Cease-Fire Is A Good First Step
This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
We congratulate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for wrestling a cease-fire agreement out of the United Nations, and we're thankful today that both the governments of Israel and Lebanon have agreed that hostilities must stop.
More than a thousand people have died in the last 30 days — many of them civilians. Perhaps now life can begin to return to normal … and that, of course, is the problem.
Sheik Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, has vowed that Hezbollah won't stop fighting as long as Israel is in Lebanon. As best I can see, Hezbollah has no incentive to disarm. Every day they are still in the fight only solidifies their status among those who would deny Israel's its right to exist. And who is going to persuade Iran to stop training Hezbollah and arming them with missiles? And what of Syria? Who will prevail on Syria to stop giving aid and transit to Hezbollah
A cease-fire is a first step, but the journey to real peace is almost too difficult to contemplate.
Harry's daily commentary can be heard on manyCBS Radio News affiliates across the country.
By Harry Smith