I think Italy has been mentioned... Julie Krueger ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: U.N. Special Committee on Palestine Date: 7/28/06 4:53:07 P.M. Central Daylight Time From: _teme17@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:teme17@xxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: --- JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx wrote: > What possible motivation would the Israeli army/govt > have for deliberately > bombing a UN Peacekeeping Office? > Don't know about those higher up, but Jerusalem Post run a story where IDF troops basically accused UN forces of aiding Hezbollah. And not for the first time either. Their proof? They saw UN officers having tea with Hezbollah fighters. The UN forces don't have a mandate or the resources to do anything else then monitor the situation and aid civilians, so it is more than natural for them to be in contact with both sides of the conflict. Couple days after the story, the UN bunker was hit despite repeated warnings on several levels. The conclusion to draw is that at least some segments of IDF have a with us or against us mentality. Olmert promised a full inquiry, which would be a first, but I am open to being proven wrong. USA and UK have now joined the chorus asking for an international force in Southern Lebanon. For political reasons, I doubt they would be USA or UK forces. That leaves the EU rapid response force as a short term fix, rotating duty now held by Germans, Dutch and Finns. Germans are uneasy about getting their military involved with anything involving Israel for historical reasons, Dutch will not be going anywhere with a murky mandate (think Srebreniza), and given that Israel just blow up a Finnish officer, Finns "don't have troops available at the moment", which is a nice way of saying that the army isn't going anywhere without whole lot of firepower and a clear mandate to shoot back at IDF... So I guess French or Russians are the best guess on who is going, there just aren't that many combat troops on standby anywhere and mere peace keepers won't do, and I don't think neither nation is particularly enthusiastic. Yours, Teemu Helsinki, Finland __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html