Saul Singer at PostGlobal

Saul Singer

Jerusalem, Israel

Saul Singer is Editorial Page Editor and author of the weekly column “Interesting Times” for the Jerusalem Post. He is the author of Confronting Jihad: Israel's Struggle and the World After 9/11. Before moving to Israel from the Washington area in 1994, Mr. Singer served for ten years as an advisor on the personal and committee staffs of the United States Congress, including the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Connie Mack. Close.

Saul Singer

Jerusalem, Israel

Saul Singer is Editorial Page Editor and author of the weekly column “Interesting Times” for the Jerusalem Post. more »

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World Community Must Pressure Siniora Harder

Jerusalem, Israel - As Mahmoud Sabit notes, because of the way the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is constructed the government of Lebanon needs to ask UNIFIL to help it with the two key demands: disarming Hezbollah and preventing its...

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All Comments (16)

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The V Comment -> :- F:

everyone wants what they do not truly possess: power. Everyone chases what they cannot attain. And everyone is chased by what they reject. Action/Reaction thermodynamic mechanism that is the fabric of this Matrix existence of ours.

Power can only be granted by the source that manifests all that is and will ever be and ever was.

Victory can only be achieved through justice and an iron rod of pure Will and ultimately, righteous peace.

But no one with fleeting power listens to our peace makers unless they yield the Greatest weapon of all: loving self sacrifice.

You thought it was a BFG? Maybe it is but what type of weapon is the weapon of love made of?

At this point, many have begun scoffing and mocking and that is why it is written to reply immediately to your thoughts.

Hmm, the plot thickens....

First they mock and think it fantasy, exactly then watch with disbelieving eyes as what they were told occurs as stated.

True power tests the hearts of the prisoners of the sun's 3rd planet. If true power did not come in secret but revealed itself in its full and complete manifestation, the brown nosers would kiss up to it just as they have always had for they always lie in wait for every potential Ides of March situation that arises.

Therefore true power comes as a weakling for the hearts to be tested if they follow the commandments and the additions of loving not only thy neighbor but they enemy .

For loving thy enemy breaks the chain of hateful violence that begins with one oppressing the other.

When one rises above the ring of fire, one has shown their adversary that thou art greater through courage which is the opposite of fear and the selfish fear mongers it comes from.

But until that occurs, spare the ROD, spoil the child and hence, you have this:

If Money is the Root of old Evil,

then Evil is the Root of All Money Trees.

When Money is the Evil of All Rotten Roots,

Evil is the square root of all monies.

Evil is the one that uproots for money,

buy yourself a football team wiley coyote day dreaming on a Skynettin'learjet.

The cream rises to the top but if the seed be

rotten, the crap rises through the

crop, crowning it with a capstone of infested

ether based fractionally reserved subjugation made of wool owe V err you're I'des of Marchin' sheep to the 451st Fahrenheital Hostel.

Beware of someone's false profit, for it is the

slippery slope you slid on on your way to

everything is a owe k's.

If all you seek is EL Owe! K jewlery,

sometimes what you find will make hey owe 401

tKo.

If she's a knockout, making you bigger, harder

easier to fall before autumn.

IntentionaLEE Miss Expelled Material Girls

wanna have fun at the X pence of your head

pointed at the barrel of a fun and gun run

offensive afront to reality.

When you walk around, dew u fell Proud, Soup Errier to your peers?

drowning them in your tears?

As you're busy sacrificing everyone for your safety's sake, Defending Tactically placed First Strike Weaponry with your SELF rite SHUSS Mein Leibenous STATE of HATE,is it more important than the ones you spiritually cremate?

While you challenge everything, Yo' play Electronically farted Fire Fights with your Soviet Strikin' computed reality generated 3dfx'd Pentium needin'Nuclear Strike.

Watch my Advanced Micro Devices expose to the world your numerous vices.

So before you gyrate with your defensive attacks, ponder the thought of your abundant OWE FENCES.

When exposed to Renegades of Funk,

Try hard as you might, your failing flailing attempts to stopping us now will excrementally expose your sphincterous shyte.

Defend that without offending for the increasingly corn-holed World is watching your transgressions ascending.

fUny1

carlos pereira:

this is ridiculous!who started this war?if they fire a missile from a mosque,the mosque showld be destroyed like any other places from were the hizballah fired the missiles.the lebanese governement should realize the backing up of a terrorist group as serious consequenses!

