Nabih Berri Nixes Rice Cease-Fire Proposal

Ex-Detroit resident Nabih Berri, who reportedly still owns a couple of gas stations up around Hamtramck, has rejected Condi Rice's proposals for a cease-fire. Berri is the Head of Parliament, as well as a Syrian sock puppet, and is probably authorized to speak for Hezbollah, which edged him out of real political power years ago. This first round of visits, especially in Lebanon, is pitched toward sound bites and photo ops rather than serious exchanges of negotiating.

I note that David Welch, Asst Sec of State for the Middle East, sits next to Condi on the American side of the table during all meetings. David is an old drinking buddy---we used to spirit spiked lemonade into Oriole games up in Ballmer and I watched a Redskins game at his home before my wife Marilyn sold him and his wife Gretchen, also an FSO, a new home in a better neighborhood! The importance of having State rather than NSC rep Elliot Abrams be at Condi's side may be more than symbolic. Abrams is a neo-con and may try to insert himself, but it may be Welch who stays behind and does the negotiating after Rice and entourage head back to DC. David was Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, an important player in ongoing negotiations, as well as Egypt, which has been provoking Hamas toward rational stances in behind-the-scenes parleys. Hamas's new offer to release Cpl Shalit is almost certainly due to Egypt's good offices---Mubarak all but accused Syria publicly of torpedoeing Shalit's imminent release two weeks ago.

The most important goal Rice & entourage have, if I get the picture correctly, is the insertion of a NATO [with perhaps robin's-egg-blue helmets] contingent with a kick-ass charter into the region south of the Litani to keep Hezbollah from returning to its old rocket -launching sites. Rice & company will demand full implementation of UNSC Res 1559 as an opening demand, then probably fall back to an exclusion of armed Hezbollah south of the Litani as their ne plus ultra position.

Until the agreement is reached, no cease-fire should be agreed upon, as Hezbollah's feet should be kept to the fire relentlessly, and as long as they launch from downtown Tyre and Sidon, these urban areas should be pounded by Israeli pinpoint bombing---as should the South suburbs of Beirut, where the hostages held by Hezbollah are usually kept. There must be a price to be paid for supporting Hezbollah terrorists, as the south suburbs do. All the BBC and CNN propaganda pitches for Hezbollah's terrorists notwithstanding, these evil war criminals launch their Nazi-style terror weapons at urban areas in Israel without any attempts to avoid civilian casualties. Quisling networks like BBC and CNN may neglect to point this out, in their search for "access" to terrorist warlords. But the American, British and Israeli publics are aware that militias masquerading as political parties deserve destruction, at least of their weapons and delivery systems.