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Gathering Storm

The UNIFIL contingents are not up to what they were supposed to be upon passage of Security Council (cease fire) Resolution 1701 in the late summer of 2006.  And, moreover, the aims of the resolution have not even been honored in the breach.  They've just been ignored.

Syria has still been smuggling in rockets and other arms to Hezbollah.  This is a continuous process that is not being interrupted or impeded.  Hezbollah is now better armed than it was last July, before the war.

Terrorist groups have been (re)insinuating themselves in the south and expanding in the north, above the Litani River.  The Israelis have complained that the national units are more concerned with keeping out of reach of Hezbollah than in keeping Hezbollah.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano, the force commander, has warned that tension in the south and deepening political crisis in the country might prompt European countries, including Germany and Spain, "to withdraw from UNIFIL within less than four months."

Where there's trouble don't count on the United Nations.