Will UNIFIL's Irish Outpost Stop Israel's Advance into Lebanon?

Right, so much of what stands between Lebanese civilians and the invading Israeli Defence Forces centres right now around UNIFIL peacekeeping troops based at outpost UN-652 within the Irish region of responsibility as it is marked as, this outpost manned chiefly by a contingent of Irish peacekeepers. Essentially if Israel wants to get to Lebanon, they have to go through the Irish first, because despite being ordered to leave by Israel, despite Israel telling the Irish government to recall their troops and indeed to UNIFIL themselves, these Irish peacekeepers are refusing to leave their posts. They are standing their ground, they will not abandon the civilians behind their outpost, the villages they effective stand guard over, all of which should if the UN functioned correctly, be a declaration of war itself against the whole of the UN. Sadly one nation stands out as very much not being on the side of the UN but the side of Israel and it doesn’t take three guesses to realise that is the US and nothing quite sums up their callous attitude towards this stand being made by Irish heroes, than one of their peace time advisors – make note of that title – saying that Israel should ‘Carpet bomb the Irish area & then drop napalm over it.’
Right, so this stand by Irish peacekeepers is truly remarkable and the bravery being shown by those manning UNIFIL outpost UN-652 is all the more remarkable when you imagine what these people have been in close proximity to, the actions by Israel on Gaza having been going on for a year now, but so has the Hezbollah attacks on Israel in response to their Gaza genocide. Whatever the outcome of this standoff as it currently is, these Irish peacekeepers are absolute heroes dedicated to their job which they knew they risked their lives to do anyway, but certainly never more true is that fact than right now for them.
UNIFIL, as I’ve spoken about before is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, supposedly a temporary force going by that name, but they’ve been in place to a greater or lesser extent permanently, for pretty much as long as I’ve been alive, coming into being in 1978 just as I did. They are there to defend the Lebanese border from Israeli incursions, placed there by the UN itself, so for them to be ordered to move and actually do it, completely undermines the reason for UNIFIL’s existence. They aren’t there for decoration, they are there for security purposes.
So these Irish peacekeepers not moving, they’re literally doing their jobs. Even more remarkable, as they face the full force of the IDF, is that manning that outpost, there is just 30 of them. The whole situation right now is reminiscent of the stand off of King Leonidas and the 300 against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, I just sincerely hope this has a different outcome for these Irish Spartans.
The Irish government, which has already chosen to recognise the State of Palestine during the past year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza has told the Israeli government that UNIFIL troop movements are for the UN to decide which is true, Ireland, like many nations around the world commit troops of their own to this task of defending the Israeli-Lebanese border, some more than others. Ireland for it’s part have 370 troops committed to UNIFIL, the largest contingent come from Italy, who have over 1000 troops in UNIFIL, which currently has representatives from some 46 nations. One of those is the UK as well, we’ve got the grand total of 1 soldier committed to UNIFIL, let’s not push the boat out too much eh?
At any rate, the stand-off at outpost UN-652 is now entering it’s fourth day and matters very much remain a case of if Israel want to get to the innocent civilians in the villages below, they’ll have to go through the outpost first and they are really pushing the boundaries on that now.
Having been refused their order to move the peacekeepers, Israel have advanced anyway and having used bulldozers to shape the ground to their needs, have essentially set up a military vantage point overlooking Lebanese villages right next to the outpost, trapping those inside, although they had been ordered to do so anyway by UNFIL, but to continue their monitoring duties as much as possible, being ordered into what is referred to as a level 3 position for their own safety. Their ongoing monitoring however will mean reporting back to the UN on all Israeli activities, the very thing Israel absolutely hates having to contend with, people reporting on their actions and coming from UNIFIL itself, coming from soldiers there on the ground in place with a vantage point to observe the atrocity Israel has begun carrying out, it will be very hard for any nation to deny what gets reported back.
That withstanding UNFIL has of course condemned the actions of the Israeli army endangering not just Lebanese civilians, but their own people through their reckless invasion of southern Lebanon and violating UN resolution 1701 which forbids Israel from passing over the Lebanese border, also called the Blue Line. They put out a tweet on the 6th October saying:
‘UNIFIL is deeply concerned by recent activities by the IDF immediately adjacent to the Mission’s position 6-52, southeast of Marun ar Ras (Sector West), inside Lebanese territory. The IDF has been repeatedly informed of this ongoing situation through regular channels.
