Doublethink Ceasefire

Israel agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity over southern Lebanon after its bombing of a Lebanese village on Sunday that killed a number [50+] of children...

Peace is just breaking out all over. At least Condi sez so:

JERUSALEM, Monday, July 31 — Taken aback by the carnage from the Israeli bombing of Qana, Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrung the first significant concession from Israel late on Sunday in its nearly three-week-old war against the Hezbollah militia: an immediate 48-hour suspension of aerial strikes.

Especially notable about the suspension was that Ms. Rice’s deputy, Adam Ereli, and not the Israelis, announced it after she held intensive talks with both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

The American decision to break the news on what was essentially an Israeli tactical change reflected the increased concern in the Bush administration about the rising civilian death toll in Lebanon and the havoc it is wreaking with America’s already shaky relations with the Arab world.

Indeed, while Mr. Ereli took pains to assure reporters that American officials had confirmation of the temporary suspension directly from Mr. Olmert’s office, Israeli officials had said nothing publicly about the suspension as of early Monday...

Of course, that didn't last long.

JERUSALEM - The Israeli air force carried out strikes Monday in southern Lebanon despite an agreement to halt raids for 48 hours after nearly 60 Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing, the army said.

The airstrikes near the village of Taibe were meant to protect ground forces operating in the area and were not targeting anyone or anything specific, the army said...

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz made clear in a speech to parliament that Israel would not agree to an immediate cease-fire and had plans to expand its operation in Lebanon.

“It’s forbidden to agree to an immediate cease-fire,” Peretz told parliament, as several Arab legislators heckled him and demanded an immediate halt to the offensive. “Israel will expand and strengthen its activities against the Hezbollah.”

Perhaps this military indignation is in response to the buck-passing at the top. Billmon:

...But for now the Israeli cabinet is putting an enormous and enormously unfair burden on its pilots and their controllers. They now will have to take responsibility for deciding whether a target has or has not been "identified," and whether a strike on that target is worth the risk of another Qana -- an atrocity that would be exponentially magnified by the fact it was committed in the middle of a declared aerial cease fire.

During the Kosovo War, conservatives and the U.S. military both complained about the planning process -- in which every potential target had to be signed off on by a committee of NATO politicians. But this is worse. Instead of approving the targets, or giving the Israeli Air Force a free hand, the Olmert government has essentially kicked the problem -- which could determine the outcome of the war -- down to the bottom of the chain of command.

Not for the first time I ask: Have Israeli's political and military leaders completely lost their marbles?

But one wonders if the real bosses fiddling while the Middle East burns reside in Tel Aviv- or Washington, D.C.- or many places completely different?