Clarification

Regarding my post below re: the Suez example, I don't actually think we need a security council resolution censuring Israel, for two reasons.

1) It would probably never happen, and if it did happen it wouldn't really accomplish anything. The international community needs to commit to actions it can effectively back up.

2) Israel has, for the first time... well, maybe not the first time ever, but certainly the first time since I've been alive, Israel has accepted that it cannot meet its security needs alone. In asking for a NATO peacekeeping force, Israel has taken a big step, bigger than I think most people realize. It's been the cornerstone belief of Israeli security that the Jewish state relies on no one, not even the Americans. (You could say that Israel's independence was hallucinatory, but then again they did nearly sink a US warship once.)

There's some problems with the NATO force, apparently. Namely, where the hell we'll find the troops. If NATO doesn't work out, maybe - just maybe - we can get the Israelis to accept an armed, combat-mandated UN force. Certainly, the Lebanese government should be begging for one. It would have more legitimacy in the Arab world to begin with, we might be able to get a non-belligerent arab-speaking country to play a role (though that probably wouldn't fly, in all honesty.)

Of course, as slim as that all sounds, it goes out the window if we drop a UN resolution on Israel.