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A new Middle East war looming?

Although Israeli PM Olmert remains hanging in there, just, his Government is under siege in many directions - and that is without the corruption isues dogging various Cabinet Ministers, including Olmer, and senior officials. Even the Israeli President is under investigation and has stood aside.

What this all means is that anything addressing the need to bring about stability and peace with the Palestinians and others in the region, notably Syria, remains as elusive as ever. Another war seems almost inevitable, as David Makovsky a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who directs the institute's Project on the Middle East Peace Process, writes in the Washington Post.

"The scathing interim report issued this week by an Israeli panel that reviewed the decisions leading to the country's war with Hezbollah last summer may spell doom for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's leadership. Calls for his resignation have mounted even within his own party. However, the real story is that the causes of last year's war still exist -- and may spark another conflagration.

The first underlying issue is the failure to enforce U.N. resolutions. Israel resorted to military action last July largely because the United Nations and the international community did nothing to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 (passed in 2004) or Resolution 1680 (passed in 2006), which made clear that Hezbollah should disband and be disarmed. Israel was left to fend for itself after Hezbollah crossed a U.N.-demarcated line, killed three soldiers and kidnapped two soldiers it still has not released."

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