UNIFIL to Hezbullah: Don't do it again
In response to Hezbullah's claim that it was behind a roadside bomb that wounded four IDF troops along the Israel-Lebanon border fence last week, UNIFIL commander Paolo Serra
told Hezbullah not to do it again.
Maj.-Gen. Paolo Serra the commander of the United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Thursday in response to Hezbollah
claim that it was behind last week’s bombing that wounded four Israeli
soldiers: Investigations are ongoing regarding al-Labbouneh incident.
What happened is dangerous and should not occur again.
This comes after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah
claimed during an interview with Lebanese television station
Al-Mayadeen that two remote-control bombs detonated inside Lebanon when
the Israeli force crossed the border. He said Hezbollah members knew in
advance the Israelis were coming and planted the bombs to target them.
“The feet that will enter our land and we know about it will be cut. …
This is our right,” Nasrallah said. “We will not forgive any ground
violation of our land.”
According to UN observers Hezbollah’s action is in violation of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which was intended to
end the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah
representatives in the Lebanese cabinet voted for the resolution on
August 11, 2006.
I'm sure Nasrallah is shaking with fear. What could go wrong?
Labels: blue line, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbullah, Lebanon, UNIFIL
4 IDF soldiers wounded in explosion on Lebanese border
Four IDF soldiers were wounded, two moderately and two lightly, in an explosion on the Lebanese border on Tuesday night. The IDF has not released details of the incident, but the Lebanese Army is claiming that the soldiers were
across the border.
The Lebanese Army said the troops were inside Lebanese territory when
the blast occurred. A statement from the L.A.F. said that, in a
"violation of Lebanese sovereignty", an Israeli infantry patrol crossed
the UN-designated "blue line" between the two countries and moved 400
meters (yards) inside Lebanese territory.
"During the
infiltration, an explosion occurred which led to a number of them being
wounded," the Lebanese military said, adding it was investigating the
circumstances of the blast in coordination with UN peacekeepers in
southern Lebanon.
A
Lebanese security source told Reuters that the incident may have taken
place north of the border fence which separates Israeli and Lebanese
forces, but on the Israeli side of a UN-designated "blue line" between
the two countries.
He said the soldiers may have been wounded by a mine.
Another security source said the explosion was 150 meters (yards) south of the blue line.
Asked
about the incident, Andrea Teneti, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping
force in southern Lebanon, said he had "no information in relation to
our mandate of operations", and he described the situation as calm.
Israel Hayom adds:
The IDF did not say what the
cause of the explosion was and would not elaborate on whether the
incident was combat-related or a training accident. According to the
Lebanese state-run National News Agency, a landmine explosion struck the
soldiers' patrol, which crossed into Lebanon's southern border and
advanced 150 meters inside the Lebanese border village of Labbouneh.
Israel Radio said the soldiers were part of an
elite military unit, adding that large military forces were deployed to
the area following the blast.
The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital in
Nahariya for treatment. According to a Walla News report, three of the
wounded soldiers were being operated on, while the fourth was admitted
to the intensive care unit. Israel Radio quoted the hospital director as
saying that all four soldiers arrived at the hospital conscious, and
all had suffered shrapnel injuries.
...
The An Nahar Lebanese
newspaper reported that the blast occurred when IDF troops crossed over
the border about 150 meters into Lebanese territory. Lebanese TV said
the soldiers were hit by a landmine when they were inside Lebanese
territory. Hezbollah-associated Almayadeen network reported that the
four soldiers were wounded by an explosive device while they were six
meters inside Lebanese territory over the Blue Line.
The Voice of Lebanon radio station reported
Wednesday that residents of south Lebanon reported hearing the sounds of
strong explosions early Wednesday morning near the Israeli border area
of Nakura [Rosh Hanikra]. According to the radio report, shortly after
the explosion, Israeli troops fired flares into the night sky. The
Lebanese radio station said that units of the Lebanese Armed Forces were
conducting joint patrols with UNIFIL in the area.
