Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s surprise visit to Beirut has intensified diplomatic efforts to end two weeks of fighting between Israel and extremist groups operating from Gaza and Lebanon.
Diplomats have not yet crafted a formula for a meaningful cease-fire. In contrast, there is no shortage of ideas for a meaningless cease-fire.
Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament and Hezbollah’s de facto negotiator, proposed a comfy breathing spell for terrorism by outlining a cease-fire coupled with negotiations for an exchange of prisoners between Hezbollah and Israel.
Rice appropriately rejected that one-sided scheme, which would allow Hezbollah to restock its Iranian arsenals before renewing missile attacks on Israeli cities. The secretary’s visit should bolster Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora whose government is clearly is too weak to control Hezbollah and other terrorist groups – and still less able to fend off Syria’s continuing efforts to effectively annex southern Lebanon. The need to curb Syrian and Iranian ambitions could – and certainly should – prompt moderate Arab states to support a strong peace-keeping force to fill the current power vacuum in the region.
Unofficial reports of the Beirut meeting say Rice advanced a plan that would stop the fighting at the same time that an international force was deployed in southern Lebanon capable of keeping the peace. Rice also was said to urge that Hezbollah weapons be removed from a buffer zone extending about 18 miles from the Israeli border.
That’s a realistic proposal, and one that in broad terms dovetails with goals outlined by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as he traveled to Rome for consultations on the crisis. Annan is pressing for an immediate cease-fire, agreement on a border force and steps to support the government in Beirut. He will join Rice and officials from Italy, France, the U.K., Russia, the European Union, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the World Bank at the Rome conference.
In effect, Rice, Annan and other realists are calling for reconstituting a stronger version of the existing U.N. force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL. The mandate for the existing force expires on July 31.
The record of U.N. peacekeeping forces in the region is mixed at best. But a strengthened UNIFIL may be the best of bad alternatives. Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years before withdrawing in 2000 and wisely ejects renewing that occupation. Lebanon’s own government is far too weak to enforce a true demilitarized zone.
The world can only hope that Rome will quickly produce a formula to stop the violence and allow the now-comatose Middle East peace process to resume its vital work.
It’s time for the diplomats to knock some heads and bring calm to Israel and Lebanon.
