Cox & Forkum on Disarming Hezbollah

The Age: Disarming Hezbollah put on hold.

ISRAEL has dropped its demand for the immediate disarming of Hezbollah and begun to focus on persuading UN forces to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon.Israel accepted that its goals must be realistic and the first step was to prevent Hezbollah from staging cross-border raids or acquiring long-range weapons, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

“It is not that we have given up on disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we see it as a process and the most important thing is … to prevent their strategic rearmament,” he said.

The UN-brokered ceasefire says international forces must help the Lebanese army disarm militias, but it does not specify whether they should actively remove weapons from Hezbollah fighters.

And what are the U.N.’s plans for disarming Hezbollah? From AP: Israel seeks troops from Muslim nations. (via LGF)

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed Friday it was not the peacekeepers’ task to strip the guerrillas of their weapons, saying that was an issue for Lebanon’s government and “cannot be done by force.”“The troops are not going there to disarm Hezbollah. Let’s be clear about that,” he said.

Meanwhile in Iraq, from AP: Blasts in Iraq kill 31, injure dozens.

This cartoon is a take on Ben Franklin’s “Join, Or Die” cartoon (and not our first).

Technorati Tags: Cox&Forkum, Israel, Hezbollah