I don’t want to be pessimistic about the chances of a joint American-French brokered cease fire. But let’s just look at the ironies [emphasis mine].
France and the United States reached agreement Saturday on a Security Council resolution to halt the fighting in Lebanon and lay out plans for a permanent cease-fire and a long-term political settlement, a French official said Saturday…
…Under the terms of the diplomatic agreement, a Security Council resolution will call for an immediate cessation of attacks by Hezbollah and of “offensive military operations” by Israel, according to a French diplomatic official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been made public…
…The French official said that the text called for a buffer zone to be set up free of all but the Lebanese Army and United Nations-mandated forces in southern Lebanon…
…The air attack raging around Tyre for much of the night appeared to be cover for a raid by Israeli naval commandos on a four-room apartment used by Hezbollah guerrillas, leading to some of the most intense face-to-face fighting of the war so far.
While details were still sketchy, and the accounts from both sides differed, it appeared the commandos landed by helicopter near an orange grove around 3 a.m. and crept up to the apartment, cutting their way through a chain link fence to reach it.
Afterward, bloodstains on a wall and a parking lot indicated at least two mortal struggles, with bullet holes pocking the walls near the deep red marks…
The fight left seven Lebanese dead, hospital officials said. A Lebanese soldier was also killed, apparently when his unit fired at Israeli aircraft involved in the raid.
How the French and Americans can get the Lebanese Army to crack down on Hizbollah when they are currently fighting on their side, is a mystery to me.
I still maintain that they are simply going through the motions here. They may get a cease fire to hold for a time, but they will not get an international force in there unless it is purely an American one.
I really hope I’m wrong. Sometimes it is much better to be wrong.
