July 27, 2006
Hezbollah using UN as shield
To absolutely no one's surprise, it turns out that UN observer post destroyed by Israel a few days ago was probably being used by Hezbollah as a staging area from which to engage the IDF. Which explains why Israel - deliberately or not - wiped it off the map.
You don't want to get killed, you don't hang out in areas where terrorists are operating. You'll just be a casualty, and it'll be as much your fault as the terrorists'.
I think this is why a one-mile "buffer-zone" north of Israel is an entirely unsatisfactory solution. There's nothing to prevent Hezbollah from operating there anyway, but Israel will be criticized for fighting back. I'm increasingly in favor of Israeli occupation, provided Lebanon proves incapable of occupying the territory themselves.
The NY Sun reports this morning that Kofi Annan's smear against Israel is threatening to "unravel:"
An apparent discrepancy in the portrayal of events surrounding the deaths of four unarmed U.N. observers in Lebanon threatens to unravel Secretary-General Annan's initial accusation that Israel "deliberately" targeted the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.
A Canadian U.N. observer, one of four killed at a UNIFIL position near the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam on Tuesday, sent an e-mail to his former commander, a Canadian retired major-general, Lewis MacKenzie, in which he wrote that Hezbollah fighters were "all over" the U.N. position, Mr. MacKenzie said. Hezbollah troops, not the United Nations, were Israel's target, the deceased observer wrote.