When Israel agreed to lift the air and sea blockade of Lebanon two days ago, the UN promised that the forces replacing them would interdict arms intended to resupply their enemy, Hezbollah. France, which will provide substantial forces in controlling sea access to Lebanon, now says its military will not use force to stop anything:

France announced on Friday that the international naval force designated to patrol Lebanon's territorial waters would not be authorized to employ force to stop ships from entering or leaving Lebanon.

A spokesman for the French defense ministry said that the international craft would only provide assistance for Lebanese ships, and would not interfere with other nations' boats, Israel Radio reported.

Earlier Friday, Israel began to remove its naval blockade of Lebanon, imposed almost two months after Hizbullah launched its cross-border raid and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the French commander of UNIFIL, said government officials informed him Friday afternoon that the blockade was being lifted. Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said she didn't have immediate confirmation that the final order had been given to lift the siege, but said earlier Friday that the blockade would be ended within hours.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, announced that a multinational task force, commanded by an Italian admiral, had begun patrolling Lebanese territorial waters.

One has to ask why France and Italy even bothered to show up. Relying on the Lebanese is what started this war in the first place. The Siniora government never bothered to make an attempt at compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which required them to disarm Hezbollah. They were either unwilling or unable, or a combination of both, to make that common-sense move; they stood by and watched Hezbollah add to their arsenals.

Now the UN forces propose to do the same thing all over again. France sent a military force to the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon to essentially do nothing but observe boats going in and out of the harbor. They may just as well have sent a regatta crowd to Tyre and fired up a few barbeques. Perhaps the French believe that a simple finger-wagging and a vicious tongue-lashing will force arms merchants to flee from Lebanon, with French scolding ringing in their ears?

This is another example of the UN's betrayal of Israel during this cease-fire process. At every step, the UN has promised to provide the security Israel requires in order to get the IDF to withdraw, only to see the component forces declare openly that they have no intention of fulfilling the mission. And of all the nations complicit in this disaster, France has been the most perfidious. They insisted on setting the terms of the cease-fire, and then have consistently reneged on support. It proves yet again that the only thing worse that having France arrayed against you is having them allied with you.

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I received a stern rebuke the other day for cracking wise about the French (zut alors!). Hey, I love the idea of France; the food, the wine, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Foreign Legion, gorgeous, chic women and delicious little... [Read More]

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I received a stern rebuke the other day for cracking wise about the French (zut alors!). Hey, I love the idea of France; the food, the wine, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Foreign Legion, gorgeous, chic women and delicious little... [Read More]

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