Jerusalem Blog Asks if Secretary of State Condi Rice is Really in the Middle East to Do Anything...

or is it just pretend?

From Orly Halpern in US News and World Report's Blog from Jerusalem:

JERUSALEM-Thirteen days into the Lebanese-Israeli conflict (or is it war?), the United States finally decided to do something about it. Or did it? U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice popped into Beirut for a surprise visit today and then over to Jerusalem before continuing to other parts of the world.

But is she just paying a courtesy visit, or is she working toward the cease-fire everyone in the world (except for the two parties actually engaged in shooting at each other) has called for?

The answer is likely to be found in her statement made en route from Washington to Beirut. She said the United States believes "a cease-fire is urgent"--but she added that the United States will work toward brokering a cease-fire only if it is "sustainable."

What makes a truce sustainable? A Lebanese source told Reuters that Rice said that Hezbollah must unconditionally return the two Israeli soldiers it captured and pull back from the border. It's not clear to me if she realizes that is not likely to happen and is saying it to gain more time or because she honestly doesn't understand how things work in the Arab world. Hezbollah would most likely kill the two soldiers rather than be forced to give them up without getting something in return and saving face. Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, of course, knows that and has called for a broad political deal that would include the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails and the Israeli withdrawal from the disputed speck of land known as Shebaa Farms so that he can convince Hezbollah that its goals have been achieved and it is no longer needed in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah still claims Shebaa Farms for Lebanon, though the United Nations does not.