Lebanon (or Hezbullah) has apparently mined the area that is immediately across the border - something that needs to be borne in mind when we need to cross the border in the future.
Refuah Shleima (a full and speedy recovery) to the soldiers who were hurt.
Labels: blue line, explosions, Hezbullah, IDF, Lebanese Armed Forces, Lebanon
Lebanese Armed Forces fire on IDF patrol, one LAF soldier killed
Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) troops
fired on an IDF border patrol on Monday morning. The IDF returned fire and one LAF soldier was killed.
The IDF reported the incident to the UNIFIL force stationed in Lebanon along the border, stating that Israel was not interested in an escalation of violence.
The army added that they believed the incident was contained and it did not appear that a larger operation would follow.
Lebanese news website Naharnet reported that the LAF opened fire when IDF soldiers crossed over to the Lebanese side of the border. The IDF emphasized that they were operating on the Israeli side of the border.
The incident came one year after Lebanese soldiers shot and killed an Israeli battalion commander in an attack along the northern border. In last year's incident, Lebanon claimed that Israeli soldiers crossed the Blue Line dividing the two countries. However, UNIFIL concluded that the IDF soldiers had not crossed the internationally recognized border between Israel and Lebanon when pruning a tree on the other side of the fence but were still within Israeli sovereign territory.
In the most severe border incident since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, a LAF sniper shot and killed Lt. -Col. Dov Harari, commander of a reserves battalion that was conducting the work along the fence near Misgav Am. Three LAF soldiers and a Lebanese journalist were also killed.
That incident was
a year ago on Wednesday.
Hmmm.
Labels: blue line, Dov Harari, Hatzbani River, Lebanese Armed Forces, Misgav Am
It's official: Ghajar withdrawal not happening
Remember how I told you a couple of months ago that Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Ghajar
wasn't likely to happen? Well, it's official.
It's not happening.
An Israeli official has said that a plan to withdraw from the Lebanese side of the occupied border village of Ghajar is now on hold due to recent changes in the region, including Lebanon.
"We don't want to give the Hizbullah government free gifts," the official in Jerusalem told Israel's Ynet news website, hinting that for the time being the plan to withdraw from the northern part of Ghajar has been frozen.
The Israeli security cabinet approved a plan to pull forces out from the Lebanese side of Ghajar around three months ago. Under the plan, Israeli troops were to withdraw from the area and leave it under UNIFIL's authority.
"The idea was to boost the moderates, not the extremists," the official said. "Today it's problematic to hand over Ghajar to the Hizbullah government. We are discussing the matter with the U.N. and UNIFIL. Back in December we couldn't have predicted the current instability and Hizbullah toppling the government."
"Nothing will happen before the Hariri report comes out," the Israeli official said in reference to the indictment that will eventually be made public by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Nothing will happen after the Hariri report comes out either, because it's likely to precipitate a coup by Hezbullah. But then, that was foreseeable three months ago too.
Labels: blue line, Ghajar, Hezbullah, Rafik al-Hariri, Second Lebanon War, Special Tribunal for Lebanon, UN Security Council Resolution 1701
No one's very happy about Ghajar withdrawal, but maybe it won't happen
No one is very happy about the
arrangement to
divide the town of Ghajar in half.
"The people of Ghajar do not want to be part of Lebanon," said Timur Goksel, former senior adviser of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), of the village's 2,200 residents -- none of whom is Lebanese.
"They say they have nothing to do with Lebanon, historically, politically, socially," Goksel told AFP. "If they become Lebanese they are going to lose all their privileges as Israeli citizens."
...
Israeli officials have said responsibility for the sector will be transferred to UNIFIL, whose troops will redeploy around Ghajar's northern perimeter but not inside the village itself.
"The plan is basically to return to the pre-2006 status quo," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria and Lebanon expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"Israel will only patrol south of the Blue Line and Israel's main security fence will run along the village's southern border," Tabler, who was recently in Ghajar, told AFP.
