The proxy war between Iran and Israel, and the war that never stopped, between Israel and Syria, continues. The IDF says that Iran and Syria told Hezbullah to light up northern Israel.
Syria and Iran instigated the latest flare-up by Hizbullah along the northern border to stave off international pressure on Damascus and Tehran, IDF Intelligence Chief Aharon Zeevi Farkash told the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday.
Farkash noted that both Syria and Iran have an interest in heating up Israel’s northern border, with Damascus on the spot, as the final Northern Border report of a United Nations probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is due in December and Tehran narrowly escaping referral to the Security Council over its nuclear activities.
“Hizbullah planned the latest flare-up in the north. It is a strategic plan. They hoped we would hit civilians in order to fire Katyusha rockets and they prepared themselves for the scenario along the border,†Farkash said.
He added that the IDF had intelligence tips about the Shiite group’s plans and prepared an ambush in the borderline village of Ghajar where a Hizbullah elite unit tried to kidnap soldiers last week.
“In the last confrontation, Hizbullah fired 330 shells at 25 IDF posts along the northern section. It is certainly a plan to kidnap soldiers,†Farkash said.
By the way, there’s a UN organization that monitors the border between Israel and Lebanon. It’s called UNIFIL, and its budget for FY2005 is $99.23 million. Its mission:
- Confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon;
- Restore international peace and security;
- Assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.
It has done none of these three things in its entire 27-year history.
The fact that the UN actually–though mildly–condemned Hezbullah this time is basically meaningless. The real perpetrators of the violence–and the world knows this–are Iran and Syria, who hold the purse strings, ideology, and keys to Hezbullah.
To condemn Hezbullah without condemning its puppet masters is a waste of breath. When the UN punishes Syria and Iran for supporting terrorism throughout the Middle East, then I will consider something to have been done.
As for UNIFIL: What is the purpose of a supposed peacekeeping force that stands by and videotapes Israeli soldiers being kidnapped, then denies that such a tape existed, then refuses to turn over the tape to Israel so she can try to find her kidnapped soldiers?
UNIFIL isn’t a peacekeeping force. It’s a hinder-Israel force. Just as the UN peacekeepers moved aside when Nasser told them he was going to run over them on his way into Israel, these tin soldiers stand and allow Hezbullah to run the show.
And it costs member nations (mostly the U.S. and Japan) nearly $100 million dollars a year for them to do nothing.
Nice work, if you can get it.
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