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There's Still Time to Avert War in Lebanon
(Wall Street Journal) Ron Prosor - Hizbullah, sponsored by Iran, is now more militarily powerful than most NATO members. It has 150,000 missiles and could launch 1,500 of them a day to strike anywhere in Israel. In Syria, under Iranian direction, the Assad regime has unleashed genocide against the Sunni Arab population using Hizbullah as its storm troops. War between Israel and Lebanon is avoidable, but only if the world acts now - with American leadership. Hizbullah's ability to destabilize the region stems from the abject failure of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force tasked with enforcing it. Resolution 1701 mandated that UNIFIL keep southern Lebanon "free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons." Yet like many UN resolutions, 1701 has been thoroughly ineffective. Hizbullah is 10 times as strong now as it was in 2006. The U.S. should seek a UN Security Council resolution amending 1701 and providing UNIFIL with explicit powers to disarm Hizbullah and demilitarize South Lebanon. As usual, the tab for UN failure in Lebanon is being paid by American taxpayers, with the U.S. paying 43% of UNIFIL's $488 million annual budget. The writer, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, is chairman of the Interdisciplinary Center's International Diplomacy Institute.