UN Security Council votes AGAINST Israel, but at what cost?

Right, so the UN Security council have actually voted against Israel’s interests for once and they’ve done so unanimously at that! Yes, even the US have voted against them, but the response from Israel in light of that, well sinister would be one word to use in that light.
The vote in question this time was in relation to a draft resolution to renew the contract for UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon, the UN’s peacekeeping force that works with the Lebanese army to ensure the integrity of the Lebanese border with Israel. Tensions, if we can call them that have escalated significantly on this border between Israel and Hezbollah, so naturally the renewal of a UN peacekeeping contract with the nation that is home to Hezbollah permits Israel to once again play the victim card in light of the increased rocket fire across the border by both sides, but this time the Israeli representative’s response was less about being the victim in all of this, or not entirely, but also a fear that the safety of UN peacekeepers could not be guaranteed.
Right, so that was Israel’s permanent representative to the UN Danny Danon, part of his response to the unanimous vote by the UN Security Council to renew the peacekeeping contract of UNIFIL for another year.
Danon whinged, using jazz hands as it happens to complain about the both sidesing of Israel and Hezbollah, or Hizballah as he put it, potato po-tah-to frankly and I’d complain too, frankly Israel is at war on something 7 fronts right now, Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, yep 7 fronts, and Hezbollah only have beef with Israel right now, so yeah I would complain about being compared to Israel right now as well, but of curse that wasn’t what Danon was doing and of course I don’t mean to imply with my sarcasm and flippancy that Hezbollah are not responsible for awful atrocity too, because of course they are, but Israel’s whining on this score really has worn impossibly thin by now. Of course we want de-escalation on both sides, that will only happen when Israel is made to leave Gaza and now the West Bank as they have started the largest conflict there in 20 years as well. Of course they’d love to start a greater assault on Lebanon too, the bigger the arena of warfare Israel becomes embroiled in, the more they hope pressure will be piled on the likes of the US, to get involved more directly.
But then of course came the veiled threat really, the fear for the protection of UNIFIL forces because of Hezbollah’s constant intimidation, Danon said. Well that is exactly what UNIFIL are there for and why they have been there as peacekeepers along that border with their remit being renewed ever year, since I was born, in 1978.
UNIFIL are a UN peacekeeping force that monitors the Israel-Lebanese border and has been doing so for the last 46 years now, since tensions really began actually between Israel and Lebanon, five days in fact after Israel invaded Lebanon in March of 1978, so actually UNIFIL are very much on the right side of that border and working with the correct government on one side of that border. It had been one of the most peaceful of Israel’s borders historically, until Israel decided to back separatists during the civil war in Lebanon during the 70s and 80s, which later gave rise to Hezbollah, so Hezbollah are very much an enemy of Israel’s own making and indeed no diplomatic relations exist between the two nations as a result. As such, the UN patrol the border, monitor it, evidence any aggressive activity let’s call it.
Now the work of UNIFIL since the end of the 2006 Lebanon War, the last time Lebanon and Israel were formally at war with each other, UNIFIL’s duties were enhanced to include ongoing monitoring of the cessation of hostilities, accompanying the Lebanese Armed Forces on their patrols, and deal with humanitarian assistance to anyone displaced at the border. It is not a small UN agency either because of the work it does, because of the lengths Lebanon has to go to with the UN’s help to maintain the integrity of their border with Israel. It employees 10,000 peacekeepers from 46 nations, its mandate is renewed annually each September by the UN Security Council, as has once again happened here and has an annual budget close to half a billion dollars. All to patrol Southern Lebanon along the Israel border. There’s a large part of me that thinks, especially right now, that perhaps if the UN dealt with Israel’s aggression in a meaningful way, you wouldn’t need to spend so much money and resources patrolling a border with them, but equally it tells me that there is little incentive here for Lebanon or Hezbollah to attack UNIFIL either, when they’ve been working together for decades in the interests of Lebanon itself, though there are critics in Lebanon and indeed Israel that dispute UNIFIL’s allegiances. Israel hate it because they maintain dialogue with Hezbollah, obviously necessary when they operate on the Lebanese side, but some in Lebanon aren’t that keen on UNIFIL either after they adopted Security Council resolution 1701 in 2006, which forbids Lebanese forces, save the Lebanese army itself entering a demilitarised zone, which Danny Danon made mention of, south of the Litani River, the so called Blue Line.
You can certainly see why Israel have reacted so sniffily here though. UNIFIL wouldn’t be needed, wouldn’t exist if not for Israel’s actions going back decades against Lebanon, they are a permanent 46 year reminder of Israel’s own hostilities due to it’s own desire for expansionism.
But actually, given the increasing aggression across the Israel Lebanon border certainly in recent weeks, having already increased anyway since Israel’s response in Gaza to the night of October 7th, if UNIFIL are supposedly a peacekeeping force, well, they aren’t doing the best of jobs right now are they surely? I suppose you have to appreciate being stationed on one side of the border and one side only, they can’t really do much about Israeli aggression and rocket fire across the border, bringing into question whether they shouldn’t actually be stationed on both sides of the border, but equally they are reporting that rocket fire from the Lebanese side is coming from within that demarcation zone as this Al-Jazeera excerpt explains:
‘The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, tells Reuters that one of the rockets launched from Lebanon in the heavy exchange between Hezbollah and the Israeli military on Sunday was fired from near a position operated by international peacekeepers.
UNIFIL and unarmed technical observers known as UNTSO have long been stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.
It said it had detected a “high number of air strikes and rocket launches in its area of operations” starting on Sunday morning.
“One such launch was detected from near one of our positions in Hanniyeh,” UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said, referring to a town in southern Lebanon about 10km (6 miles) north of the border with Israel.’
Perhaps it is this lack of perceived effectiveness that meant the UN Security Council, despite the pro Israel presence of nations like the US, the UK and France, have no problem renewing this contract each year. So what if Danny Danon spits rivets and has a 10 minute whine, they only do this once a year and Israel will probably have found something else to whinge about anyway even if it hadn’t passed.
My take it personally, is that although the organisation is far from perfect and despite the cost in finances, equipment and personnel UNIFIL requires to maintain, things would certainly be a lot worse without them. Certainly Israeli expansionism northwards is cut off you would think, by their presence and ultimately if Israel were emboldened to try, UN excuses to not intervene at that point, with their own people in the line of fire, really won’t wash any more. Would that put Israel off? Well they’ve got away with Gaza to all intents and purposes, now they are starting on the West Bank, same excuses, though these really don’t carry any weight. But should they get away with that and still nobody is stopping them, why would they not try it on?
Hamas were in Gaza, based in Gaza, the elected government in Gaza, now Hamas are in the West Bank apparently, according to Israel, unverified by anyone else of course, but such is their excuse to strike there now as well as this video recommendation will tell you all about if you choose to watch it next. Will it be Lebanon afterwards? Given the history I wouldn’t bet against it, in fact given the veiled threat against UNIFIL, I doubt they’ll wait even that long depending on what they continue to be permitted to get away with. Do let me know what you think in the comments and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.