Saturday, September 02, 2017

The Devil They Know?

The Israelis express happiness that the UNIFIL mandate in southern Lebanon has been extended. Why?

Really?

Israel on Friday welcomed the renewal of the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in neighbouring Lebanon amid US pressure for the blue berets to take action against Hezbollah militants.

France and Italy wanted the force to remain as is, with France arguing it has stabilized southern Lebanon.

I don't understand that one bit. Southern Lebanon is calm because Hezbollah has chosen not to attack Israel. Certainly, for the last 5 years Hezbollah has been busy fighting and dying (2,000 KIA) in Syria on behalf of Assad.

But what UNIFIL has to do with that "stability" is beyond me.

Still, Israel's happiness has a caveat:

In a statement on Friday, Israel's foreign ministry said "the importance of the resolution was in its call for UNIFIL to act in a meaningful and targeted manner to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening its military arsenal in southern Lebanon".

Yeah, good luck with that. This time for sure!

As far as I can see, UNIFIL is just a large mass of human shields that America helps pay for to prevent Israel from attacking Hezbollah. And I don't see that changing.