2024-10-17
7 分钟Following attacks by Israeli troops and the discovery of a Hezbollah tunnel close to its base, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, is under scrutiny. Andrew Mueller explains why this nearly 50-year long deployment has failed to reduce tensions between Israel and Lebanon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Get the uniform forces out of harm's way.
It should be done right now, immediately.
The law of Military deployments, which holds that it's way harder to get troops out than send them in, applies at least as reliably to peacekeeping operations as to any other kind.
The United Nations Department of Peace operations currently has 11 peacekeeping missions on the go.
Four have been on the ground for more than half a century.
UNIFIL has not quite got 50 years on the clock.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, to give it its full name, though Interim has been doing heavier lifting as the mission has ground on, was established back in 1978.
For pretty much the entire period these peacekeepers have been deployed, there hasn't been much peace to keep.
And UNIFIL finds itself back in the news after several of its positions were fired upon by Israeli forces, occasional occasioning injuries to five peacekeepers.
In another incident, Israeli tanks drove through and destroyed the main gate of one UN base.
It's the latest Israeli attack on peacekeepers in the region.
On Thursday, two UN peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired on an observation tower in the mission's headquarters.
It is difficult to believe that these incidents were accidental.
Anybody with a smartphone can see where the UN's bases in Lebanon are, and the white vehicles, blue helmets and UN flags are also a bit of a giveaway.
Shooting up UN positions is of a piece with Israel's current attitude to the UN generally, which has included declaring the Secretary actual General Persona non grata and the organization entire in recent remarks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A house of darkness, a swamp of antisemitic bile, an anti Israel flat earth society, and a contemptuous farce.
In this anti Israel flat earth society, any false charge, any outlandish allegation can muster a majority.
And UNIFIL is in its present state, as indeed the Israelis have demonstrated, difficult to miss.
It is currently 10,000 troops drawn from 48 countries, commanded by Spanish Lieutenant General Aroldo Saenz.
The biggest contingents right now are from Indonesia, Italy, India, Nepal, Ghana, and Malaysia, who are each contributing a battalion or so.