Wings:


Why would US not talk about 10000 lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails from 18 years of Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories?

Why would they not talk about Sheeba Farm?

how can peace be arrived at if the most basic point of contention remains unresolved?

If Israel could not destroy Hizbollah after being in South Lebanon for 18 years, how did Israel expect to destroy Hizbollah by air raids? and how can it expect a UN peace keeping for with limited military mandate to disarm Hizbollah?

Israel raid on Lebanon, U.S watching from sidelines, International effort to bring about aceasefire, all of these seem like the biggest farce.

It is not a question of just right or wrong, it is a willingness to address issues bilaterally and diplomatically for the sake of peace or go to war at the slightest excuse.

Henry:

There is some sort of self deception when people want to believe that all you need to do to kill a poisonous snake is to cut its tail´. In this case the head of the snake is in Teheran and nothing but crushing it will deliver Lebanon from Hezbollah. As for Israel, it used extreme restraint and little manpower to do this job due to political pressure from the US. ¿All those who think that hezbollah defeated the "military machine" that Israel can deploy, are fooling themselves. I hope that the full might of the IDF will not have to be used, for it will mean total war, and unimaginable destruction and suffering in the ME, on a scale 20 times worst than we have seen in Lebanon.

Peter, West Hartford, CT:

Hezbullah's political aims and military methods should mark it as anathema to all democratic societies. If Lebanon is to have a future as part of the developed world -- an achievable goal that most of its citizens want and deserve -- it must rid itself of Hezbullah's corrosive presence. This is the most crucial decision in Lebanon's history ever to be made by Lebanese and not by outsiders.

Aryeh Green:

Singer is right, but he doesn't go far enough.

The "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon, whereby the Lebanese people stood up for their right to independence (from Syria) and to freedom (from repressive and divisive leadership), was hikacked and destroyed by Hizballah. As has been documented elsewhere, most Lebanese greatly resent Hizballah not only for their attacks on Israel which provoked the recent war but for the damage they ahve caused to Lebanese society and politics.

As per 1701, hizballah must be disarmed to enable Lebanon to flourish. And this is only peripherally related to Israel.

How? The international community, led by the EU, should LINK its current aid (let alone trade and relations) to a commitment and to actions related to the dismantling of Hizballah as a militia, in addition to Saul's point about defining Hizballah as a terrorist organization. More disarmament, more aid for reconstruction.

Once Hizballah is dismantled (or, less likely, becomes a true 'political party'), full aid and trade can flow from the EU and elsewhere to return Lebanon to its rightful place as the 'Paris of the East'.

And, not incidentally, with the strengthening of democracy and freedom in Lebanon will come... peace with Israel, as well as an increased chance of freedom for Lebanon's impoverished neigbhors suffering under one of the region's most oppressive dictatorial regimes in Syria.

Anonymous:

singer lost

Peter Kelly Kirsch:

It seems very easy to say disarm Hizbullah but It seems that Israel has itself thrown a wrench into any quick disarming of the Organization. Hizbullah has gained in political stature, power and support in the world as a result of the actions Israel has conducted in Lebanon. many people scholars and politicians forsaw this outcome we are faced with. The newly formed slf determined Democratic govt of Lebanon has been crippled and Hizbullah empowered. israel achieved the exact opposite of what it desired as it followed the US example.. Why is beyond me look at Iraq.. US Mid east policy is a total failure. The advice to pressure the prime Minister wouldhave been very good 1 month ago now?? well let us say that hisoptions on this are limited.
After the destruction wreaked on Lebanon by Israel and The US(through it's approval), The EU will not any time in the near future be able to put Hizbullah on it's terror list.. Sadly this advice comes too late and another course has been set. The Palestine Issue must be delt with and israel will have to show enormous good will now even more than before if it's desire for peace is to be attained. I am just stating the facts of what the world and arabs see happened in the confilct and it does not bode well for the view of israel and the US. tehre were 2 losers in this conflict Israel and the USA now they will have to reap what has been sown...

Judith:

The main objective of Israel in the Israeli-Hezbollah operation was to defend its citizens from Hezbollah Katyusha rockets. Israel strategically destroyed buildings that Hezbollah fighters used to store, and fire their weapons. If Hezbollah was in fact fighting for the 'rights' of their Lebanese compatriots, then perhaps they should have considered using the money that they received from Iran and Syria to develop the infrastructure of Southern Lebanon, instead of rebuilding their weapon caches.

