US demands Israeli Air Force stop flights into Lebanese airspace

Overflights came after UN learned of arms being smuggled into Lebanon from Syria.

Ha'aretz reports that in a meeting Thursday with top Israeli officials, US diplomats asked that the Israeli Air Force stop its flights into Lebanese airspace.

The two US diplomats, David Welch and Elliott Abrams, told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that these flights undermine the standing of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The US supports Mr. Siniora's government and is worried that signs of weakness will be exploited by the militant group, Hizbullah.


The Jerusalem Post says the Israeli overflights came only hours after the UN Security Council learned that "the Lebanese government had reported arms being smuggled into the country from Syria." According to the Post, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz has said on several occasions that the flights would continue until two abducted Israeli soldiers are returned and adequate actions are taken by UN peacekeepers to prevent Hizbullah from rearming.

The Post reported Tuesday that Israeli jets "roared low over Hizbullah strongholds in south Beirut," staging mock raids on Hizbullah strongholds. Over the past few weeks, Israeli Air Force incursions into Lebanon have also been criticized by the United Nations, the European Union and the Lebanese government.


French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said the overflights were "contrary to the spirit" of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for both Israel and Lebanon to respect the UN-delineated border.
"We consider that these overflights constitute a violation of Lebanese sovereignty," Mattei said at a regular press briefing. "We call on Israel to put an end to these overflights and we call on all partners to refrain from any act that could maintain or increase tension."

Two weeks ago the French government, whose soldiers are among the newly deployed United Nations troops along the Israeli-Lebanon border, criticized the overflights as "extremely dangerous" and said troops on the ground might see them as "hostile acts" and fire on the planes in self-defense. Under the agreement reached to end the Hizbullah-Israeli conflict this summer, peacekeeping troops now have the right to use their weapons if they feel their lives are in danger, regardless of who is committing the "hostile act."

The Financial Times reported in mid-October that Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the UN force commander in Lebanon, hinted he would shoot down Israeli jets flying over Lebanon if he felt his troops were being threatened or in danger. But UN officials immediately downplayed the general's remarks and said the United Nations mission in Lebanon, know as UNIFIL, had no desire for a confrontation with Israel.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that an internal Israeli Defense Force document says the overflights "are intended in part to pressure the international community to take action to stop arms smuggling to Hizbullah guerrillas and to release two abducted Israeli soldiers." A senior Israeli defense official confirmed the authenticity of the document.

The document contradicts official Israeli assertions that the overflights are routine reconnaissance operations designed to gather intelligence about Hizbullah, which clashed with Israel over the summer in a monthlong war.
The document, titled "Strategic diplomatic messages: the army must continue overflights to secure international pressure," was approved by chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, a former air force commander, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss policy with the press.

United Press International reported last week that Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that the US security resolution has not been fully implemented, and therefore the flights would continue because they meet an important Israeli security need.

Abdi Noyan Ozkaya, writing the Turkish opinion journal, Turkish Weekly, argues that there are several reasons why overflights actually work against Israel's interests. Mr. Ozakaya argues that by stopping its overflights and by withdrawing from the village of Gajar, it will force the international community to put increasing pressure on Hizbullah.

The Jerusalem Post argues in an editorial, however, that Israel "can no longer credibly accommodate the notion of overwhelming reliance on outside forces to provide protection."

Disturbingly, indeed, and despite Israel's record of restraint - respecting the Lebanese border for years even as it watched Iran build Hizbullah into the world's best-armed terrorist force - some of those responsible for UNIFIL seem to have misidentified the enemy, perceiving Israel as the threat to tranquility, rather than Sheikh Nasrallah and his Teheran-inspired forces.

Instead of bolstering Israel in the effort to defeat hostile forces, UNIFIL is in some cases actually seeking to limit Israel's room for maneuver, issuing complaints and even threats over Israeli reconnaissance flights – in what amounts to a policy that, far from thwarting Hizbullah, would provide it with still wider immunity.
In an analysis for UPI, Michael Stothard writes that the UNIFIL mission feels as frustrated with its "lack of power" as are the Israelis.

The UN mandate is "clearly inefficient to the needs of the situation," [Judy Barsalou, Middle East expert at the US Institute of Peace said]. But there is another problem beyond their "ineffective" mandate: Barsalou said "the force is too small" to monitor Lebanon's border with Syria, which extends some 200 miles -- too large to police with only 14,000 troops.

Asked whether weapons were slipping through the Syrian border, Jeffrey White, an expert on Lebanon at The Washington Institute, told United Press International, "for sure." While admitting that "anything you can put in a crate you can smuggle" and that UNIFIL was impotent to do anything about the Israeli planes, White said this does not mean the mission is ineffective.

"They changed the environment to one where Hizbullah has to be cautious," White said. "Southern Lebanon is no longer an area where Hizbullah has complete freedom of action."


http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1103/dailyUpdate.html