The headline above is surely wong, if not deliberately misleading, given this quote from a different Times article:
"Before the meeting, Israeli officials said they regarded the failure of an international conference to reach agreement on a cease-fire plan as clearing the way for further assaults on Hezbollah.
“We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world,’’ Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israeli radio, “to continue this operation, this war, until Hezbollah won’t be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed.’’
With the Rome conference on what to do in the Middle East reaching no conclusions and NOT calling for a cease fire, consider that a success for Condi Rice.
Australia understands that Israel will soon establish a free-fire zone in southern Lebanon, as soon as the IDF finishes removing Hezbollah fighters and sympathizers from a strip along the border.
Australian PM John Howard has it right. Any nation that thinks that an international force should be 'peace-keeping' is misguided. Any military presence must have the will and resources to fight to keep Hezbollah out of that area. The fact that U.N. forces were accidentally killed in the fighting is not the real reason for Australia's withdrawal. I think they understand what's going to happen there...and soon.
"In the first apparent ramification of the killing of four U.N. observers by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, Australia decided to withdraw 12 unarmed logistics specialists who had been sent to southern Lebanon to help with evacuation efforts.
It also said it would not support a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday."
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