Can the UN be Trusted to do Anything in Lebanon?

The Hizballah and United Nations flags flying side-by-side inside a UN Compound in Southern Lebanon. (Inside the Asylum byb Jed Babbin, page 155)

As Israel is entering the third week of its offensive against Hizballah in Lebanon, many are speculating about possible exit strategies. Some things everyone agrees on:

• Someone will need to watch over Southern Lebanon to make sure that Hizballah (or their successors) are not able to rebuild their infrastructure.
• That someone cannot be Israel

Israel spent 18 years in Southern Lebanon during the 80s and 90s. At the end of this time the IDF withdrew ran back to Israel, leaving the land open for Hizballah to take over. And take over they did. They controlled the entire Southern part of Lebanon. Hundreds of missile launch sites, weapons caches, tunnels. You name it. They built it up with the purpose of using it for launching further attacks on Israel. Israel has now taken upon itself (after some pretty explicit prompting from Nasrallah and co.) to attempt to either destroy Hizballah, or in the failure to complete this goal, completely wreck their infrastructure, destroy their weapons, and eliminate as many of the terrorists as is possible. But once this is complete, they will withdraw back to Israel. No one wants to see Israel in there for another 18 years of guerrilla warfare with Iran/Syria proxy terrorist organizations or with Al Qaeda. However, someone must be there to hold down the fort.

But if Israel will not be there, than who will? Many are suggesting the United Nations as the logical choice. After all, they have maintained "observers" in Lebanon since Israel has left, and in Israel itself since the founding of the nation. They are supposed to be impartial, not taking sides, but would still have the manpower and firepower to make a difference. So when Israel leaves Lebanon (in a few weeks or months), the UN would sweep in, set up camp, and become the active party in terms of preventing large anti-Israel terrorist infrastructures from being built-up on the Northern side of this internationally-recognized border.

At least that's the way it looks on paper. In reality however, I find it very hard that the United Nations can be either impartial nor active in any "peacekeeping" role involving Israel. My suspicions do not rest principally on what seems to be the obvious bias against Israel that takes place in United Nations headquarters in New York City (go and compare the history of condemnations against Israel vs. condemnations against the nations that have attacked Israel over the years if you want to see what I mean). I am talking here about specific instances in the very recent past where the UN "observer" contingents located in Southern Lebanon have demonstrated themselves to be, at the best, incompetent fools, and at the worst completely complicit with the actions of Hizballah in its attacks against Israeli cities and IDF positions in Northern Israel.

A story of three soldiers

Although the current war in Lebanon was precipitated by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, this is not the first time in recent years that Israeli soldiers have been attacked by Hizballah inside Israel. a>, Hizballah carried out an operation on Mount Dov in Israel in which they abducted three Israeli soldiers. The soldiers were killed either in the attack or in the immediate aftermath. Their remains were traded back to Israel in 2004. However, in the days after the attack, no one in Israel knew if the soldiers were still alive or not. It was known that the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) was in a position to possibly observe the attack and abduction. Although a UN video of the attack was said to exist, the UN would not show it unaltered, so as not to damage their "neutrality".

Nine months later, in July 2001, one of the Indian soldiers who was witness to the attack during his time with the UNIFIL came out and said that the UNIFIL forces were in a position to prevent the abduction of the Israeli soldiers:

According to Maariv, the Indian soldier's testimony reported exactly how the kidnapping was carried out. After exploding an initial charge that left the three Israeli soldiers stunned, Hizbullah terrorists dressed in UN uniforms beckoned and called to them: "Come, come, we'll help you."

The soldiers accepted the invitation and approached the disguised Hizbullah men. When they came closer, a charge detonated, wounding the soldiers as well as the Hizbullah commander.

The commander started to curse his friends. Another two terrorists brought the Hizbullah commander into the getaway vehicle. Then they brutally dragged away the three wounded Israeli soldiers.

"By this stage," the Indian soldier reported, according to Maariv, "there was a big commotion and dozens of UN soldiers from the Indian brigade came around." He said they all knew that the men wearing their uniforms were really Hizbullah. One of the soldiers reportedly said that they should arrest the Hizbullah men, but they did nothing.

The Indian soldier said that at least four UN soldiers collaborated with the Hizbullah to help them reach the ambush location, and to assist them in locating the IDF soldiers.

That's right. The UNIFIL observers, sent on a mission to "Restore international peace and security" assisted Hizballah forces in an attack on Israeli soldiers and stood by watching their abduction.

The Failure of the UNIFIL

The above case illustrates very clearly how in this particular instance the United Nations forces in Lebanon directly aided Hizballah in attacking Israel. One may say that this was just a few soldiers who succombed to the large amounts of money, liquor and alcohol that Hizballah sent over as bribes and payment for their assistance. There is corruption in any large organization. Should this one incident forever taint the UN in this region?

Maybe yes, maybe no. However, this is not the only time when the UN has been partners with Hizballah in one way or another. As recently as last year, Israel has leveled accusations that the UN was cooperating with Hizballah forces in Southern Lebanon:

"The UN is in fact collaborating with a terrorist organization," says a political source in Jerusalem. "This is an intolerable situation, when the UN speaks at the same time of fighting terror."

In diplomatic meetings with the U.S. and France in the past weeks, a series of complaints about UNIFIL were brought up: The UN force maintains a permanent dialogue with Hezbollah, chiefly because of UNIFIL's own interest in survival; in many places along the Israel-Lebanon border, Hezbollah has posts and positions adjacent to UNIFIL positions; deployment of the force serves as an excuse for the Lebanese government not to deploy in the south, as required by UN Security Council resolutions; and UNIFIL treats the IDF as equivalent to the Hezbollah terrorist organization when reporting violations of the cease-fire.

The picture described above illustrates very well the reason for Israeli fears regarding future UN "peacekeeping" and "observer" forces in Lebanon. The picture is taken of a UN compound in Southern Lebanon and shows UN and Hizballah flags flying side by side. In a way, this is very appropriate, as "the U.N. and Hezbollah personnel share water and telephones, and that the U.N. presence serves as a shield against Israeli strikes against the terrorists." (Opinion Journal).

There is one thing that the UN can be trusted to do in Lebanon: ignore its mandate to promote peace while assisting the enemies of Israel as they ready their next attack.

(And in order not to be negative without proposing any alternatives, how about NATO?)

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