Israel Matzav

Rice put her foot in her mouth on Shaba

On Tuesday, I reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had called for UN action on Shaba Farms.

After meeting Siniora, Rice called for UN action on the disputed Shebaa Farms, a district that remains occupied by Israel but which Hizbullah has pledged to liberate and the Lebanese claim to which the parliamentary majority backs.

"The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue ... in accordance with [UN Security Council Resolution] 1701," Rice said after discussing the issue with Siniora

She told reporters Washington intends to press UN chief Ban Ki-moon to "lend his good offices" to resolve the dispute over sovereignty over the area where the Lebanese, Syrian and Israel borders meet.

"The [UN] secretary general should intensify his efforts," Rice said.

Siniora's adviser, Mohammad Shattah, who attended the meeting, told The Daily Star on Monday that the US was pressing the United Nations to speed up its efforts to resolve the issue of the Shebaa Farms.

"We noticed that the Americans are encouraging the UN to work on a speedy solution for this issue," Shattah said.

For those who have forgotten, Shaba Farms is a small strip of land at the northern tip of the Golan Heights, which Israel liberated from Syria in the 1967 War. After Israel fled from Southern Lebanon in May 2000 under the orders of current Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Hezbullah claimed that Shaba Farms was Lebanese - and not "Israeli-occupied Syrian" - territory, and has used it as a pretext to continue attacking Israel ever since. But on June 16, 2000, the Secretary General of the United Nations certified to the Security Council that Israel had withdrawn to the 'Blue Line' (see map below and notice that Shaba Farms is outlined in green and not in blue) and had thus complied with the terms of Security Council Resolution 425 from 1978. By doing so, the United Nations was effectively certifying that Shaba Farms, which is outside the Blue Line, was classified in UN-speak as "Israeli-occupied Syrian territory."

In July 2007, the rules of the game were suddenly changed by the United Nations at the behest of Hezbullah and the Arab countries that wished it to have a continued pretext to attack Israel.

The United Nations has transmitted messages to Israel in recent weeks that the organization's mapping experts have determined that the controversial Shaba Farms on Mount Dov near the Lebanese border, now controlled by Israel, is Lebanese territory. The UN, which has communicated to Israel that the disposition of the Shaba Farms should be dealt with as soon as possible, has proposed to senior government officials that Israel withdraw from the area and that it be considered international territory to be controlled by UNIFIL.

So when Condoleezza Rice called yesterday for United Nations action on Shaba Farms, she was calling for control of the strategic high ground area to be turned over to UNIFIL - and because of UNIFIL's weakness she was in effect calling for it to be turned over to Hezbullah.

On Friday, there is word that the Syrians are not willing to have Shaba turned over to Hezbullah or the UN. They would rather not rush to find a solution. And the truth is that they are right: Lebanon has no claim to the territory.

“How can Lebanon negotiate over Shebba Farms while it doesn’t even have documentation supporting its rights to it?” the Syrian source said over the phone.

“Does it make any sense to ask Syria to accept the border demarcation? And if Lebanon is on one said who will be on the other? Syria or Israel? If the territory is Syrian Israel must return it. The Israelis expect us to be accommodating and solve their problem, but what is in it for us?”

According to the source, the US proposal to hand the area over to the UN’s control “raises questions, since the US stance is unclear as far as Syria is concerned.” He added that the farm issue should be solved using the outline set at the Madrid Conference of 1991.

But Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud K. Olmert, is willing to give away anything and everything to keep himself in office. That includes Shaba Farms.

For those of you who were wondering where Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert came into this, here he comes. DEBKA is reporting that Olmert - desperate to remain in office at any cost - is willing to concede Shaba Farms to the kind auspices of the United Nations, ahead of any negotiations with Syria.

Ehud Olmert told US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice when they met in Jerusalem Sunday, June 15, that he was willing to evacuate Israeli troops and hand this strategic enclave on the Hermon slopes to United Nations custody as early as July. He has not brought the issue either before the full government or the security cabinet. Defense minister Ehud Barak and the IDF high command are against this step, just one more topic at sharp issue between Olmert and Barak.

Rice took the news to Beirut Monday at the end of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. She informed Lebanese president Michel Sleiman and prime minister-designate Fouad Siniora: “The United States hopes for an early settlement to the Shebaa Farms issue.”

Israel’s withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms would expose its vital military positions on the northwestern slopes of Hermon to the Syrian 10th and 14th Divisions, elements of which are deployed in Lebanon close to the three-way border junction. Israeli military sources warn that handing it to the UN, namely the South Lebanese peacekeeping force, will extend the force’s lackadaisical control over South Lebanon to this strategic sector as well, granting Hizballah freedom of action in a fresh arena.

But Olmert's willingness to once again give away the store is not going to satisfy Hezbullah either. All Olmert's spinelessness does is weaken Israel's position. It does not gain us anything.

Following reports of Israel’s willingness to discuss the status of Shebaa Farms, Lebanese member of parliament on behalf of Hizbullah, Hassan Fadlallah said that “any Zionist withdrawal from Shebaa Farms will signify a great achievement for the resistance.”

Fadlallah reiterated before the Iranian news Agency (IRNA) that if Israel pulling out of the farms will not change Hizbullah’s policy towards it: “Returning Shebba Farms will not change the existing equation regarding Lebanon’s need of a resistance organization. It will only prove the logic behind the resistance and validate its existence as the only way of restoring land.”

And what land would Hezbullah want to 'restore?' Here's one example.

But the truth is that the example doesn't matter. Hezbullah's goal - like that of Hamas and Fatah and all of the Arab states is to extirpate the existence of the Jewish state. It has nothing to do with Shaba Farms or seven villages or any other piece of land. It's about Israel's existence. And the sooner we wake up to that fact, the better equipped we will be to fight for that existence.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:11 PM