Israel Matzav

Withdrawing from northern Ghajar won't bring quiet to Lebanese border

Some people think that withdrawing the IDF from the northern half of Ghajar, as the government has voted to do, will bring quiet to our border with Lebanon. But they are wrong. Very, very wrong.

Even if the withdrawal does take place and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon is deployed there, the Lebanese state will not consider the mission complete until the Lebanese army is deployed in the village, it added.

The withdrawal process first takes place with Israel's pull out, which would be followed by UNIFIL deployment on the same day where it would check that the occupying troops had truly withdrawn from the village.

The following day, the Lebanese army would enter the liberated area, the source continued.

It noted that Israel's withdraw does not mean that it has fulfilled its commitments to international resolutions seeing as it is still obligated to withdraw from the Shabaa Farms and respect Lebanon's sovereignty by ending its daily air, land, and sea violations against Lebanon and dismantling its spy networks in the country.

Funny, Israelis are being told that UNIFIL will deploy in Ghajar and not the Hezbullah-dominated Lebanese Armed Forces.

It is anticipated that once the IDF withdraws into the southern part of the village, UNIFIL would then be stationed along Ghajar’s northern perimeter.

And then there's this:

The source continued, saying that should such a withdrawal take place, "the majority's [the Western-aligned Hariri government] position would be bolstered at the national dialogue, while the opposition [Hizbullah] would have to acknowledge" the government's choice to resort to diplomacy, effectively undermining the legitimacy of Hizbullah's armed presence on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

I doubt Hezbullah will acknowledge anything.

And they're not giving up the 'resistance' either:

Meanwhile, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry on Thursday said, "Whether the Israeli move toward Ghajar is considered a political maneuver or delayed awareness of Resolution 1701, which required Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory in the wake of the July 2006 war, thus the return of every inch of Lebanese territory is the return of the right [land] to its rightful owners," according to Hizbullah's al-Manar.

But Berri added, "Pending a unified Lebanese stance on how to deal with the Israeli move and read the dimensions and timing [of the plan], we will keep echoing the same thing from Ghajar, that the 'Resistance will remain a national need,'" al-Manar reported.

Hizbullah MP Kamel al-Rifai called the planned Israeli withdrawal a move intended "to shift attention and elude the international resolution," referring to UNSC resolution 1701, according to the report.

Meanwhile, some Lebanese sources believe that the withdrawal from Ghajar is a strategic plan by Israel against Hezbullah. If only our government were that smart....

Labels: Ghajar, Hezbullah, Lebanese Armed Forces, Nabih Berry, Saad Hariri

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:17 PM