Letters to the Editor
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‘Israel Refuses Annan request To End Blockade of Lebanon’
With reference to your August 31 story [Foreign, “Israel Refuses Annan Request To End Blockade of Lebanon,” August 31, 2006] on Secretary-General Annan’s meeting with Prime Minister Olmert, Mr. Annan came close to accusing Israel of deliberately killing United Nations observers in Lebanon. He grossly exaggerated at Israel’s expense the number of persons found dead in Qana. He presided over a UNIFIL that was in collusion with Hezbollah. He guaranteed that the new and enlarged UNIFIL force mandated under Security Council Resolution 1701 of August 11 would not disarm Hezbollah, a requirement of Council Resolution 1559. He acquiesced in Lebanon’s decision not to invite UNIFIL to guard Lebanon’s border with Syria to prevent the rearming of Hezbollah. And now he pressures Israel to end its sea and air blockade of Lebanon, a state that has just reaffirmed its refusal to make peace with Israel. Mr. Annan did not even agree that Hezbollah must first return the hostages kidnapped by Hezbollah in mid-July, and the fates of the three Israeli prisoners of war, Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz, and Zvi Feldman, captured in Lebanon and held since 1982 didn’t even come up. To make matters worse, U.N. Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland belittled Israel’s concern with Hezbollah’s missiles and rockets at a U.N. press conference on August 30. These developments point out anew the pressing need for U.N. reform
HARRIS SCHOENBERG
Adjunct Professor of Human Rights
Center for Global Studies, New York University
New York, N.Y.
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