See this page for links to articles on OpEdNEws that articulate both sides on the issues in the middle east. It is the goal of OpEdNews to air opinions from both sides to stretch the envelope of discussion and communication. Hate statements are not accepted. Discussions of issues and new ideas for solutions are encouraged. .International Community Reaps Shame, Not Glory
By John E. Carey
August 21, 2006
Inside Lebanon-There is no government here. Nobody with which to make peace. The people that run this region are Hezbollah. The Lebanon Army is a joke. They themselves know they are interlopers here. They refuse to disarm Hezbollah. So the arms have disappeared. You are supposed to believe that peace can be achieved here.
You'd be wrong.
That is where Condi Rice, the President of the United States, John Bolton and one John Carey disagree. I am going to tell the Prime Minister of Israel to also disagree with the President of the United States. The "peace plan" the U.S. signed up for is only paper. It changes nothing. Unless the peace is full, enforceable and verifiable the Israelis could end up, with US support, choosing war.
France said they would lead the peacekeeping: then volunteered 400 troops, mostly engineers.
Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech, "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred, and place this above God, religions and the prophets."
He added, "The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews."
This is Israel's dilemma.
Israel wants Hezbollah off its back. And Hezbollah has shown it has missiles that can pierce into Israel 42 miles and more. Killing Israelis indiscriminately. Israel may need a "buffer" into Hezbollahland some 42 miles. And international peacemakers with real muscle to enforce order. To keep peace. To prevent further missile launches and indiscriminate killing of Israelis.
You cannot make peace without sides. You cannot make peace without peacekeepers. There is only one side for peace here: Israel.
Israel faces an angry alliance: Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Even Kofi Annan at the UN has demonstrated a very anti-Israeli tone.
Now France has apparently throw in with the anti-Israel group.
Some peace agreement.
The President of the United States says "there is a way forward and the choice is theirs."
Wrong.
The choice is now Israel's. This is an existential struggle for Israel. They get to cut the deck and deal the cards, in my book.
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