The AP released a brief story on the Lebanese government affirming Hezbullah’s defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 to disarm. This version holds too much of the truth in it. Prediction: Mention of 1701 will be dropped to the bottom of the next version, and weasel words will be added.
Lebanon’s new government has endorsed Hezbollah’s right to keep its weapons.
The decision came Wednesday in a statement that lays out the government’s goals for the next four years.
Lebanon’s government is a shaky coalition of Western-backed factions and the militant group Hezbollah and its allies.
Wednesday’s move is the latest sign that Hezbollah has no intention of meeting a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war with Israel. The resolution required Hezbollah to give up its arsenal.
Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm has generated division within Lebanon as well as concern in Israel, which says it is preparing to deploy a defense system to shoot down rockets from Lebanon.
Remember, too, this is Israel’s casus belli if Hezbullah attacks. The terrorist group is now authorized by the government of Lebanon. That makes it all of Lebanon’s problem. I know the world will not see it that way if it comes to another war. But if the international legists are so concerned about international law, then they will acknowledge that when the government of a state authorizes a group’s arming legally, then that government is now legally responsible for whatever that armed group does.
And of course, none of this will matter to the screamers who blame Israel for everything.