UN says Israeli tanks burst through gates of peacekeeper base

[moniss]

33. Your seeming indication of some "shooting role"

to take away weapons from Hezbollah is nonsense and is contrary to what was negotiated by the parties purposely. Also you only indicate their role about violations relative to Hezbollah when in fact it encompasses all parties. Hezbollah is not the Lebanese government despite them having an influence and members of the parliament who are in line with their thinking. By your reasoning Kach and subsequently Otzma Yehudit as parties in government, although slight, and their reprehensible views (nobody believes Ben-Gvir changed his spots from his days of worshiping Kahane) are the state of Israel. The government of Lebanon has been struggling to strengthen and stand up a judiciary etc. and perhaps rather than point fingers Israel might, but of course won't, think about it's own role in creating the situation in Lebanon.

You selectively pick out parts of things and disregard others. The sophisticated capabilities are not massive weapons systems but rather intelligence and monitoring but it should be noted that despite what was discussed most of it never was approved. The point remains that the parties to 1701 by design and negotiation and the full desire and knowledge of all parties severely restricted what UNIFIL is to do when they become aware of violations. The parties pledged to "self correct" which any reasonably aware observer knew was simply nonsense and that the parties would simply continue to snipe and violate and deny. Which all of the parties have done. As I said the typical periodic reports through the years describe hundreds and hundreds of violations by Israeli personnel, jets and drones. Your advocacy for UNIFIL seems to stop short in wanting aggressive action against those violations. Indeed it is not difficult to find in the reports Israel taking purposeful steps to impede the patrol capabilities of UNIFIL along the Blue Line for example. Perhaps Israel should be asked about it's own years long history of willful violations of 1701.

The fact remains that UNIFIL is not authorized to go in and start shooting up the place. No matter how much you desire it or wish to selectively quote general statements of goals. It should be noted that in the periodic reports from UNIFIL and the Secretary General they do without hesitation list items that they are not able to make headway on or goals frustrated by actions of some and sometimes all parties. I can assure you that I find no such brevity forthcoming from the Israeli government about it's failures to make headway on preventing or addressing their constant violations of 1701 year after year. The encroachment north of the Blue Line with construction activities and refusal to cease the violation and withdraw back to the Israeli side of the Blue Line is but one example. If the Israeli government were truly so concerned about UNIFIL being able to operate then perhaps they shouldn't have purposely taken all of the rubble, boulders etc. and dumped them on the UNIFIL patrol road in the area they illegally encroached which prevented UNIFIL from passage.