Hezbollah erects large photograph of two kidnapped IDF soldiers

[Shaktimaan]

Hezbollah militants erected a large photograph on Thursday of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in an area along Lebanon's border with Israel.

Lebanese security sources said the three-by-five meter photograph showing Goldwasser and Regev had been put up in Aita Al-Shaab, near where they were seized on July 12, 2006.

Hezbollah supporters looked on, chanting anti-Israel slogans, while the poster bearing the slogan "for the sake of our detainees" and a yellow Hezbollah flag, was being erected.

A United Nations peacekeeping patrol monitored the event in the area, which is heavily monitored by IDF patrols across the border.



http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/852773.html

[Shaktimaan]

1. My favorite part

is how the UN "monitored" the event, the event itself being a violation of the Geneva Conventions of course.

[Kagemusha]

3. People expected the UN to act like SEaL's somehow.

It's the favorite part of a lot of people. Somehow all context is forgotten forever and everyone sees UN people as expendable nobodies who should all perish in suicide missions to enforce any violation of the Geneva Conventions or else what are they good for? Their lives are nothing on their own, so why should they act in a manner to preserve themselves rather than heroically die against guerilla forces?

But no, that just wouldn't make any sense.

[henank]

4. You're quite right

But in that case, what is the point of UN peacekeeper forces at all? If they have to form a buffer between hostile forces they are going to come under fire from one or the other side, or get caught in the crossfire.

Yet without the UN peacekeepers, who will keep the peace? It's a conundrum.

[Kagemusha]

5. Yes, they get shot at by both sides all the time.

So the conclusion that I know many others support, is, their lives are worthless, so they should be Suicide Squad crazies who are willing to get slaughtered by ATTACKING one or both sides and being attacked back far more ferociously and slaughtered like pigs.

[Shaktimaan]

6. I can't say I've ever heard

anyone voice support for the UN troops willingly throw themselves into certain death scenarios in order to fight to the very last man in defense of the Geneva Conventions. The point I was making was not to suggest that they do anything resembling what you describe (which is not exactly what is expected of them anyway you know) but that they do SOMETHING, ANYTHING.

Now if it is beyond reasonable expectations to ask them to engage or police anyone then the matter should be addressed and other actions taken to ensure that their mission is carried out. The UN troops are notoriously inept, not because they are unfit soldiers but because no country ever wants to ask their citizens to die for a cause that is not their own, defending a foreign nation or policing countries that pose no threat to their own. Likewise no one wants to risk their life for the UN. And I can't say I blame them.

But to then deploy this impotent force with the declaration that they will assume responsibility for peace in the region the UN makes a mockery of the cease-fire it issued and reveals its own irrelevancy in solving conflicts. It is very easy for the UN to criticize Israel for their heavy handed approach towards dismantling Hezbollah. But once their role expands beyond just issuing resolutions to include enforcing them they are suddenly forced to confront the same sticky problems the IDF does in southern Lebanon. The key difference being that the UN has the luxury of not doing their job, of not forcing Hezbollah to disarm or even from rearming. However I would suggest that they not stay there if it is only to pay lip service to their mission. Because while a veneer of legitimacy may satisfy the UN, Israel will have to bear the practical consequences of their inability to enforce their resolutions. I find it hypocritical of the UN to insist on taking sole responsibility for what basically amounts to Israel's security unless they plan on fulfilling it.

Why are they there otherwise?

[Kagemusha]

7. Let me lay it out very slowly.

The US does not want UN forces to be armed and equipped for doing robust military actions, else the US would be forced to pay for them.

The UN forcing Hezbollah to disarm would require the UN to wage a vast anti-insurgency campaign similar to what NATO is doing in Afghanistan and what the US is doing in Iraq. No one authorized the UN forces to do this. Not even the US.

Forcing the UN to confront the same sticky problems the IDF does with a tiny fraction of the manpower, political and financial backing, and raw firepower, and grandstanding and saying the UN ought to be single-handedly defending Israel against all its enemies because that's the UN's job...

