Sham UN Resolution Guarantees No End To Israel's War of Illegal Aggression
By
Stephen LendmanAugust 13, 2006
On August 11, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1701
jointly proposed by the US and France and with all provisions in it signed off on by Israel before it was put to a vote.
Neither Lebanon nor Hezbollah was afforded that same right. In a UN dominated by the world's only superpower and having
to operate within the constraints it sets, only US client states are allowed that privilege. It's victims never are.
Resolution 1701 was a revised version of the one the US and France first proposed on August 6 which the French then backed
down on because of strong Lebanese government and Arab League opposition. The new resolution only guarantees one thing
- no end to the conflict and no justice for its Lebanese victims. It doesn't even address the concurrent hostilities
ongoing against the Palestinians outrageously ignoring the fact that they're raging daily with no end in sight.
Resolution
1701 calls for a full cessation of hostilities on both sides but leaves in it a glaring loophole big enough apparently to
get Israel to accept it. It calls on Hezbollah to cease "all attacks" immediately and implies, but doesn't explicitly
state, Hezbollah must disarm. It won't because doing so would be to surrender. It only asks Israel to stop "all
offensive military operations" without defining what that means or making a comparable disarmament demand on the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF). It thus gives Israel the right to "respond" if, in its judgment, it faces what it believes is an imminent
threat. In other words, Israel can attack Lebanon at will any time and claim, true or not, it's only responding to such
a threat. It also proposes no fixed timetable for Israel to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and only "calls on the
government of Israel" to do so once a UN mandated force is in place. It thus gives Israel what it wanted - more time
for the IDF to continue its assault by air and to ry on the ground to seize more territory so when both sides agree to halt
hostilities, Israel will be in the strongest bargaining position. The resolution also authorizes the deployment of up to 15,000
UN (UNIFIL) troops in southern Lebanon from countries willing to supply them to assist an additional 15,000 Lebanese force.
The
resolution is a litany of outrage ignoring why the conflict began and falsely accusing Hezbollah of starting it by launching
"the attack on Israel on 12 July" which it did not. It mentions nothing about Israel's incursions into Lebanon
by air and on the ground prior to the July 12 date when Hezbollah forces captured (not kidnapped) two IDF soldiers who it's
believed illegally crossed the UN-monitored "blue line" into the country - something the IDF routinely has done almost daily
since it withdrew from the country in May, 2000. It absolves Israel of any responsibility by failing to acknowledge
it's been waging a war of illegal aggression against the country and thus, according to the Nuremberg Charter, is guilty of
the "supreme international crime" for which convicted Nazis after WW II were hanged. It doesn't even mention the word
"war" in its text or indicate in any way that Israel is guilty of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against
the people of Lebanon.
This is a resolution only an aggressor would love. It will do nothing to deter further
aggression any time Israel believes, on its say alone and with no evidence, an imminent threat exists. Resolution 1701
blatantly violates the UN Charter which permits a nation to use force only under two conditions: when authorized to do it
by the Security Council or under Article 51 that allows the "right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack
occurs against a Member....until the Security Council has taken measures to maintain international peace and security."
In other words, necessary self-defense is allowed, which does not justify what the IDF initiated on June 25 and again
on July 12. Israel's extreme response on both dates following the capture of its soldiers, known in both cases to have
been planned well in advance awaiting only convenient pretexts to undertake them, are no acts of self-defense. They're
acts of premeditated illegal aggression.
In sum, UN Resolution 1701 is little more than an outrageous and illegal expression
of victor's justice. It allows Israel the right to resume hostilities any time it wishes and for any reason so long
as the Israelis claim an imminent threat exists regardless of whether or not it's true. It gives no rights to the victims
who remain vulnerable and are likely to come under further assaults just as they have almost daily since Israel first invaded
Lebanon in 1978. And it does nothing to try to end the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians or address
their long-standing grievances now ongoing for nearly 60 years. The resolution does guarantee one thing - no end to
the conflict in either country or justice for the beleaguered people of them both.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago
and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com.
