By Herb Keinon, JPOST—
Despite all the learned arguments, even with the aerial photographs, and regardless of the unequivocal diplomatic support from the US, Israel knows that it will not get the UN Security Council to take firm and determined action against Hezbollah for its tunnel project.
This was clear when listening to the Security Council debate on the issue on Wednesday, as one member of the 15-country Security Council after the other, with the exception of the US, decried – using different nuances – Hezbollah’s attack tunnels into Israel, but also made clear that Israel also violates Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Israel’s wish list going into the debate was long.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in Jerusalem to the foreign press, called on the Security Council to condemn Hezbollah’s aggression, designate it as a terrorist entity and sanction it, demand that Lebanon stop letting its territory be used to attack a neighboring state, support Israel’s right to defend itself against “Iranian-inspired and Iranian-conducted aggression” and demand that UNIFIL meet its mandate and deepen its operations.
But Netanyahu knows there is no way that the Security Council, with Kuwait, Bolivia, Russia and China among its members, is going to agree to that.
Then why all the effort? Why go through the motions? Simple, because Israel is using the Security Council as a forum to explain to the world why it might need to take strong action inside Lebanon in the near future. It is preparing its lawyerly case now. Continue Reading….