Knowing Who Is In Charge

You can look at people out in public--a couple or a family--and determine with from few telltale signals, exactly who is in charge of the relationship. At the grocery store when the kid screams for candy, the mother's response is one of those signals. If she stands her ground and keeps going, she is in charge. If she tries to placate the kid with obsequious noises and the candy in question, the kid is in charge. Mere embarrassment means the jury is still out on the matter.

We've been getting signals on the world stage, and they're not encouraging. The most obvious was in Lebanon after the latest cease fire (UN Resolution 1701) went into place. Lebanon agreed to disarm Hezbollah, but when Hezbollah told the Lebanese government where to stick disarmament, Lebanon backed down. Hezbollah is now in charge of Lebanon.

Yesterday, YNet News reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad has rejected Israel's call for international troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border. These would be UN troops, not Israeli troops.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday rejected Israeli demands for the deployment of international troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop what Israel says is the smuggling of arms to Hizbullah.

"This would be a withdrawal of Lebanese sovereignty and a hostile position," Assad said, according to advance excerpts of an interview to be aired by Dubai Television on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said stationing some of the international force at border crossings and Beirut airport would enable Israel to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon.

Of course Syria wants an open border with Lebanon. It would enable the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from Syria's puppet-master Iran. The signal to watch for is how the UN reacts to Syria's demands. If they ignore Assad and prevent the shipment of weapons across the border, then there could still be hope on the international scene. But if they give in to Syria, then it screams the fact that the UN has been taken over in a silent coup by terrorist states. And if that happens, the White House had better wake up and smell the rotten Kofi.

Update:

Hedgehog Blog's Kosher Hedgehog had this post yesterday, outlining what he would do if he were Israel's Prime Minister. Read it. It's excellent.