The EU and UN outdo each other in hypocrisy on Lebanon; Syria weighs in...and Israel throws a diplospeak curve.

The EU and the UN continue to outdo each other in sheer one-sided hypocrisy.

Top UN official and long time Israel basher Jan Egeland said billions of dollars would be needed to repair the damage to Lebanon from 12 days of fighting. Egeland said that the United Nations would make an international appeal for aid for Lebanon on Monday. "It will be a large appeal. It's got to be more than $100 million," he said.

He said that the long-term figure needed to rebuild devastated infrastructure would be "in the billions."

Egeland, of course did not mention any appeal for aid to Israel...though he did mention Israel when he referred to its steps to defend itself. He was quoted at his press confernce saying the "disproportionate response by Israel is a violation of international humanitarian law."

Not a word out of Mr. Egeland on whether Hezbollah's shooting rockets at Israeli civilians constituted a `violation of international humanitarian law'. Naturally.

As the fighting continued, Syria decided to weigh in on a cease-fire... but only in the framework of what it called a broader `Middle East peace initiative'. It coupled its call for a cease-fire with a threat to get involved militarily if the Israelis continue their offensive in Lebanon.

"Syria and Spain (!!) are working to achieve a cease-fire, a prisoner swap and to start a peace process as one package," Syria's information minister, Mohsen Bilal, was quoted as saying by the Spanish daily newspaper ABC. The interview was also run in the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, so Bilal wasn't just spouting off. He gave the interview in Madrid after he met with the Spanish foreign minister of Spain's left-wing anti-Israel government Miguel Moratinos.

Bilal said Damascus would cooperate only within the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative that would include a return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967 after Syria attacked it.Talk about greedy!

"If Israel invades Lebanon and enters it by land, then it will be only about 20 kilometers from Damascus. Then we will not stand with our hands tied," Bilal said.

Actually Bilal, look at a map. The Israelis are already just a hop away from Damascus..and have been since the `67 war. Why change such a useful, workable relationship? Keeps everybody nice and friendly.

Actually, I hope Syria does come in. It would simplify things immensely, eliminate a haven of Islamic terrorism and an ally of Iran and ease things for our troops in Iraq considerably.

I could be wrong, but I doubt that Syria will actually come in.It wouldn't pay for them to do so.

With all the noise that's been made about a peacekeeping force on the Israel/Lebanon border (like that worked before?) Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz really got some people nervous when he talked about his idea for a peacekeeping force.

"Israel's goal is to see the Lebanese Army deployed along the border with Israel.. but we understand that we are talking about a weak army and that in the midterm period Israel will have to accept a multinational force." Peretz then suggested that the NATO be in charge of the force!

NATO was, uhhh...not happy.

"There has been no political discussion about the alliance's role in the crisis," said a spokesman, James Appaturai.

"We got the distinct impression that the UN would be prepared to adapt its mandate, making it more robust," said a NATO diplomat who insisted on anonymity because the issue was so sensitive for all 26 of the alliance's member nations. "We wonder what made Peretz ask for NATO."

Maybe because UNFIL is a joke? You think?

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to arrive in the Middle East on Sunday.

"Secretary Rice will make it clear that resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it," U.S. President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Now that makes sense.

Stay tuned...