Any Piece Of Paper

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The New York Sun

Over the years, European diplomats and their governments have often complained that Israel has frozen them out of any role involving the Israeli-Arab conflict and chosen to rely solely on America. One only has to look at the current situation in Lebanon to see how justified Israel has been.

Europe has been given an enormous opportunity in Lebanon. It is about to blow it.

Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted last August with European support and as a result of European-American negotiations, called on Israel and Lebanon “to support … the following principles and elements:”

• “Full respect for the Blue Line [the internationally recognized Israeli-Lebanese border] by both parties.”

• … the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and UNIFIL … “

• ” … the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that … there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state … “

• ” … no sales of supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its Government.”

It was on the basis of this resolution that Israel agreed to stop its war against Hezbollah and that an expanded UNIFIL, under European command and with heavy European participation, was set up. And it was in reply to a question about this resolution that Major-General Alain Pellegrini of France, UNIFIL’s new commander, recently told the Jerusalem Post that:

• ” … the new multinational force in Lebanon will [not] engage and disarm Hezbollah … “

• “the beefed-up UNIFIL will not immediately open fire on Hezbollah guerillas if they are on their way to an attack or even in the midst of an attack on Israel … “

• “UNIFIL does not plan to deploy along the border between Lebanon and Syria” in order to ensure that it would not “once again be used as a conduit to transfer weapons to Hezbollah.”

• UNIFIL was not going to stop Hezbollah supporters from stoning Israeli army patrols from the Lebanese side of the border.

Major-General Pellegrini, in fact, did not seem very concerned about Hezbollah at all. His major worry was Israel’s “dangerous behavior” in continuing intelligence-gathering flights over Lebanese territory — “violations,” he said, that are “not justifiable with the deployment of the Lebanese army and the enhancement of UNIFIL.”

Disappointing? Yes. Surprising? No. Israel’s experience with the old UNIFIL was that it was worse than worthless, and as critics of Israel’s acceptance of Resolution 1701 argued, there was no particular reason apart from wishful thinking to believe that the new UNIFIL would be any better.

And yet this wishful thinking was not entirely without a basis. Europe, the logic behind it went, was seriously concerned about the Middle East. It was worried by Islamic terror, worried by Iran and its influence, worried by the threat posed by jihadist radicals to moderate Arab governments. It wanted badly to stabilize the region. The containment of Hezbollah in Lebanon and its military neutralization had become a clear European interest. Why else, if this were not the case, would Europe have joined America in putting its name to 1701, which on paper was bad for Hezbollah and good for Israel?

Today, the answer to that is beginning to appear — as usual Europe was ready to sign any piece of paper at all in return for a bit of peace and quiet. Just because it wanted the fighting in Lebanon to stop doesn’t mean it had any intention of standing behind the resolution it helped draft. Europe isn’t going to tell UNIFIL to do anything that UNIFIL isn’t asked by the Lebanese government to do, and since the Lebanese government, which doesn’t want a political confrontation with Hezbollah, isn’t going to ask UNIFIL to do anything, nothing is all the new UNIFIL will do. Just like the old UNIFIL, but with a bigger budget and more and better-armed troops to do it with.

Well, why complain? It was all perfectly predictable, and doing nothing, as Sholem Aleichem, the Yiddish author, once said, can be hard work too. It certainly will take some dexterity to stay out of Hezbollah’s way in southern Lebanon as it re-arms and re-fortifies its positions in preparation for the next round.

Still, Europe needs to understand one thing. As far as Israel is concerned, this is its last chance. If it finks out again this time, there won’t be a next time. Europe can go back to sitting on the bench and watching Israel and America play.

This is too bad, because there really is a role for Europe in the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. America, because of the Bush administration’s brave support for Israel, has lost its reputation in the Arab world as an honest broker, and in any event, is fully occupied elsewhere.The United Nations is, as always, impotent and corrupt. The rest of the world either doesn’t count or doesn’t see the Middle East as its problem.

That leaves Europe. And not just, in theory, in Lebanon. As has been recently mooted in various places, a successful European intervention in Lebanon could set the stage for a European intervention of some sort in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories as well. One could even speculate about a revival of the idea of an Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank, with a European force similar to UNIFIL taking responsibility for the area evacuated.

But that all depends on UNIFIL’s doing its job properly in Lebanon. If it doesn’t, as it presently seems determined not to, Europe can pack up its diplomatic act and take it elsewhere. Israel will have seen it in action one time too many.

Mr. Halkin is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.


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