Most Ghajar residents are Syrian Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, who have acquired Israeli citizenship.
They reject the partitioning of their village, which would put 1,700 people in Lebanon and 500 in Israel and possibly leave family members unable to visit each other.
While Hezbollah is demanding that Israel hand over the northern part of Ghajar to the Lebanese army, with UNIFIL backing, experts say the Lebanese military is unlikely to be granted access.
"The (Israeli) security fence running along the northern edge of the village will remain," Tabler said. "The question being worked out now is who will patrol the northern neighbourhood."
The Lebanese government has yet to react officially to Israel's proposed withdrawal, but Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, arguably the most powerful figure in the country, has rejected the plan.
"The Lebanese part of Ghajar must be returned to Lebanon and the Syrian part, with its residents, must be given to Lebanon until the Syrian-Lebanese border is demarcated," Nasrallah has said.
So if no one is happy about it, why are we going through with it? Why it's the fierce moral urgency of course.
Unless we don't go through with it....
Experts say, however, that Israel's commitment to withdraw from northern Ghajar is unlikely to take place soon.
"It is not going to happen until there is a peace treaty between Syria and Israel, and then Lebanon and Israel, so everyone will cross that bridge when they come to it," Tabler said.
Huh? I hadn't heard that one before.
Labels: blue line, Ghajar, Second Lebanon War, UN Security Council Resolution 1701
UNIFIL: To hell with the people of Ghajar
Here is a response from UNIFIL spokesperson Neeraj Singh to a report that the residents of Ghajar are not happy that the IDF will be withdrawing from the northern half of the town.
Asked about protests against the decision by the town’s residents, he said that “the priority for us is the Israeli army’s withdrawal according to Resolution 1701.”
Aren't you glad UNIFIL cares? Don't you wish everyone did?
Labels: blue line, Ghajar, Hezbullah, UNIFIL, unilateral withdrawal
Insensitivity, State Department style
The State Department is thrilled that they finally got the evil Joooos to agree to pull out of something, even if it's just the northern half of the Golan Heights town of Ghajar (as expected, the cabinet voted in favor of the pullout on Wednesday). State Department spokesman PJ Crowley put out the following
statement.
The United States welcomes the announcement today by Israel’s Security Cabinet that it accepts in principle the proposal offered by the UNIFIL Force Commander, providing for the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Lebanese territory in and around the village of Ghajar. The United States encourages Israel and the UN to complete the technical details necessary to implement this proposal rapidly and thereby protect the rights of the affected civilians and further the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which aims for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
I'm not even going to talk about the fact that it's not Lebanese territory - it's either Israeli territory or 'occupied' Syrian territory. But the statement about protecting the right of affected civilians cannot be allowed to pass.
Crowly is a moron. (I wanted to add another word before moron, but I try not to publish vulgarity on this blog). As it happens, the 'affected civilians' have been out in the streets demonstrating
against the pullout all day yesterday and today. So for whose benefit is this being done? Hezbullah's?
Labels: blue line, Ghajar, Golan Heights, Hezbullah, UNIFIL
Another view on Ghajar
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had passed on a Wednesday opportunity to gain access to Ghajar, the soon-to-be-divided town on the edge of the Golan Heights that is rarely open to outsiders.
But I did provide you with this quote from the town's spokesman, which I got from a Lebanese website.
Najeeb Khateeb, a spokesman for Ghajar, said his townsmen would have consented to the village being transferred in its entirety to Lebanon as a temporary measure before its ultimate return to Syria. He said he opposed the partition.
“We have no objection that the entire village, with all of its lands, be transferred to Lebanon,” he told The Media Line. “However, we refuse to become landless refugees in Lebanon. We remained here to guard our homes and land, even though 50% of our residents were uprooted in 1967 and now live in Syria. We would rather die here than become refugees.”
