“As Boston University’s Professor Augustus Norton instructs us, actions taken by UNIFIL have sometimes reflected the US dictate that UN resolutions are to operate in one of two dimensions. Either manifesting a unified binding character which the entire world is expected to accept or taking the form of an inconclusive mandate ‘which leaves sufficient room for Israel to buy time, alter the enforcement of the resolution and sometimes even replace the intended policy or action with its own objectives’. A very recent example of the Bush administration manhandling the Security Council to the detriment of democracy in Lebanon is the December 12, 2007 US move to coerce the UN into a self destructive endorsement of the preferred US/Israel faction in Lebanon, the Siniora government. The Welch Club idea is to push the Army to try to link with UNIFIL against the opposition. During this attempt the US will provide the necessary noise at Turtle Bay about the need for UNIFIL ‘to do its duty under UNSCR 1701’ … The 12/12/07 US move, employing the new French pro-Israel Skorsky government as pitchman, takes the form of an unusual draft of UN Presidential Statement in support of the Siniora government. The Draft stresses the need to implement United Nations Security Council resolutions which is US Bush Administration code language for disarming Hezbollah. If the the Bush administration succeeds in pushing UNIFIL to attempt to disarm the Lebanese Resistance UNIFIL, according to one UN official at its HQ in Naquora, ‘will be forced out of Lebanon within fewer hours than Israel needed to saturate South Lebanon with US cluster bombs’ … UNIFIL has fallen out of favor with both Israel and many in Lebanon. Israel has criticized the force for, among other things, maintaining a dialogue with Hezbollah, which it views as a terrorist organization, for treating Israeli and Hezbollah ceasefire breaches equally, and of complicity in the capture of three Israeli soldiers in 2000 … Former UNIFIL spokesman, Timur Goksel [said]: ‘UNIFIL came here in 1978. We were, because at that time there was no Hezbollah here, accused of being sympathetic to Palestinians. A peacekeeping force does not come here with pre-set enemies. There is no enemy in a peacekeeping force and UNIFIL is a peacekeeping force. It’s not an Israeli combat force or an anti-terror force, as they would like it to be. As long as we don’t serve their direct interests, they are going to denigrate it as much as they can’. (Sept 26 2006) … A period of hoped for calm in Lebanon has now shattered by the latest assassination and the apparent selection of General Michel Suleiman as Lebanon’s new President, is in doubt, Lebanon’s best hope for a national consensus may be the growing Lebanese Army, Hezbollah and UNIFIL cooperation. That tripartite cooperation may well lead to Lebanon being able to secure and safeguard its Southern border, airspace, and help rebuild the Country”… Dr. Franklin Lamb, who is currently based in Lebanon doing research on Hezbollah and the effects of Bush Administration policy in the Region, wrote this analysis published on Counterpunch.org here.