U.S. Offers Plan to End Israeli-hezbollah Conflict

Amid the flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the conflict in Lebanon, Prime Minister Shimon Peres confirmed that American officials have come up with a proposal for ending Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon and Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israel.

“Indeed, the United States is involved in an effort to bring about an agreement,” Peres told reporters Tuesday after a meeting with Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul Karim al-Kabariti.

While Peres said he welcomed the American initiative, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was quoted as saying that it would be difficult for his country to accept the U.S. plan.

The proposal reportedly calls for a Lebanese government commitment to rein in the Shi’ite Hezbollah movement’s activities and stop its rocket attacks on northern Israel.

In exchange for a commitment from Beirut to maintain peace in southern Lebanon, Israel would agree to begin holding discussions about withdrawing its forces from its security zone.

The proposal also reportedly calls for Israel to stop its current military operation in Lebanon.

But it would maintain the option of responding should Hezbollah resume its rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Syria would also be involved as a guarantor of the Lebanese side of the agreement, according to reports.

U.S. diplomatic sources in Israel were quoted as saying that the State Department’s Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, was coordinating contacts among the Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian ambassadors in Washington.

As diplomatic contacts were continuing Tuesday, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel, causing some damage. One person was lightly wounded. Two others were treated for shock.

In response, Israeli helicopters blasted targets in Lebanon, including Hezbollah regional headquarters in southern Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.

The helicopter gunships also struck a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, targeting the home of Col. Munir Makdah, who heads a militia that is allied with Hezbollah.

The escalating conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel have prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity that extends beyond the American initiative to bring the confrontation to an end.

Kabariti, the Jordanian prime minister, said after his meeting Tuesday with Peres, “There is a sense of alarm in Jordan. The situation is really dangerous, explosive and could escalate.”

A day earlier, Jordan’s King Hussein criticized Israel’s military moves, saying that they were a threat to the Middle East peace process.

French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette arrived in Israel Monday night for talks with Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Ehud Barak in an effort to secure a cease-fire.

Diplomats with the European Union in Brussels reportedly criticized France for acting alone and termed the French effort an empty gesture that could undermine the European bloc’s credibility.

An E.U. delegation is planning to visit the Middle East in the coming days in an effort to secure a cessation of the fighting.

Also in Israel on Monday was British Defense Minister Michael Portillo, who voiced his country’s support for the Israeli actions.

“We understand that Israel has worked tirelessly to achieve peace with her neighbors and with the Palestinians,” he said, adding that “it is the right of every country to have security and to defend herself.”

At the United Nations, lebanese envoy Samir Moubarak called Monday for the Security Council to condemn Israel’s operation in Lebanon. The Security Council ended its discussion of the situation in Lebanon early Tuesday morning without taking action.

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, who was taking part Monday in a Security Council debate on Israel’s continued closure of the territories, also criticized the Israeli military operation.

Terming the closure a “siege of the Palestinian territory,” Nasser al-Kidwa condemned the “escalating Israeli aggression against Lebanon.”

Peres said Monday that Israel would consider a diplomatic solution, but that the military operation which began April 11 would stop only after the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement ceased launching rocket attacks on northern Israel.

The Israeli raids on targets in Lebanon came after Hezbollah unleashed a Katyusha attack April 9 on northern Israel.

In hopes of winning an end to the Hezbollah attacks, the Israeli operation, Operation Grapes of Wrath, is at least partly aimed at pressuring the Beirut government into reining in the fundamentalist group.

The Israel Defense Force chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak, said the massive wave of Lebanese refugees fleeing the repeated Israeli bombardments of targets in southern Lebanon would force the Lebanese government into action.

Israeli onslaught. “This flood of people is going to put pressure on the Lebanese government, and in turn, on Hezbollah,” Shahak said at a Sunday briefing. “These people have to decide if Hezbollah, which promises to be their protector, is really what they want.”

Despite repeated Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah units continued to fire rockets at the Galilee panhandle and western Galilee.

The Katyushas have caused only light damage and relatively few injuries.

The low casualty figure was in part attributed to the fact that residents of northern Israeli communities had heeded army directives to remain in bomb shelters and security rooms.

Another factor was that many homes were empty, after thousands of northern residents fled to central and southern Israel shortly after the hostilities broke out.