Hezbollah holds a royal flush and Iran is about to share a border with Israel

I cannot think of a worse UN resolution for Israel than what Ha’aretz is currently reporting.

The UN Security Council will convene Friday to discuss the new proposal, which has been agreed to by the United States as well as France.

The sides are currently putting the finishing touches to the final wording of the resolution. The revised draft calls for a "progressive" Israeli withdrawal, a senior Lebanese political source said on Thursday.

"The Americans have moved their position. A deal with the French is very close in the next hours, but most likely on Friday," he told Reuters. "The breakthrough is based on the inclusion in the call for a cessation of hostilities for a progressive Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory to go simultaneously with the deployment of the Lebanese army backed by reinforced UN peacekeepers."

The source said the peacekeepers would mainly be reinforced by French soldiers. As part of the deal, Hezbollah would pull out from south of the Litani river. After 30 days, the source said, there would be a more comprehensive resolution that declares a ceasefire and sets out solutions for the Shaba Farms issue, the release of captive IDF soldiers, the release of Lebanese prisoners and the disarming of Hezbollah.

Otniel Schneller, an adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the UN was at work on a new approach. "A new proposal is being drafted, which has positive significance that may bring the war to an end," Schneller said.Both the American and French envoys to the UN briefed Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the progress in talks.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said there could be a vote Friday on the resolution. "We're making progress and it's entirely possible we could have a vote tomorrow," Bolton said after a meeting with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere. "We've closed some of the areas of disagreement with the French."

The terms of the resolution were agreed upon following talks between the five permanent members of the Security Council - U.K., France, U.S., Russia, and China.

The deal was coordinated with Israel and apparently with the Lebanese government. In his efforts to advance the cease-fire, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch departed Beirut on Thursday and arrived in Israel, where he updated Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the latest diplomatic developments.

The resolution will stop short of requiring peacekeepers to disarm Hezbollah but will call for an embargo to prevent the group from bringing in arms from Iran and Syria, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution would also call for creation of "an emboldened UNIFIL", the UN force currently in Lebanon and long derided by Israel as ineffective.

But the official said: "The (international) force will not have any mandate to disarm Hezbollah."

So Israel concedes land to a bogus claim, obtains a formula for the possible “one day over the rainbow release of its soldiers, the missile threat from Hezbollah’s arsenal remains, and the Lebanese Army gets propped up by French forces, but no one disarms Hezbollah.

And what the hell is a more "emboldened UNIFIL" anyway? UNIFIL has been the embodiment of the words 'apathy' or 'inefficiency' or 'ineffectual' since its original deployment 28 years ago. So what does it really mean – it will only be characterized as only two out of the three given states at any one time? Fat lot of good the arms embargo will do - like Iran really cares! Remember the Silkworm.

Oh yeah, not only has Hezbollah survived but it has launched a successful coup d'état of the Lebanese Cedar Revolution and Iran is about to gain a border with Israel. If the Olmert Kadima government agrees to this resolution Israel will have mortgaged not only the current citizens of Israel but their children’s children as well and hundreds will have died in vain. With my luck, I will be bringing the Last Amazon to Israel right about time Iran will probably be launching an offensive. I must make a note to pack iodine pills and buy more life insurance.

Do I ever hope Ha’aretz is wrong. And for the record- Bush is such a wangster.