UN Business as Usual--UNIFIL Threatens to Shoot Down Israeli Jets While Allowing Hezbollah to Rearm

When Israel accepted the ceasefire and the UNIFIL "peacekeeping force" called for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706, the skeptics said that the UNIFIL force would do nothing to disarm Hezbollah or prevent its re-armament by Syria and Iran. Unlike past UN peacekeeping forces, Resolution 1706 authorizes the UNIFIL force to "take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council ... ." Advocates of the ceasefire argued that this provision would allow UNIFIL to use force to disarm Hezbollah. Skeptics responded that UNIFIL would do no such thing; rather, as has been the case with prior UN peacekeeping forces on the Lebanonese-Israeli border, UNIFIL would provide a shield for Hezbollah to re-occupy its military positions, and if the UNIFIL troops used force, it would be against Israel.

As Dry Bones illustrates in the two cartoons republished above and below, it appears that the skeptics were right, as usual. First, as reported here in the International Herald Tribune, the French (who else?) Defense Minister announced that Israel continuing overflights of Lebanon represent a "grave violation" of Resolution 1706 (apparently unlike the rearming and refortification of Hezbollah). (The reader may judge for himself whether that is the case by reading the text of Resolution 1706 here.) The commander of French troops in Lebanon allowed as how his forces might have to use their anti-aircraft weapons to shoot down an Israeli plane. Then came the recent encounter of Israeli fighters with a German ship and helicopter, which fortunately ended without any casualties.

One more step toward the War of Gog and Magog, when God "will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle?" [Zechariah 14:2.] Please note that although God arranges for the gathering of nations, He fights for the other side. Guess who wins.