Israel Buzzes Lebanon, Truce Teeters

With concern mounting over the fragile truce, Israel sent war planes Monday over the coastal city of Tripoli, some 35 miles north of Beirut, and over Baalbek, scene of an Israeli commando raid two days ago which Israel said was to disrupt weapons shipments for Hezbollah from Syria.

Lebanon considers overflights a violation of the U.N. resolution that ended 34 days of fighting last week.

Defense Minister Elias Murr said he was confident that Hezbollah would hold its fire but warned Syrian-backed Palestinian militants against rocket attacks which might draw Israeli retaliation and re-ignite full-scale fighting.

"We consider that when the resistance (Hezbollah) is committed not to fire rockets, then any rocket that is fired from the Lebanese territory would be considered collaboration with Israel to provide a pretext (for Israel) to strike," he said Sunday.

Israel has long accused Syria, along with Iran, of arming and supporting Hezbollah. During the war, however, Israel avoided trying to draw Syria into the conflict, apparently fearing another front or closing peace options.

On Monday, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Israel should resume the negotiations that broke down in 2000.

"What we did with Egypt and Jordan is also legitimate in this case," Dichter told Israeli Army Radio. Asked if that meant Israel should withdraw to its international border with Syria, giving up the Golan Heights region Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War, he said: "Yes."

But Olmert ruled out talks with the Syrians unless they stop sponsoring "terror organizations."

"I recommend not to get carried away with any false hopes," Olmert said Monday, during a tour of northern Israel. "When Syria stops support for terror, when it stops giving missiles to terror organizations, then we will be happy to negotiate with them. ... We're not going into any negotiations until basic steps are taken which can be the basis for any negotiations."

Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Israel had other concerns at the moment. "We have the burden of Lebanon and we have the negotiations with the Palestinians," he told Israel Radio. "I don't think a country like ours can deal with so many issues at a time."

As part of the cease-fire agreement, Lebanon has begun deploying 15,000 soldiers to the south, putting a government force in the region for the first time in four decades. They are to be joined by an equal force of international peacekeepers, but wrangling among countries expected to send troops has so far delayed assembly of the force.

So far, no European countries have stepped up with a large contribution of troops. "When the time comes to take off, great Europe slinks away," said an editorial on the front page of Rome newspaper La Repubblica.

Meanwhile, Olmert said countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel should not be permitted to contribute troops to an international peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon. That would eliminate Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh — among the only countries to have offered front-line troops for the expanded force.

The reluctance of European countries to commit substantial numbers of troops has raised doubts about whether the truce can hold.

France, which commands the existing force U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL, had been expected to make a significant new contribution that would form the backbone of the expanded force. But President Jacques Chirac disappointed the U.N. and other countries last week by merely doubling France's contingent of 200 troops.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he has called for a meeting of European Union diplomats in Brussels this week to "find out as rapidly as possible what the different European partners plan to do concerning Lebanon."

Douste-Blazy indicated more European troops could be sent later, once the U.N. has clarified the mandate of the force, including the rules of engagement.