The UN Failure in Lebanon
(Updated July 2006)
The United
Nations was understandably upset when an Israeli
bomb hit a base used by the UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on July 25, 2006, and
killed four military observers. The Secretary
General of the UN, however, displayed a shocking
lack of judgment when he immediately accused Israel of deliberately
attacking the UN, a charge rejected by Israel.
Throughout his tenure, Kofi
Annan has shown no reluctance
to condemn Israeli actions while simultaneously
refusing to criticize the terror that provokes
them. This was evident just days earlier
when he spoke to the Security
Council and
accused Israel of using “excessive
force” while failing to utter the word “terrorism” to
describe that actions of Hizballah that
sparked the current fighting or to mention Hizballah’s sponsors Syria and Iran.
Not surprisingly, Annan
has failed to mention that UNIFIL bases have
been used by Hizballah fighters
as a shield behind which they fire at Israel.
He also has been silent on Hizballah attacks
on UNIFIL. The same day UNIFIL reported
the Israeli bombing, it also said another
UN position was directly hit by a Hizballah mortar. Hizballah also
fired from the vicinity of UN positions
at Alma ash Shab, Tibnin, Brashit, and At
Tiri. The
day before Hizballah opened
small arms fire at a UNIFIL convoy. There’s
more:
- On
July 24, one unarmed UN military
observer was seriously wounded by small
arms fire from the Hizballah side during an exchange with
the IDF. He was evacuated to Israel
and taken by an IDF helicopter to a Haifa hospital where he was operated
on; his condition is now reported
as stable.
- On
July 21, A UN-run observation post
just inside Israel was hit by rockets fired by Hizbullah that fell
short of their targets in northern
Israel.
- On July 20, UNIFIL reported
that Hizballah was
setting up rocket launchers
near its troops and firing
from the immediate vicinity of the UN
positions in Naqoura and Maroun Al Ras.
Annan has called for an investigation of
the July 25 incident and, if it is conducted
fairly, the report will show that UNIFIL
has been an utter failure for its entire
existence and that its complicity in Hizballah activities helped spark the current conflict.
In March 1978, PLO terrorists
infiltrated Israel. After murdering
an American tourist walking near an Israeli beach, they
hijacked a civilian bus. When Israeli troops
intercepted the bus, the terrorists opened
fire. A total of 34 hostages died in the
attack. In response, Israeli forces crossed
into Lebanon and overran terrorist bases
in the southern part of that country, pushing
the terrorists away from the border.
On March 19, 1978, the Security Council adopted resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978), in
which it called upon Israel immediately to
cease its military action and withdraw its
forces from all Lebanese territory. It also
established
UNIFIL. The IDF withdrew
and the United Nations sent
in a military contingent on March 23, 1978,
that was supposed to prevent any further
attacks against Israel from Lebanon. But
UN troops were unable and unwilling to prevent
terrorists from reinfiltrating the region
and introducing new, more dangerous arms.
UNIFIL’s failure
to prevent more than 200 terrorist attacks
ultimately led Israel to reenter Lebanon in 1982 to drive out the PLO. Three years
later, following the expulsion of the PLO leadership, and destruction of its terrorist
infrastructure, Israel withdrew the bulk
of its forces, leaving behind a 1,000-man
force, deployed in a strip of territory extending
eight miles into south Lebanon to protect
towns and villages in northern Israel from
the type of attacks it is now enduring. Israel
said it would completely withdraw from Lebanon in return for a stable security situation
on its northern border.
The hope was that the terrorists
remaining in Lebanon would be disarmed.
Instead, Iran was allowed to finance
and arm Hizballah,.
which
initially confined itself to launching Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel
and ambushing Israeli troops in the security
zone, but gradually escalated its attacks
on Israeli civilians. UNIFIL stood by and
did nothing.
In April 1996, the IDF mounted
“Operation Grapes of Wrath” to
halt Hizballah’s bombardment
of Israel’s northern frontier. During the
operation, Israeli artillery mistakenly hit
a UN base in Kafr Kana, killing nearly 100
civilians. Afterward, a Joint Monitoring
Machinery, including American, French,
Syrian and Lebanese representatives, was created
to prohibit unprovoked attacks on civilian
populations and the use of civilians as shields
for terrorist activities.
Attacks against Israeli
troops in the Security Zone and civilians
in northern Israel continued, however, and
as the number of casualties mounted, the
Israeli public began to favor a withdrawal
of its soldiers. On May 24, 2000, all
IDF and South Lebanon
Army outposts were evacuated. The Israeli
withdrawal was conducted in coordination
with the UN, and constituted an Israeli fulfillment
of its obligations under Security
Council Resolution 425 (1978).
Israel thought that by completely
withdrawing from Lebanon, Hizballah would
have no justification for continuing its
attacks — the
old land for peace formula — and that
UNIFIL would now do its job and prevent any
further crossborder provocations. Instead, Hizballah interpreted Israel’s unilateral withdrawal as a
victory for its terrorist methods. Rather
than cease-fire, Hizballah was
emboldened and believed it could continue
to pursue its broader agenda of destroying
Israel.
As a pretext for its attacks, Hizballah claims
Israel “occupies” Shebaa
Farms.
This 100-square-mile, largely uninhabited
patch was captured from Syria. In January
2005, the UN Security Council adopted
a resolution condemning
violence along the Israel-Lebanon border
and reasserted that the Lebanese claim to
the Shebaa farms area is “not compatible
with Security
Council resolutions.”
Meanwhile, UNIFIL has been
a complete failure in meeting the objective
of stopping terrorist attacks against Israel.
On October 7, 2000, for example, three Israeli
soldiers were abducted
by Hizballah.
The terrorists crossed through a UN-patrolled
area to get to the soldiers on
the Israeli side of the Israeli-Lebanese
border, but were videotaped by UN troops.
For almost nine months, Kofi Annan denied
possessing any videotape related to the kidnaping.
The UN finally admitted that they possessed
the tape, but it was later learned they had
two additional tapes and other evidence related
to the abduction. When Israel demanded to
see the tapes, the UN initially refused,
but eventually relented after imposing a
number of conditions, including editing them
so as to obscure the faces of the kidnappers.
The UN said it wanted to remain neutral and
did not want to provide intelligence on one
party. The three soldiers were later declared
dead.
Since then, Hizballah has
engaged in a
number of attacks that have
killed both Israeli soldiers and civilians
and UNIFIL has done nothing to prevent the
violence. In the current violence in Lebanon,
UNIFIL remains an impotent force, allowing Hizballah to
use its bases as a shield against Israeli
fire and refusing to prevent rocket
attacks even when launched from near its troops.
UNIFIL is now aiding Hizballah by
repairing roads that Israel has destroyed
to prevent resupply of the terrorists.
The lesson of UNIFIL is
that an international force, especially one
sponsored by the UN, will not prevent
a future conflict unless it is given a clear
mandate to stop terrorists
from attacking Israel and given the means
to prevent provocations.
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