UN deaths prompt 'diplomatic firestorm'

The day after Israeli jets bombed a UN outpost in Lebanon, killing four UN observers from Canada, China, Austria and Finland, a "diplomatic firestorm" has erupted over the incident.

CNN reports that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply distressed" over what he called an "apparently deliberate attack."

"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked UN post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," he said in a statement.

"Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the UN force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack."

CNN also reports that the UN observers who were killed in the attack had called "an Israeli military liaison about 10 times in the six hours before they died to warn that the aerial attacks were getting close to their position," according to a UN source.

The Toronto Star reports that Milos Struger, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said the firing on the position continued throughout Tuesday night and that "a UN rescue team sent to the observation post also came under Israeli artillery fire."

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Ha'aretz reports that Prime Minister Olmert called Mr. Annan to express "deep sorrow" over the deaths of the UN observers and to tell him that a full investigation would be carried out. But in a statement that was released later in the day, Olmert "expressed dismay over Annan's comments, saying "It's inconceivable for the UN to define an error as an apparently deliberate action."

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied Israel hit the post intentionally. Gillerman said he was "shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the UN post," calling the assertions "premature and erroneous."

He said Olmert's assurances to the secretary-general are "a clear indication" of Israel's commitment to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel. Gillerman said "Israel is carrying out a thorough inquiry into this tragic incident and will inform the UN of its results as soon as possible."

Voice of America reports that Israeli Foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Annan's comments made no sense.

"Why on earth would we deliberately target UN observers?" he asked. "What good would that do either on the military or the political level, because it so obvious that this would be harmful. Of course it is a tragedy for the observers and their bereaved families and we truly share their sorrow and we deeply regret the incident. It was obviously a fatal mistake."

Heavy fighting continued in southern Lebanon, with both sides taking casualties. The Associated Press reports that as many as 14 Israeli solders were killed Wednesday in fighting around the town of Bint Jubayl. There have been no firm reports on casualties among Hizbullah fighters. Hizbullah continued to fire rockets into northern Israel, seriously injuring one man. Israel also restarted its bombardment of sites in Beirut.

USA Today reports that participants at a Middle East conference are gathering again in Rome to talk about a possible international peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon. Annan called for an immediate cease-fire, and said an international force stationed in south Lebanon "is vital to a peaceful solution."

Much of the discussion will likely focus on efforts by the Europeans and others to overcome strong US and British opposition to an immediate cease-fire. The Americans are against a quick truce, arguing that a cessation of violence must also lead to a durable peace and ensure that Hizbullah is no longer a threat to Israel.

In a first sign of a concrete proposal, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema called on participants to agree on an international donors conference for the reconstruction of Lebanon, his spokesman, Pasquale Ferrara, told reporters.

Ha'aretz reports that the US plan put forward by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice includes an Israeli withdrawal from the Sheba Farms, a mountainous region seized from Syria by Israel during the six-day war in 1967. Lebanon now claims that area as part of its country with Damascus' consent. Israel denies that the area is up for negotiation.

Bloomberg News reports that Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, believes that a cease-fire will be reached next week, Hizbullah will agree to stop attacking Israel and disarm, Israel will leave the Sheba Farms region, and the two sides will exchange prisoners.

"Hizbullah's days are numbered," Mr. Khashan said in a phone interview. "Eventually it will be a political party without a military wing. By losing the Sheba Farms [as a reason to fight Israel], it looses its justification of existence as an armed group."

Rami Khoury, the editor-at-large of the Daily Star in Lebanon writes, however, that Ms. Rice's description last week of the fighting in Lebanon and Israel as the "birth pangs" of a new Middle East is more likely "the initial dying gasps of the Western-made political order that has defined this region and focused primarily on Israeli national dictates for most of the past half a century." One reason for this is that Washington "now can only speak to a few Arab governments (Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere) who are in almost no position to affect anyone other than their immediate families and many guards."

Washington is engaged almost exclusively with Arab governments whose influence with Syria is virtually nonexistent, whose credibility with Arab public opinion is zero, whose own legitimacy at home is increasingly challenged and whose pro-US policies tend to promote the growth of those militant Islamist movements that now lead the battle against American and Israeli policies. Is Rice traveling to a new Middle East, or to a diplomatic Disneyland of her own imagination?

If Rice pursues contacts in the coming five days that increase Washington's bias towards Israel, tighten its links with isolated, increasingly impotent Arab governments and further alienate the masses of Arab public opinion, she will exacerbate the very problem she claims she wants to fix: the spread of violence and terror, practiced simultaneously by the armies of states like the United States, Israel, and police state governments in the Middle East who live by violence as a rule, and by non-state actors like Hezbollah and others like it.

Finally, Reuters reports that US Democrats are calling for a boycott of the speech to Congress Wednesday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after he recently denounced Israel's raids on Lebanon and Gaza. Last week Mr. Malaiki said it was time for "the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression." Maliki has also refrained from giving his opinion about Hizbullah.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said unless Maliki "disavows his critical comments of Israel and condemns terrorism, it is inappropriate to honor him with a joint meeting of Congress."

• Conflict as a Way of Life: Living in southern Lebanon (Los Angeles Times)
• 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza (CBC.ca)
• Israelis accused of 'human shields' tactic in Gaza (BBC)
• The BBC on Israel: Be flippant and avoid the facts (Jerusalem Post)
• Ivy Leaguers leave Lebanon first and fast through private security firms (ABCNews.com)
• Morality is not on our side (Ha'aretz)
• Praying for Hummus, Getting Hamas (Der Spiegel, Germany)

Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.