Hezbollah violates truce, attacks armory in Israel

You won't see it in the mainstream media, but Hezbollah attacked an arms depot in Kibbutz Shomera, Israel this morning and got away with a large quantity of side-arms, anti-tank weapons, LAU rockets and hundreds of combat grenades.

A few hours later, the IDF went into the South Lebanese town of Merwahin opposite Kibbutz Shomera and questioned the villagers about the robbery.

Kibbutz Shomera is not far from the area where Hezbollah set off the war by crossing into Israel, killing 8 Israeli soldiers and kidnapping kidnapped Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on July 12.

This is a major violation of the ceasefire, but no more than most of the rest of it, which has become a giant game of `let's pretend'.

The Israelis are still more or less in place because of disagreement over UNIFIL’s rules of engagement..what it is allowed to do and what it is not allowed to do.They were talking about withdrawing all Israeli forces by Yom Kippur (October 2nd this year) but as one IDF commander quipped `we didn't say which year!'

The Olmert government has a vested interest in keeping the IDF where it is anyway. One of the chief constraints keeping Olmert, Livni, Peretz and the rest of the gang from being tossed out of office is the natural Israeli reluctance to play politics when the troops are still engaged.

That restraint may not last too much longer.

One month after a UN Security Council resolution ended the war, UNIFIL commanders say that they cannot set up checkpoints, search cars, homes or businesses or detain suspects. If they see a truck transporting missiles, for example (in violation of the UN arms embargo), they're not allowed to stop it because under their interpretation of the Security Council resolution (1701) that deployed them, they have to be authorized first to action by the Lebanese army!

Any wonder that the rearming of Hezbollah is continuing at a rapid pace, with no interference by anyone?

The UN commanders constantly repeat, ad nasuem, that their job is to respect Lebanese sovereignty by `supporting the Lebanese army' and that they will only follow the directions of the Lebanese Army and comply with its requests.

Let's keep in mind that more than 40% of the Lebanese army is Shiite, with loyalty towards Hezbollah Hizballah or their Shiite commanders rather than the Lebanese government...which has a significant Hezbollah presence anyway.

The mission assigned to UNIFIL under Resolution 1701 in the first place was to enforce an arms embargo and to prevent Hezbolah from continuing its attacks on Israel and destabilizing the area.

They have failed on both counts.And the Olmert government still continues to pretend that everything is ju-ust fine.