Meanwhile, in Lebanon:
Hezbollah appears to have made a deal with the Lebanese Government. Hezbollah fighters remain south of the Litany river. The Lebanese Army was supposed to supervise their withdrawal, and handle (destroy) any weapons or fortifications left behind, Israeli forces would then withdraw from Lebanese territory. This is how I understood the (renewed) version of UN resolution 1701 that was agreed upon , and the truce would last for 60 days while this happened.
Well, Hezbollah hasn’t withdrawn. Israeli complaints calling on the Lebanese Army to enforce their part of the deal (i.e. force Hezbollah north) have been met with “We don’t take orders from you!” from the Lebanese. So Israeli forces are staying in Lebanon (and destroying some of the fortifications and clearing weapons caches themselves). This leads to Hezbollah claiming Israel is violating the Truce, and threatening to resume fighting. I view the threats as propaganda posturing, but they must be taken seriously. The real target of the threats isn’t Israel, but the international community. Hezbollah wants to have someone else force an Israeli withdrawal while they continue to have a presence in South Lebanon. That’s the way the original Resolution 1701 played out. The only one being blamed then was Israel. The vaunted UNIFIL force was neither willing nor able to make Hezbollah obey.
The Houthi regime in Yemen says it has halted attacks on Israel. But there has been no credible international response to their sea blockade (which is a total violation of international maritime law in both concept and execution). I’ll write more about that in a future post.
Wetherhorn 