I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear that an
Israeli blogger who visited Ghajar on Wednesday was told a completely different story - by the same spokesperson:
Najib Khatib, the spokesman for Ghajar’s local council, was unable to hide his discontent at the fact that no official representative has visited the village to ask what the 2,200 residents want or inform them of decisions which will affect their future.
“We only find out what is going on by way of the media” he said.
Since Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the residents have consistently opposed the division of the village as stipulated by the UN. Najib explained that there are not two halves to the village; it is one community and every resident of it has family members in both the artificially created parts.
“Why put up another Berlin Wall here?” he asked rhetorically, and indeed when one sees where the proposed border would lie, one understands the full absurdity of the UN stipulation.
Most of the agricultural land belonging to the village is situated in the southerly area which means that should the division plan go ahead, the people living today in the northerly part would, according to Najib, find themselves stateless refugees in Lebanon and bereft of their lands. He calls it a “Judgement of Solomon”: a demand to divide something which cannot be divided.
Najib then explained that the village never had any connections with Lebanon, from which it is separated by the natural border of the River Hatzbani. All the old deeds they have for their lands are Syrian and were issued in the Golan Heights town of Kuneitra. The UN mapmakers who drew up the border or “Blue Line” in 2000 relied upon old maps from 1923 created as a result of the Sykes-Picot agreement. As he wryly pointed out, “Those maps were made by the British and the French. There were no Israelis, Lebanese or Syrians then.”
According to Najib, the entire village speaks with one voice on this issue and their position is that they are part of the Golan which was captured by Israel in 1967 and as such, their fate is inextricably linked to that of the Golan as a whole. If a peace agreement is ever signed between Israel and Syria under which the former gives over the Golan, then Ghajar should go back to being a part of Syria. Until then, they wish to remain as they are today: one united village in Israel, with Israeli citizenship.
There's much more (and great pictures) so make sure to
read the whole thing.
I have two takeaways for you. First, to whom did Mr. Najib tell the truth? That's hard to say. There are those that argue that these people so fear Syria and Hezbullah that they always hedge their bets and don't say anything against them. I suppose that's true in this case as well. Even what they told the blogger makes it sound like a mistake and that it's the fault of the UN - and not of Hezbullah or the Lebanese government. To me - and probably most of you - it seems obvious that any rational person would want to remain in Israel and that statements about the town going back to Syria are for domestic consumption in Damascus, but I don't think we can be 100% sure, and I'm not convinced it matters. Even if these people would rather have the entire town go to Lebanon rather than the entire town staying in Israel, that's apparently not on the table and it doesn't make what is on the table any less irrational.
Second, time moves on and change comes about. Going back to a map that was in use nearly 90 years ago without accounting for the current reality is insane. Ghajar is a scene we're likely to see played out again and again if God forbid Israel ever decides to do what the 'Palestinians' want and give them every inch that was liberated in 1967. It would be insane to do that.
Labels: blue line, Ghajar, Golan Heights, Lebanon
Ghajarians aren't upset about leaving Israel
I've done several posts about the town of Ghajar over the last week or two. I felt sorry for the town's residents because I thought they had recognized that living in a modern, western democracy was better than living in a tribal oriented Muslim country. But it appears
I was wrong.
Najeeb Khateeb, a spokesman for Ghajar, said his townsmen would have consented to the village being transferred in its entirety to Lebanon as a temporary measure before its ultimate return to Syria. He said he opposed the partition.
“We have no objection that the entire village, with all of its lands, be transferred to Lebanon,” he told The Media Line. “However, we refuse to become landless refugees in Lebanon. We remained here to guard our homes and land, even though 50% of our residents were uprooted in 1967 and now live in Syria. We would rather die here than become refugees.”
I actually had an opportunity to go to Ghajar yesterday (you need a special permit to get in), but I passed on it, because I had work to do and could not take the time to drive 3-4 hours in each direction to get there. I'm really glad I didn't go.
Labels: blue line, Ghajar, Lebanon, Syria
