations declaration on a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence and its itinerant Programme of Action. This actually states that the mass media have a key role to perform in conflict management. If initiatives like this are not used the alternative is violence. We want an end to violence but first there must be an end to the mentality that resorts to violence. How can we address the mentality of terrorists like these? The world must read them their rights.

I think the most appropriate countries to provide a peace keeping force would be Russia & France as they feel the strongest that Israel is using an unreasonable amount of force. So Vladimir & Jaques you go for it...But I bet you would'nt

You can't seriously think that war is going to create anything other than more resentment, greater instability, misery and suffering. The only thing this "war" on lebannon will acheive is to drive out the moderates, leaving only those who are determined to fight Israel. Travelling the world you meet many lebanese who are moderate tollerant, intelligent people. These are the people you need in lebannon, and these same people have left lebannon because of actions like Israel is committing now. I can only describe the Israeli doctrine of trying to collectively punishing whole countries until they behave themselves as total and complete idiocy and the results of their actions as being totally barbaric. Israel is never going to acheive peace, this way. Think about a world ten years from now where there are no rules, where any country can do anything it is capable of doing, and with the power of technology every country is capable of doing pretty much anything... is this really the road we want to head down ? Israel's short sighted, reckless response to it's security problems may be the undoing for all of us.

To set up a so called peace-keeping Failed plan in there is very stupid..!! It is just more waste of time.!! it sounds like Jimmy Carter has been talking again. The EU has Built there house on the sand. Israel can't look to anyone from now on. they are Building ther house on the Rock. It will survive, the EU, UN, USA, UK, along with the Moslam Minded people will fail to stand, with there House built on the sand. The unwise teaders of today don't believe this, but they will . Zechariah 12,1 thru. and Rev.18- thru . is the writing on the wall for all that has miss treated Israel. !! Mr. Daddy Bush, Land for peace. put the USA on the final List. Israel don't need your Help. God is fighting fot them the rest of the way. I know you can't see this to day. but you will just up the the Bush road map to destruction. I am sorry you can't Read the final warnings in the Book.. Roy C. H. USA

The Eurabians see the IDF winning and want to protect their aRabid overlords

Great Post #1...... Don't let the peacekeepers in....they won't stop the rocket attacks...just get in the way. How many times have we seen the blue helmets stand idly by in the world while militia murdered innocents... #23..good idea...let the French come in...that way if there is any fighting, we know for a fact that they will not stick around and get hurt causing an international cry fest...

These so-called peace keeping operations should be called war keeping because they never succeeded in bringing peace. On the contrary, wherever they are deployed, they perpetuate wars.

The dribbling racist sewer of Geneva has appeared yet again: "Kofi monkey " Anyone who didn't know you might think that it was a Freudian slip for you to call the black UN Secretary General a "monkey" - however those who know you will realise that it is yet another example of your deeply rooted and filthy racism. You have never answered the question as to when you are going to put your own decrepit body in the firing line and actually go and live in Israel rather than in your rat-pit-hole in Geneva. God forbid that Ms Jibril Goldwater should actually go to Israel. She's much happier screaming "anti=Semitism" and throwing around racist filth from Geneva. You are one helluva good Zionist. NOT