Israel has come under criticism for harming UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. “Peacekeepers” with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon provide two oxymorons.
First is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. It was established in 1978 — 46 years ago.
The “interim” force was established to keep the peace in Lebanon with the goal of reestablishing the authority of Lebanese government, including Lebanese army operations against insurgents and weapons smuggling.
UNIFIL has failed on all fronts.
With due gratitude to the soldiers of the many nations who have come to Lebanon and put themselves in danger to serve the noble goal of peace, the hard facts are that UNIFIL has not reestablished the authority of the Lebanese government, and has not in any way shut down insurgents and weapons smuggling.
Quite the contrary. Since UNIFIL was established, Lebanon has known precious little peace, especially in the eighteen years since 2006. On UNIFIL’s watch, Hezbollah has assassinated Lebanon’s president, undermined the authority of the Lebanese government, dug a still undetermined number of tunnels designed to help make war on Israel, gathered nobody-knows-exactly-how-many missiles aimed at Israel, and smuggled in other weapons and stored them right up to Israel’s border. We reach the second oxymoron:
If there are UN peacekeepers, there is no peace. If there is peace, there are no UN peacekeepers.
UNIFIL cries foul when Israel attacks Hezbollah positions within range of UNIFIL posts in southern Lebanon.
Enter: the kid who killed his parents and pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan.
Against its mission, UNIFIL allowed Hezbollah arms and military posts into southern Lebanon to begin with, and now cries for mercy.
The absurdity here is self-evident. UNIFIL “peacekeepers” do not act to keep the peace, do not enforce UN UN Security Council Resolution 1701 prohibiting Hezbollah military activity and equipment in southern Lebanon, but UNIFIL wants Israel not to destroy Hezbollah’s assets that UNIFIL was supposed to preclude to begin with.
Absurdity upon absurdity. The Wall Street Journal quotes Richard Gowan, identified as an expert on the UN at a Brussels think tank. Gowan says that UNIFIL actually does not have the authority or capacity to take on Hezbollah, only the authority to assist the Lebanese army in securing the Lebanon-Israel border. But this cannot happen since, on UNIFIL’s watch, Hezbollah became the government in southern Lebanon.
There you have it: Hezbollah undermined the Lebanese army on UNIFIL’s watch — signaling the failure of UNIFIL’s mission to reestablish the authority and power of the Lebanese army to secure the border. So rather than take responsibility for its own failure, UNIFIL blames Israel for trying to secure the border. Inherent in the blame shifting from itself to Israel, UNIFIL conveniently ignores the elephant in the room: Hezbollah.
Follow UNIFIL’s own logic to its conclusion: UNIFIL says: We have no authority to act against Hezbollah. If so, given Hezbollah’s dominance of southern Lebanon, there is no more justification for UNIFIL. Its oxymoronic “interim” mission should end.
Which is exactly what Israel urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres last Sunday, Oct. 13: Get the “peacekeepers” out of southern Lebanon. They serve no peaceful purpose. They themselves put themselves in harm’s way by turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s tunnel digging, arms-storing and missile-firing in the areas they are responsible for keeping the peace in.
One more absurdity: UNIFIL claims that, from its posts, it really wasn’t able to detect Hezbollah’s multifaceted military activity in southern Lebanon. Read: UNIFIL was supposed to stick to its isolated posts, to see no evil and hear no evil throughout southern Lebanon; yet, its mission was to keep the peace in southern Lebanon.
Enter: the kid who stuck his finger in his mother’s pie sitting on the kitchen table because, he says, he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to. What peace, exactly, was UNIFIL supposed to be keeping if it wasn’t supposed to know what was happening outside of its posts?
Around 300 feet away from a peacekeeping observation post, Israel found two tunnel shafts that descend deep into the ground. Keep mind: This isn’t Gaza ground. This isn’t desert. This isn’t soft. This is rocky ground. Yet, at a distance of 300 feet — a drop less than a football field — multiple UNIFIL peacekeepers at an “observation” post did not hear, could not see, could not observe, the construction of these tunnels. If UNIFIL cannot even detect a major military activity that violates its mission one football field away, then how it is supposed to “keep the peace” over hundreds of square miles of southern Lebanon?
UNIFIL could also not see the living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms of homes in Lebanon filled with weapons put there by Hezbollah operatives.
Enter: the mirage, UNIFIL itself, the absurdity of these “peacekeepers.” They kept no peace. And they claim they can’t.
So leave.
© IJN 2024
