Israel Matzav

UNIFIL is afraid of the dark

This gets crazier by the minute.

On Monday, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the United Nations Security Council that the Lebanese government had reported that arms are being smuggled from Syria to Hezbullah.

On Tuesday, the President of the Security Council noted that "important progress has been made towards the implementation of resolution 1559 (2004), in particular through the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in the south of the country for the first time in three decades, but it also notes with regret that some provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) have yet to be implemented, namely the disbanding and disarming of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, the strict respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity, and political independence of Lebanon, and free and fair presidential elections conducted according to the Lebanese constitutional rules, without any foreign interference and influence." A 'presidential statement' is the weakest of all possible Security Council actions.

Today, Arutz Sheva reports on a story in Der Spiegel, which states that UNIFIL is not patrolling anywhere in southern Lebanon after dark:

UNIFIL commanders were interviewed by the paper, saying their function is to "observe changes in the behavior of the local population," with Spanish UNIFIL official Richard Ortax admitting that no patrols are carried out at night “because of the danger involved.”

One junior officer told Der Spiegel he was glad that his battalion only left their camp once. "It's absurd," he said. "We landed here and set up our tent city, but since then we've only left the camp to drive around and to make sure that we're seen."

Israel has warned that in light of the recent events in Lebanon, it is rethinking its commitment to the truce there:

"If Lebanon cannot implement its side of the resolution, obviously Israel would be entitled to rethink the implementation of our commitments," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

He said the arms embargo was a critical element of Resolution 1701 and that the smuggling constituted a "core violation."

Prime Minister's Office spokeswoman Miri Eisin said: "Until the Syrian-Lebanese border issue is resolved, we will continue to reserve our right to self defense."

As far as the Euroweenies are concerned, we're not living up to our side of the resolution either:

While Israel continues to insist it is fulfilling all its obligations under the cease-fire and Resolution 1701, France and the European Union are charging Israel with breaching them by continuing to conduct surveillance flights over Lebanon.

"We consider that these overflights constitute a violation of Lebanese sovereignty," a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said.

I think a little perspective is in order here. Anyone who cannot see why weapons smuggling is a much more serious violation of a cease fire than reconaissance flights that do nothing but view that weapons smuggling has serious psychological issues.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:57 PM