-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Waiting for the hammer to fall Barak vows ‘painful response’ after resistance kills another Israeli soldier Nicholas Blanford Daily Star staff Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak vowed to inflict “very painful strikes” on Lebanon in retaliation for the killing of another soldier in the occupation zone on Friday . The latest Israeli fatality led to a walkout by the Israeli delegation to the Monitoring Group, which had convened in Naqoura in a bid to end some of the worst violence since last June. The United States laid the blame for the continued violence squarely on Hizbullah and stressed that Damascus was not doing enough to restrain the resistance. Just as tensions in the south appeared to be easing, Hizbullah struck again, killing an Israeli soldier and critically wounding another. The attack raised to seven the number of Israeli soldiers killed this year, all within three weeks. Another 16 have been wounded. The attack came 85 minutes after the delegates to the Monitoring Group were scheduled to begin their meeting. The session, however, was in trouble from the start. The Israeli delegation refused to enter the room where the meeting was due to be held, said a source close to the group. “They gave no reason for refusing to attend. The American and French delegates tried to start the meeting for an hour and a half,” the source said. “Then the news came through of the latest casualty and the Israelis left immediately.” In a statement, the US and French delegates, who co-chair the group, said that they “were informed by the Israeli delegate that due to military actions on the ground earlier today, their delegation has been instructed to return to Israel.” “The co-chairs will keep in touch with all the parties regarding the next steps,” the statement said. Premier Salim Hoss slammed the walkout. “If Israel has something to complain about,” he said, “the normal place to express it would be the committee itself.” He said that Lebanon would not seek the intervention of the UN Security Council for fear that it would issue a decision “that treats the victim as the aggressor.” Hoss met ambassadors of the nations with permanent seats on the Security Council and asked for their support. US Ambassador David Satterfield said that his country wanted “to put a lasting end to violence and not simply manage it.” “We regret profoundly the damage to Lebanon and the harm to the Lebanese as a result of these recent attacks,” he said. A diplomatic source in Beirut said that the Israeli decision to walk out of the meeting was not spontaneous but had been decided beforehand in the event of further casualties in the south while the delegates met. Barak promised “harsh and painful responses” but then suggested that he would not seek to escalate the situation with further air strikes against Lebanon’s infrastructure. “We have no interest in bringing about a situation,” he said, “whose end product will be Katyusha rockets falling on the Galilee merely to show how strong we are.” If Barak launches another air strike on infrastructure he will have to order the residents of northern Galilee back into the shelters in case Hizbullah responds with a Katyusha barrage. However, the residents of the area have only just emerged from three days of hiding and are unlikely to relish the prospect of another night in bunkers, especially on the Sabbath. On the other hand, Barak risks losing credibility if he stays his hand, particularly after a flurry of colorful threats from various Israeli Cabinet ministers. “I really think they’ve run out of ideas for the time being,” said a senior security source. “The rules have changed in the past few days but no one knows yet what the new rules are.” In Washington, US State Department spokesman James Rubin blamed Hizbullah for ending the Monitoring Group session. “We … can only interpret this action as a deliberate attempt by Hizbullah to wreck the prospects for peace,” he said. “Hizbullah’s action is particularly egregious in the context of Israel’s repeated commitment to withdraw from southern Lebanon by the middle of this year.” Rubin argued that Syria was not helping by failing to restrain Hizbullah. “Syria has influence with Hizbullah,” he said. “We’ve told them they need to exercise that influence and at this point the evidence is clear. 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