Sham UN Resolution Guarantees No End To Israel’s War
of Illegal Aggression - by Stephen Lendman

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 try 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
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  Also visit his blog
site at sjlendman.blogspot.com