Can the U.N. Peacekeepers Keep Lebanon Peaceful?

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Until now, however, Lebanon has been a graveyard for well-intentioned peacekeeping operations. The five-nation Multi-National Force left Beirut in a hurry after suicide-bombing attacks on U.S. and French barracks in the mid-1980s. UNIFIL, which first deployed in 1978, was unable to fulfill its mandate of overseeing an Israeli withdrawal and instead spent the next 22 years largely observing a grinding conflict that continued until the Israelis retreated in 2000.

"There has been a radical change in U.N. peacekeeping operations in the past 10 years. We are not going to be humiliated anymore," Guehenno says.

The new peacekeeping force will bring to three the number of armies crammed into the stony hills and swooping brush-covered valleys of southern Lebanon. Israeli troops are confined to isolated hilltops near the border. On a small hill east of Alma Shaab village, two Merkava tanks lie in the shade of olive trees, their presence almost undetectable if it were not for the bright blue-and-white Israeli flag fluttering on a pole in the hot breeze. Indian UNIFIL soldiers wearing blue turbans sit beside their white U.N. jeeps along narrow lanes, keeping a wary eye on passing traffic. And some 15,000 Lebanese troops are deploying in the border district for the first time in more than 30 years, moving in as the Israeli forces withdraw.

Yet for all the troops descending on south Lebanon, long-term stability here is more dependent on the goodwill of Hizballah and Israel than UNIFIL's military muscle. "UNIFIL is not here to fight anybody. It's a pretext to allow both Hizballah and the Israelis to disengage and save face," says Timur Goksel, who served with UNIFIL from 1979 to 2003. But that's good enough for the war-weary residents of south Lebanon who crave a little peace and quiet so that they can rebuild their lives once more.