This is an extremely dangerous development. It is unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks. UNIFIL urgently reminds all actors of their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.’
Israel do not seem to care and from their vantage point next to the outpost, have once again begun attacks on as per usual, civilian targets, being able to fire upon towns and villages from that position with tanks. One of the largest towns they now overlook is Maroun al-Ras, which has a population of more than 1000 people. It’s reminiscent of what we’ve already observed in Gaza though –destruction of civilian infrastructure, innocent lives are acceptable collateral damage, the success of their missions even measured in terms of civilian killings, to just level the place is all very much in keeping with what we’ve observed by the IDF, the genocide they’ve carried out, the wanton destruction of illegitimate targets all identified this time presumably as Hezbollah instead of Hamas and of course everything will be Hezbollah to excuse the destruction of every building they come across.
So where are Hezbollah themselves in all of this? Giving Israel enough rope as the saying goes.
The peacekeeping mission is still operating, the Irish are still monitoring Israeli actions, recording everything as some of the most solid evidence of their misconduct that there is. Hezbollah are deliberately not engaging the IDF here, because they do not want to risk harming the UNFIL contingent there, they have no wish to harm the Irish platoon stationed in the outpost, hardly the actions of terrorists in this instance is it? Israel however? You can hardly say the same and it’s not like there hasn’t already been ample proof of that over the last year.
The Irish stand of is an inconvenience, not just to Israel, but those determined to cover up for everything Israel does, even this, even now.
One nation which has never had any commitment to UNIFIL, because it is utterly devoted to Israel, is the US. There are no US troops in UNIFIL at all, never have been so it’s no surprise perhaps they haven’t uttered a peep to condemn Israel endangering the peacekeepers there, but boy has somebody voiced their opinion on these Irish troops from within the US administration.
Matthew Brodsky, perhaps unsurprisingly, worked for the Trump administration. According to his own biography:
‘He has briefed members of Congress, Department of State, Department of Defense, and the National Security Council on Iran, Syria, and Palestinian-Israeli issues. Brodsky assists the National Security Council and the State Department on policy and communications strategy to promote the Trump administration's foreign policy agenda.’
He now works for the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington based think tank essentially which provides solutions to global issues. Well, Brodsky’s now deleted tweet went viral for all the wrong reasons and if this is what the Gold Institute considers a practical solution to a global problem, then they’re a bit rubbish, because Brodsky tweeted out that Israel should:
‘Carpet bomb the Irish area & then drop napalm over it.’
Hezbollah are the ones we’re told are the terrorists right? That is screaming Israel supremacy if that’s an appropriate response, but given the American unwavering support for Israel, are we really surprised they’d pick Israel over the UN at this point? All they do at the UN is block any action being taken against Israel and now comments like this from a guy providing what he refers to as solutions and worked in government previously, well, this kind of attitude begs massive questions of the US agenda right now.
Big questions need asking of the Republican candidate hoping to take the Congressional Seat of Ilhan Omar in Minnesota as well, Dalia-Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi Muslim who fled the regime of Saddam Hussein, but who has Brodsky working for her right now as an adviser. If this kind of comment is what passes for being an expert on Middle Eastern politics in the US they’re in more trouble over there than I thought. Openly calling for murder and war crimes against irish peacekeepers. Where is the condemnation from Irish-American Genocide Joe? Brodsky still at time of writing hasn’t been sacked from anywhere by anyone that I’m aware of, thought the deleted tweet implies he’s either a coward who couldn’t take the justifiable backlash on social for such a disgusting viewpoint, or he’s had a warning from someone. Either way, it’s not enough.
I cannot express enough admiration for all the brave men and women who work for UNIFIL, but especially for those Irish ones in outpost UN-652 right now. Solidarity to them all.
Where Israel might think they are getting somewhere here despite Irish peacekeepers refusing to move, they’ve had an absolute mare elsewhere just trying to get over the border. If they thought they’d softened Lebanon and Hezbollah up with their air strikes and their pager attacks, they’ve been proven very wrong and had something of a pasting, which really does expose the inherent limitations of Israel’s forces, being spread too thinly and taking on stronger and stronger enemies. Get the details of their failures in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.