Damascus is looking to score a few propaganda points over the ongoing fighting in Lebanon and northern Israel.

Syria’s new UN ambassador, Dr. Jafar Ja’afari, told reporters in New York Friday that prior to US-backed efforts to end Syria’s occupation of Lebanon, the presence of the Syrian army resulted in far fewer attacks on northern Israel.

Lebanon’s own military, by comparison, has no chance of reining in Hizb’allah.

“They have no army. It is small, it has little control and everyone knows this.”

Washington is well aware of this fact, insisted Ja’afari, and therefore bears a certain degree of responsibility for the current crisis.

Of course, that is all a load of crap. Northern Israel suffered far fewer attacks during those years because the IDF had military control over southern Lebanon. Not because the Assad regime, which is still technically at war with Israel, was calling the shots in Beirut.

UN chief Kofi Annan wasted no time in “condemning without reservation” Israel’s military response to Wednesday’s Hizb’allah assault that left seven Israelis dead, eight wounded, and two as captives of the Lebanese terrorists.

While Annan did insist on the immediate release of the abducted Israelis, he notably failed to explicitly condemn the Hizb’allah raid as he had the Israeli counter-action.

Annan was unsurprisingly joined by a chorus of other world leaders urging Israel to “show restraint,” act in a “moderate and proportionate” manner, and not “seek an eye for an eye” following the unprovoked aggression against its citizens.

But they once again failed to offer a viable alternative to overwhelming Israeli force, apparently believing their own toothless demands would be heeded by Hizb’allah.

Hizb’allah is not going to release the Israelis because the world tells it to, just as it clearly is not going to disarm as the world told it to. And allowing the international community to broker another prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizb’allah will certainly encourage additional abductions.

In the absence of a viable alternative, the world would do well to let Israel pursue the one course of action that will best prevent a repeat of today’s events: the annihilation of Hizb’allah.