Weighing Foreign Forces: Sea Change for Israel--NYT

[spindrifter]

By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: July 24, 2006

JERUSALEM, July 23 — For decades, Arab — particularly Palestinian — leaders have sought international intervention in their conflicts with Israel while Israeli leaders spurned foreign forces as unreliable and likely to be biased against Israeli interests.

Now, in a sudden turnabout, Israel is embracing the possibility of an aggressive international force on its northern border with Lebanon to bolster its security in its struggle with Hezbollah.

<snip>

There are a number of reasons for the shift, (Michael Oren, of the center-right Shalem Center, a research institute in Jerusalem) and other regional analysts say. Israel realizes that Hezbollah’s rocket attacks cannot be stopped over the long term without troops on the ground confronting guerrillas. Israel, with no desire to reoccupy Lebanon, no longer wants those troops to be Israeli and believes a large, multinational force, working with the Lebanese Army, will have a greater chance of curbing Hezbollah.

<snip>

In the current two-front crisis with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has done his best to shape Israel’s agenda as the world’s, presenting it as a regional battle against the growing power of radical Islam and Iran. Hezbollah, and even Hamas, Israel contends, are proxies of Iran and its weaker ally, Syria, all dedicated to keeping the Middle East boiling and preventing an accommodation between Israel and the Palestinians.

<more>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/world/middleeast/24israel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[liberalpragmatist]

1. It's a fine solution...

... I just don't think that the excessive destruction of Beirut and all of Lebanon is making this solution any easier. This same outcome could be achieved without so much bloodshed. Why not limit their actions to a blockade and the bombardment of known Hezbollah targets in the South? I could support that, as a way of putting pressure on the Lebanese government and on the world community to create a force capable of disarming Hezbollah.

[EST]

2. Wasn't Bolton advocating this solution?

His aim was more toward forming a NATO force, thus further diminishing the UN.