I'd just like to get something off my chest first. This is the most important development since the release friday of the US-French draft resolution. So I come to dkos, and what do I see?
A diary about rapturists who want Israel to attack her neighbors (aka we oppose those rapturists so we must oppose Israel)
A diary indicating that the current war was planned by "neocons" (do they exist in the middle east?) a long time ago
An equivalent of the 9/11-deniers, "Israel wants rocket attacks as an excuse to kill Lebanese"
I also saw one claiming that Israel should absorb the territories into a single state and give the Palestinians the vote, and by extension control over the whole of Israel, as well. That one scrolled off when i went out to pick up a sandwich for lunch though.
So on to the actual news! Here's the proposal.
Fuad Siniora has proposed to send 15,000 Lebanese troops to the border to secure the area. This is significant for multiple reasons. First off, it is a face-saving compromise for both sides. Hezbollah can claim to have fought off the invaders, and Israel can say that they accomplished their mission of ending Hezbollah's hegemony over southern Lebanon.
It is also game-changing, and possibly game-saving as well. The major danger at the end of this conflict is a ceasefire that allows Hezbollah to stay on a war footing and, without missing a beat, dominate all of Lebanon. It's worth fighting to avoid that ceasefire. This particular ceasefire, however, empowers the Lebanese government and puts Hezbollah in a bind. They can't oppose it, they'd be opposing the departure of Israeli troops. Yet the departure of Israeli troops forces them into a peacetime mobilization. Also, there will be 15,000 Lebanese troops pouring into the area at the precise moment when they have been weakened in conventional military strength, although not missile firing strength, from their fight against the IDF ground forces.
Ehud Olmert and Condi Rice (she's smart enough and can convince Bush) need to get behind this proposal immediately.