Buying the farm
Zvi Bar'el just doesn't get it:
The government of Lebanon, Hezbollah, the United States, France and the United Nations have all realized now that the key to achieving a long-term and sustainable cease-fire by means of the deployment of the Lebanese Army in the south lies in a resolution to the Shaba Farms dispute.At this stage, however, it is not enough for only Hezbollah and the Lebanese government to agree that the return of the Shaba Farms area would spell an end to the movement's "liberating" role. Syria is no less an important player in this regard. In keeping with maps approved by the UN, the Shaba Farms area lies in Syrian territory, so an official document in which Damascus relinquishes the area would be required too.
The reasons that Syria "relinquished" the Shebaa Farms are simple. First, they know that Israel is unlikely to ever return any Syrian territory - it is occupied by conquest, and Israel has settled the land, and is working it. Second, because Israel withdrew from all Lebanese land - not having entered Lebanon to settle, but just to manage a buffer - "ceding" Shebaa to Lebanon permitted Hizb'allah to use Shebaa as their plausible excuse for fighting. Even if, hypothetically, Zvi's plan were to work it has several critical flaws.
First, it rewards Hizb'allah. Second, it demonstrates that Syria could give Hizb'allah an excuse to fight, recognized internationally, by, say, ceding the Golan to Lebanon. What then? Third, it again puts a terrorist actor on the same footing as a nation-state. The free world must stop appeasing terrorists, and then negotiate with other nation states.
