The UN force in southern Lebanon has grown to 3,500 and is expected to reach 5,000 within a week, with the arrival of hundreds of Spanish and French troops, according to press reports. The Israeli government has pledged to withdraw its remaining troops from Lebanon once the UN force reaches that size and 15,000 Lebanese troops are deployed.

According to the Beirut Daily Star, Lebanese Army troops have now been stationed in 80 percent of southern Lebanon.

Four Italian warships and one each supplied by the governments of the United Kingdom, France, and Greece began patrols along the country’s coast September 8, following the lifting of the Israeli blockade. The naval forces are mandated to stop and search vessels at the request of the Lebanese navy to prevent shipments of arms to Hezbollah—the Lebanese group that fought the invading Israeli forces and lobbed missiles into northern Israel during the war.

At home, the Israeli government still faces a storm of criticism for falling short in its objective of debilitating Hezbollah during Tel Aviv’s 34-day assault. Some 40,000 people turned out for a pro-war rally in Tel Aviv September 9 demanding an independent inquiry into the government and military leadership of the war. “Many in the crowd…were reservists who served during the war,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

“Among the speakers in Tel Aviv were leaders of both left and right-wing parties opposed to [Israeli prime minister Ehud] Olmert’s centrist Kadima,” Haaretz said. “They formed an odd alliance of those who supported the war and those who wanted to end it sooner.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli premier and leader of Likud, the main opposition party, has seen his popularity rise, according to recent polls. In a September 7 speech in New York, Netanyahu focused his remarks on the need to prepare for war with Iran and for another assault in Lebanon aimed at defeating “a few hundred armed Iranian proxies,” as he called Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, with the Israeli offensive in Gaza going on three months, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) announced September 11 that a tentative agreement had been reached to form a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. It will replace the one led by Hamas, which calls for an Islamic Republic just like Hezbollah and won the largest number of votes in the national elections earlier this year.

“We’re trying to make a balance between the requirements of the international community and Palestinian factions,” Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, told the press. The following day, a military court in Israel ordered the release of 18 Hamas lawmakers arrested by Israeli forces during the Gaza offensive. Tel Aviv, Washington, and other imperialist powers, cut off all aid to the PNA earlier this year to squeeze the Hamas leadership into a compromise. Thousands of Palestinian teachers and government workers struck in early September demanding unpaid wages.  
 
 
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