It screams of The Charge of the Light Brigade. It all comes down to the lives of UN troops being garbage to the point that if they're not dying for the safety and security of Israel, they might as well employ their service pistols upon their own brains. That, at least, is an action they can conduct that has a high percentage success rate.

And you wonder that I have heard voices support the certain death scenarios!? Look, if that's the UN's job, finance, arm and equip and train them for it first. Otherwise the only thing being asked of them is to be good cannon fodder and merry corpses.

[Shaktimaan]

8. By all means, go as slow as you like.

I'll just correct you quickly though if you don't mind me going fast.

The US does not want UN forces to be armed and equipped for doing robust military actions, else the US would be forced to pay for them.

Then why did they vote in favor of it?


The UN forcing Hezbollah to disarm would require the UN to wage a vast anti-insurgency campaign similar to what NATO is doing in Afghanistan and what the US is doing in Iraq. No one authorized the UN forces to do this. Not even the US.

Then what's this?


in part...
SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR END TO HOSTILITIES BETWEEN HIZBOLLAH, ISRAEL, UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTING RESOLUTION 1701 (2006)
Permanent Ceasefire to Be Based on Creation Of Buffer Zone Free of Armed Personnel Other than UN, Lebanese Forces

...full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State;
-----
11. Decides, in order to supplement and enhance the force in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operations, to authorize an increase in the force strength of UNIFIL to a maximum of 15,000 troops, and that the force shall, in addition to carrying out its mandate under resolutions 425 and 426 (1978):

(a) Monitor the cessation of hostilities;

(b) Accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the South, including along the Blue Line, as Israel withdraws its armed forces from Lebanon as provided in paragraph 2;

(c) Coordinate its activities related to paragraph 11 (b) with the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel;

(d) Extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons;

(e) Assist the Lebanese armed forces in taking steps towards the establishment of the area as referred to in paragraph 8;

(f) Assist the Government of Lebanon, at its request, to implement paragraph 14;
-----
14. Calls upon the Government of Lebanon to secure its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel and requests UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11 to assist the Government of Lebanon at its request


http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2006/sc8808.doc.htm


saying the UN ought to be single-handedly defending Israel against all its enemies because that's the UN's job...

Well, it WAS the UN's idea after all.


Look, if that's the UN's job, finance, arm and equip and train them for it first.

No one disagrees. That's why they did exactly that.

It is to be reinforced with up to 15,000 personnel and a tougher UN mandate under a UN resolution to halt the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, and operate alongside the Lebanese Armed Forces. The new resolution states that UNIFIL can “take all the necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces, and as it deems with its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilised for hostile activities of any kind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Interim_Force_in_Lebanon#_note-1

[Kagemusha]

9. In plain English, those forces aren't enough.

Now if you want to grandstand and not care, be my guest, but I point to my suicidal charge of the light brigade scenario. You claim not to support that. The remainder of your words most definitely do support that.

That and, you don't seem to have ever heard of hypocrisy in US foreign policy. I'm not going to try to burst your bubble any further. Have a nice life.

[bemildred]

10. They have three functions:

1.) They are observers, a third party who can arbitrate with some credibility the competing lies of the two combatant parties.

2.) They are a "speed bump", they make the situation such that either combatant party would lose some element of surprise and annoy a lot of other countries if they were to attempt anything stupid and aggressive.

3.) They are a political fig leaf used to instigate what passes for "peace" there without anybody having to admit they have had enough for the moment (that is that they need to resupply, reload etc.).

They are in no sense an effective military force, nor are they intended to be, as the language of the resolution clearly shows.

[MADem]

2. The photos--it's not really clear--are they "in captivity" photos?

Ya Libnan had a slightly better pic--

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/04/lebanons_hezbol_7.php

and they answered my question--they're OLD pictures, prior to captivity. I think they're dead, myself.

The photograph was a montage of old pictures already circulated in Israel of the two men in civilian clothes before their capture in the deadly July 12, 2006, raid that triggered a 34-day Israeli war on Hezbollah in Lebanon.