Zain:

And lets not forget Resolution 242:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_242

"United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967 in the aftermath of the Six Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter [1]. The resolution was framed by Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and British ambassador Lord Caradon.

It calls for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" (see semantic dispute) and the "[t]ermination of all claims or states of belligerency".

It also calls for the recognition of all established states by belligerent parties (Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan) of each other and calls for the establishment of secure and recognized boundaries for all parties.
It is one of the most commonly referenced UN resolutions in Middle Eastern politics. It was reaffirmed and made binding by UN Security Council Resolution 338, adopted after the 1973 Yom Kippur War."

The Beirut declaration of 2002 fulfilled the requirement in the second last paragraph from the quote above, yet Israeli hardliners and Israeli apologists in the U.S were pooh poohing it before the ink had even dried because for them it represented a blow to Israeli expansionism. Let's have the U.N enforce its resolutions pertaining to Israel first and watch the violence against Israeli occupation, annexation, atrocities and war crimes fade away.

Link to extracts of Beirut Declaration:

http://www.al-bab.com/arab/docs/league/communique02.htm

Zain:

Perhaps the U.N should also launch an investigation into the Security Council resolutions that Israel is continuing to violate and initiate sanctions against it. The United States and Israel love to talk about "implementing" Security Council resolutions, so long as they are the ones they like. Let's start from the beginning and first implement the ones that effect Israel.

Resolution 252 (1968) Israel
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures
that change the legal status of Jerusalem, including
the expropriation of land and properties
thereon.

262 (1968) Israel
Calls upon Israel to pay compensation to
Lebanon for destruction of airliners at Beirut
International Airport.

267 (1969) Israel
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures
seeking to change the legal status of occupied
East Jerusalem.

271 (1969) Israel
Reiterates calls to rescind measures seeking to
change the legal status of occupied East
Jerusalem and calls on Israel to scrupulously
abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding
the responsibilities of occupying powers.

298 (1971) Israel
Reiterates demand that Israel rescind measures
seeking to change the legal status of occupied
East Jerusalem.

Billy, Dubai:

Here we go again...more Israeli propaganda. It is every body's fault except Israel. And the whole world must now find whipping boys in other countries.

It is obvious, even to a moron in a hurry, that the absurd response of the Israelis and their destruction of civilian targets and infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon was a preplanned gamble to start another civil war in Lebanon and pitch the Sunnis vs. Shiites (like Iraq) and the sit back....and it didn't work!

The Israelis censored the news that they lost 50-60 tanks (that is a tank brigade) all as they were only 2 km in Lebanese territory.

The author writes about a "weak government". Now, what is the Olmert government in Israel, with a new political party that is less than 1 year old and absolutely no fixed doctrine and manifesto? Political cross-dressing describes it.

Time to say enough. And this is definitely the time to revoke Israel's sovereignty and disarm it. They are the perfect example that arms should not be handed to people that have unstable minds and no self control.

Shalom Freedman:

Saul Singer is 'right on 'here in seeing what the U.N. should do .The problem is that it probably will not do it.
Thus I think the question to be addressed is whether Hizbollah will try to openly violate the resolution, force itself back to the border with Israel, rearm itself completely, and put priority on soon opening hostilities again.
There is a temptation to think that the material losses it has suffered, and the sufferings of its people will force it to concentrate at least for a certain time(How long is of course a key question) on the rebuilding issue.
It seems to me nonetheless that should Iran become involved in hostilities with either the United States or Israel, Hizbollah will open up 'another front no matter what.
All this does not mean I do not believe that Singer is right in what he says the U.N. and the International Community should be doing i.e. compelling Hizbollah to live up to the conditions of Resolution 1701.

rk:

It's obvious to me that, in order
to save itself from being voted out, the Israeli government is looking for an excuse to restart the battle in Lebanon.
Since no other countries have the
the courage to disarm Hezbollah, and
the Lebanese army certainly won't, there seems to nothing left but to
watch this kabuki dance of Israel and Hezbollah, both saying they support the ceasefire while preparing for round 2.

clem houde:

the US GOVERNMENT have no credibility about LEBANON'S WAR , they support the atrocities of ISRAEL WHO DESTROY AND KILL THOUSANDS OF LEBANESE A, ROADS , BRIDGES ETC BUSH AND CO ARE TERRORISTS , SEE WHAT THEY MADE IN IRAK .
they don't want peace , they sell arms ..

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