Italy has offered to lead a United Nations force for Lebanon, but a week after a truce calmed Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas, few other countries with proven military capacity have made substantial commitments.
European Union countries are meeting on Wednesday to discuss concerns about clear rules of engagement for the force. European contingents are thought to be vital if the United Nations is to get an advance party of 3 500 troops on the ground by September 2.
The UN Security Council resolution that led to the truce called for 15 000 UN troops to join a similar number of Lebanese army troops that are already deploying in the south.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Monday he had told UN chief Kofi Annan his country was willing to command the force, adding that Annan would make a decision this weekend.
The Beirut government welcomed Italy’s offer of 2 000 troops, the biggest commitment any country has yet made. Israel has already said it would be happy if Italy led the force.
According to a source close to Prodi, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told his Italian counterpart on Monday evening that there was the ”unanimous backing” of the Lebanese government for Italy to lead the UN force.
France had earlier been tipped to take command but sharply cut its anticipated contribution to 200 troops from at least 2 000. Turkey, Spain and other countries are still hesitating.
Italy’s right-wing opposition warned the deployment could prove a ”kamikaze” mission.
European jitters
The European jitters have drawn signs of impatience from US President George Bush, who called for the urgent dispatch of UN peacekeepers to south Lebanon. ”The international community must now designate the leadership of this international force, give it robust rules of engagement and deploy it as quickly as possible to secure the peace,” Bush told a news conference in Washington.
During the war, the US refused to call for an immediate ceasefire, saying political conditions must be put in place to ensure any peace was lasting — code words for the removal of any Hezbollah threat to Israel.
At the United Nations, Washington’s UN ambassador John Bolton said his country planned a new UN Security Council resolution on disarming Hezbollah, but that this was separate from the quick dispatch of UN troops to Lebanon.
Hezbollah has accepted the deployment of UN and Lebanese troops in its south Lebanese stronghold, but has not promised to leave the area or to dismantle its arsenal of rockets.
Bush also announced on Monday a $230-million aid package to Lebanon that includes 25 000 tonnes of wheat.
The Lebanese government estimates that Israeli bombing caused $3,6-billion of physical damage during the 34-day war.
Despite the truce, Israel’s army said its troops had shot and hit three gunmen in the south on Monday. It said there was no return fire. Hezbollah said none of its men had been killed.
The UN-backed truce has already been jolted by an Israeli commando raid in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley on Saturday which the United Nations described as a violation.
Nearly 1 200 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed during the war that erupted after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
The Lebanese army has deployed along the Syrian border and has moved deep into the shattered south, but Israel says its troops will not pull out fully until extra UN forces arrive.
Despite Lebanon’s efforts, Israel is maintaining air and sea restrictions on Lebanon and keeping a close watch on its border with Syria in a bid to prevent Hezbollah from rearming.
The Israeli government has come under further fire at home for its handling of the war, which failed to destroy Hezbollah or secure the release of the two soldiers.
”The government didn’t take seriously the lives of our troops,” said army reservist Zvi Marek at a Jerusalem protest.
‘Cold feet’
Meanwhile, a brigade of reserve soldiers angrily accused the Israeli government on Monday of fighting a war with ”indecision” and ”cold feet”.
In the most outspoken acknowledgment of Israel’s failings in the war, one retiring senior army officer also admitted that the military felt ”a certain sense of failure” after 34 days of combat. Brigadier Yossi Heiman, head of infantry and paratroopers, told a ceremony on Sunday: ”We have sinned the sin of hubris.”
Critics in the press and now in the military have rounded on the Israeli government for failing to emerge from the conflict with a clear victory over Hezbollah.
Although the Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, has ordered a limited inquiry into the war, many critics are calling for a more robust state commission to investigate the government and military’s conduct. The Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appears reluctant to hold a more high-profile investigation. ”We don’t have a lot of time to talk about what happened,” he said. ”We have to talk about what will happen.”
A commission could have politically damaging consequences. Similar commissions followed the 1973 Yom Kippur war, unseating the then prime minister Golda Meir, and the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, which forced then defence minister Ariel Sharon to quit.
In an open letter published in the Israeli press on Monday, the Spearhead Brigade, a unit of reservist soldiers who fought in Lebanon, said they had lost confidence in their leadership. ”The ‘cold feet’ of the decision-makers were evident everywhere,” the letter said.
”To us the indecision expressed deep disrespect for our willingness to join the ranks and fight and made us feel as though we had been spat on … The heavy feeling that in the echelons above us there is nothing but under-preparation, insincerity, lack of foresight and inability to make rational decisions, leads to the question: were we called up for nothing?”
The soldiers did not question the need to go to war, but asked for a ”thorough and worthy commission under the auspices of the state” to look into its handling. ”We paid a heavy price in order to fight and come out of the battle victorious, and we feel this has been denied of us.”
It is not unusual for Israeli soldiers to speak out publicly against commanders, but there has been an extraordinary wave of criticism in recent days highlighting the military’s apparent lack of intelligence about Hezbollah’s fighting capability. Troops were taken aback by the militia’s anti-tank rockets which caused so much damage to Israel’s Merkava tanks.
General Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, has opposed a state commission of inquiry. He has faced criticism for selling some of his stocks just hours after the conflict was triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers last month. He reportedly told a Cabinet meeting on Sunday that the Israeli military ”has accumulated a feeling that it did not achieve a knockout, as the nation calls it, but a victory on points”.
But his words were not good enough for the left-leaning Ha’aretz newspaper which called for the general’s resignation. ”The chief of staff is responsible for the public’s lack of confidence in the Israel Defence Forces’ ability to win, and he will be responsible for reservists who fail to show up in the future,” the paper said. – Reuters, Guardian