Talk and Fight

While the UN isn't yet out of the game it has taken several large steps towards League of Nations irrelevancy. The UN Security Council's decision on Lebanon (Resolution 1701), adopted unanimously—one must ask how such a toothless resolution could possibly garner unanimous support—on August 11, means nothing. It is patently unenforceable, and to the extent that it sets any precedent for UN engagement with regard to Israel's calculated, cruel, and criminal conduct it is a negative one, going some distance to letting Israel off the hook. A child could see that Res. 1701 is merely a Catch-22: UN peacekeepers won't go in until the fighting stops; Israel won't stop fighting before Hezbollah does, and won't begin to leave until the fighting stops and the UN peacekeepers are ready to go in; for its part Hezbollah won't stop fighting until Israeli forces begin to withdraw. Ergo Israel will continue its offensive and the UN won't deploy. Nothing in Res. 1701 breaks that equation. Moreover, placing responsibility on the Lebanese government for disarming Hezbollah is a clear recipe for a new Lebanese civil war; either that or it stacks the diplomatic deck against Lebanese efforts to obtain help from outside forces. All around, a black mark in UN history.