via memeorandum
Ha’aretz reports:
According to a government source in Jerusalem, the incident caused great embarrassment for UNIFIL. The source described the incident, explaining that UNIFIL troops on patrol discovered the truck and chased it down and pulled it over. When the UNIFIL troops approached the vehicle, the source said, armed Hezbollah men exited the truck and threatened the troops at gunpoint. The UNIFIL patrol then went back into their cars, according to the source, and returned to their base.The report submitted to the Security Council said the incident occurred on the night between the 30 and 31 of March. “This serious violation of the UN resolution raises concerns,” the report said.
While it doesn’t seem to be in response to the above incident, Israel Matzav notes that Arutz-7 is reporting that returning Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi wants to change the UNIFIL”s rules of engagement and Hezbollah is none too happy about the proposed changes.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced last week that he would be reviewing the rules of engagement for the 2,500 Italian soldiers serving in the UN force, saying the troops were being prevented from reacting to certain situations. “We pledge our support for the strengthening of democracy (in Lebanon),” he said, “but we want to look at the rules of engagement. Our soldiers find themselves in a unique situation…because they cannot react. We will re-examine the rules of engagement.”The Hizbullah-led opposition in Lebanon warned against amending UNIFIL’s rules of engagement, saying that it would change it into “occupation forces.” The use of that language is meant to signal that Hizbullah terrorists would begin targeting UN forces in attacks.
We already knew that Hezbollah was re-arming as expected.
I doubt that Berlusconi will be successful in changing the rules of engagement. The UN just does not have the political will to challenge Hezbollah.
More at the Jawa Report, Solomonia and LGF who explains the media’s missing this story with:
I think Britney Spears was doing something very important around that time.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
