Faced with calls for an armed force in Palestinian territories and a probe of the devastated Jenin refugee camp, the U.N. Security Council grappled with an Arab-initiated resolution the United States threatened to veto. Britain offered some compromise proposals the 15-member council was set to consider on Friday but neither the United States nor Arab nations have approved them. The Arab draft calls for a "third party" presence in Palestinian territory, demands an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and an end to Israel's siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat headquarters in Ramallah and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It also wants a U.N. investigation into alleged massacres and destruction of the Jenin refugee camp, the most violent of Israel's incursions in the West Bank over the past two weeks in search of terrorist networks.
It's good to see our UN delegation remaining compos mentis. Such a deployment, of course, is what Yasser really, really, really wants. The best of all possible outcomes for him would be Iraqi, Syrian or Libyan troops as (snurf! snort!) peacekeepers. |