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Israel's Bitter Lessons from International Forces

(Israel Hayom) Dore Gold - UN Resolution 1701, which brought the Second Lebanon War to a close, created a new, more robust international force and was hailed at the time as a great diplomatic achievement. Five years later, Hizbullah has returned to southern Lebanon with a force similar to what it had prior to the war. There are now close to 40,000 rockets in Hizbullah's total arsenal in Lebanon, of which 30,000 are located south of the Litani River, in the zone that was not supposed to have any weapons other than those of UNIFIL or the Lebanese Army. According to Resolution 1701, UNIFIL should be going into the Shiite villages of southern Lebanon to remove the Hizbullah weaponry stored there in violation of Resolution 1701. The chances that European troops would be willing to risk their lives and move into Shiite villages to take out weaponry are almost nil. Already in July 2011, France's UNIFIL force came under attack, leading President Sarkozy to threaten to pull out his troops. What does this experience mean for proposed international forces in the Jordan Valley to safeguard the demilitarization of a Palestinian state? If UNIFIL cannot guarantee the demilitarization of southern Lebanon, how will international forces help guarantee the demilitarization of a Palestinian state in the West Bank?
2011-10-04 00:00:00
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