UNIFIL effectively collaborated on Friday's rocket attack
On Friday, I reported on a rocket attack against the town of Nahariya on Israel's northwestern border with Lebanon. The Lebanese newspaper a-Nahar reports in Sunday's editions that UNIFIL knew about the rocket attack ten days in advance and did nothing. According to A Nahar, UNIFIL troops also received report of the type ofrockets to be used. The United Nations force passed the information on to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) two days ahead of the shooting. The report did not state whether the LAF acted on the intelligence.Here's the problem: Under the UNIFIL rules of engagement, about all they can (officially) do is to notify the Lebanese Armed Forces. Given those circumstances, it would have been far better had they notified the IDF.
On Saturday, Lebanese media reported that the rockets were fired by four men who arrived to a village near Tyre by pick-up truck, positioned the rockets on launchers, set up timers and escaped. Following the shooting on Friday, UNIFIL and the LAF raised their level of alert.
The IDF fired about 15 artillery shells at the source of the shooting immediately afterwards. It estimated that the rockets were fired by elements of Global Jihad and that the incident was isolated and would not lead to escalation on the Lebanese front.
Later Friday evening, Israel filed an official complaint with the UN over the incident. In the complaint, Israel's envoy Gabriela Shalev clarified that Jerusalem held the Lebanese state responsible for the shooting.
By the way, I wonder if these guys were the shooters:
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:14 AM
4 Comments:
we should hit some UN barracks to wake them up
Carl, notifying the Lebanese Armed Forces would mean effectively notifying Hezbollah. To all practical extents and purposes, the Lebanese army and Hezbollah are one and the same. The LAF in any case would never act against Hezbollah. Not that UNIFIL would ever operate against the wishes of its host country.
Israel should prevent UNIFIL from inspecting sites where rockets have fallen inside Israel. Has it ever occurred to the Israeli defense establishment that UNIFIL inspectors come to look at the damage and report back to the Hizbonazis, aka Lebanese army, on the effectiveness of their strikes?
If you had good intelligence beforehand, I would suggest practicing some prophylactic measures to prevent the launch.
Do it in a very public, and very obvious manner, to make a statement.
Lebanon has chosen to be an enemy when it should have been a friend. It needs to understand that any attack coming from its soil will result in retaliation against the country. Make no mistake, Hizbullah is Lebanon, and Lebanon is Hizbullah.
There is a price to pay for their crimes, and it has to be wildly disproportionate with their crimes in order to have a deterrence effect.
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