The death of an Irish soldier serving with UNIFIL, once again turns the spotlight on the valuable work the United Nations force is doing in Lebanon and the prospects for renewed violence as moves are made to resolve the conflict that brought them there. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, spoke for all Irish people in their condemnation of the killing of Private William Kedian and their expression of sympathy for his family and the two other Irish troops who were wounded.
Tragically and ironically, they came as the Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army (SLA), which is directly responsible, announced it is to withdraw from Jezzine, the town it has occupied for 14 years. The new Israeli prime minister, Mr Ehud Barak, has revealed plans to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon and pursue a comprehensive peace with that state and with Syria. He made this a central plank of his election campaign, following the deaths of many Israeli soldiers there in recent months and years. Morale has deteriorated fast in the surrogate force, as many of its personnel absconded and defected, and its intelligence was penetrated. Sensing imminent victory, the Hizbullah guerrillas have had renewed opportunities to fight the SLA, which has tended to respond wildly, as in this incident at Brashit. Since they are armed and controlled by the Israeli army, that state cannot escape responsibility for such violent incidents.
Mr Barak hopes to engage the Syrians in a comprehensive negotiation which would swap peace for land in the Golan Heights mountain ridge Israel captured during the 1967 war. He expects such an agreement would encourage them to rein in the Hizbullah movement in southern Lebanon, which the powerful Syrian army is assumed to arm and therefore control. This would allow Lebanese army troops to be deployed right up to the Lebanon-Israel border in fulfilment of Security Council Resolution 425, which calls for the full restoration of Lebanese sovereignty. The government in Beirut and the Syrians, refuse to give Israel the security guarantees sought by the previous Netanyahu government. But Mr Barak is realist enough to know that genuine security will come only with political agreement involving both Syria and Lebanon.
He will have to act fast to keep within his time span of Israeli troop withdrawal in one year's time. He has yet to complete his cabinet negotiations. But the overall Israeli election result undoubtedly provides him with a clear mandate to reach a durable settlement with Syria and Lebanon, as with the Palestinians and other Arab states. For the first time, a clear majority of the Israeli Jewish population has opted for a peaceful strategy. It would be foolish to expect this to materialise rapidly or easily, but there are certainly good grounds for optimism that it is now possible to attain.
It would likewise be a mistake to overlook the potential for more violence and possible UNIFIL casualties as this transition is made. Were the SLA to disintegrate faster than progress is made in the negotiations, Israeli troops would come directly into conflict with Hizbullah guerrillas, without the buffer force to insulate them. That could make for a more volatile period ahead. But the Irish UNIFIL troops have shown themselves admirably equipped for their peacekeeping responsibilities, despite such tragedies as this.