There's talk now about an international stabilization force to be sent to the Israeli-Lebanese border to help end the fighting. Sounds good, doesn't it. The forces come in, and separate the two warring sides, and peace and tranquility reign. Does this sound in any way familiar?
In 1956, after British, French and Israeli troops invaded Egypt, the solution proposed was to station neutral UN forces in Sinai to keep the peace. For the next 10 years, the Egyptians sponsored fedayeen fighters to cross over the border and attack Israeli positions at will. The UN forces did nothing.
On May 15, 1967 President Nasser sent columns of tanks and troops across the Suez Canal and into Sinai all the way to the Israeli border. The following day Nasser ordered UN peacekeeping troops to leave the border region and they complied immediately, whereupon official Egyptian radio announced:
"As of today there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain anymore to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which shall result in the termination of Zionist existence." (source : http://world.std.com/~camera/docs/backg/cdavid.html"
Before we agree to any such proposal by the UN, let's keep this history in mind. If the "peace keepers" will allow themselves to be bypassed at will, if their presence there is simply to act as a shield behind which Hezbollah can re-arm at its leisure, and worst of all, if the physical presence of foreigners will force Israel to hold back from responding to Hezbollah attacks, then we would be foolish, in fact criminal, to repeat the mistake of 1956.
