Israel Rejects UN Deal IDF On The Move
Aug. 11, 2006 19:20 | Updated Aug. 11, 2006 22:31
40,000 troops could enter s. Lebanon
By YAAKOV KATZ AND AP
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the IDF on Friday to send additional ground forces into Lebanon and up to the Litani river, some 30 kilometers from Israel.
Hours later, France and the United States announced that they had reached a deal on a final draft resolution aimed at ending the month-long conflict. A vote on the cease-fire draft will take place at 1 a.m. IST. Israel has yet to respond to the draft and it remained unclear as to how it would affect the decision to expand the IDF operation in southern Lebanon.
Before news broke out that an agreement has been reached, Olmert's spokesman, Asaf Shariv, told The Associated Press that the expanded incursion had already begun. According to Shariv, the emerging cease-fire fails to meet Israel's basic requirements, such as stationing robust international combat troops in southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws.
"Yesterday we were very optimistic, but they (the Security Council) took the wrong turn," Shariv said.
The government is implementing Wednesday's Cabinet decision granting the army permission to carry out a massive ground offensive "to deal with the Hizbullah positions in south Lebanon, from which barrages of missiles continue to be launched against the Israeli civilian population," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Regev added, however, that Israel was still open to a negotiated solution as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on the proposed cease-fire deal.
Olmert has made every mistake one could make in this war. When he should have gone into Lebanon a month ago with 40,000 troops, he had the blessing of the USA, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordon.
Instead he has let Israel be hit with over 3,000 rockets, which has cost over a hundred dead ruined the economy of the north, and most important destroyed the mystic of the IDF.
Now when the diplomacy of the world has caught up with the events on the ground he gives the orders to march, putting Israel at odds with the USA and the UN. I really don't much care with what the UN thinks but without a doubt Olmert is going to put stress on the relationship with America.
The question is can Israel regain America’s good will by taking out Syria?
