Was UNIFIL the most "Irish" peace-keeping force ever?

[Aggie]

Let me say at the outset that I have known soldiers from this country, the US, Australia, the UK, Israel, and America, and I know first hand how most of them are ready to fight for their western civilisation, to defend our way of life, and defend our values, and are ready to sacrifice their own lives in that defense.

But let's be honest. UNIFIL was entrusted with overseeing Hezbollah’s disarmament and withdrawal from southern Lebanon. In particular preventing Hezbollah militarising south of the Litani River as per resolution 1701.

Instead, the opposite happened. I.e. Hezbollah with the help of its Islamic Republic patrons, methodically built up a massive network of tunnels, arms and attack infrastructure inside UNIFIL’s area of responsibility in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL turned a blind eye to these violations of UN resolutions. And we saw later IDF ground raids in southern Lebanon expose the scale of Hezbollah's entrenchment around UNIFIL’s bases.

E.g. They uncovered six massive attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel—right under UNIFIL’s nose, designed to facilitate an Oct. 7-style attack. One of these was found almost right next to a Unifil “observation” post. Journalists on the ground in southern Lebanon even documented this historic scandal.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/time-to-shu ... n-7075a0ff

However even after this was exposed UNIFIL insisted on remaining in position and refused calls to temporarily evacuate their posts as the fighting intensified.

We even witnessed disgraceful Irish ideologues like Michael D Higgins and others insist they stay on the ground to try and hinder Israeli forces.

The UN also had it demonstrated to them that this was a flagrant violation of UNSC Resolution 1701 & international law. But the UN also insisted on doing absolutely nothing about it.

So on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel, Hezbollah began attacking Israel’s north. They mobilised the arms they had built up over 17 years under UNIFIL's watch & began firing thousands of missiles at Israel.

They even fired many of these rockets from launch sites located right next to UNIFIL bases in southern Lebanon.

And UNIFIL simply let Hezbollah attack Israeli civilians from next to their outposts. Hezbollah even fired rockets toward Israel that fell short and hit UNIFIL bases in Lebanon, injuring UNIFIL personnel. Absurdly, UNIFIL would not even name Hezbollah in their press statements about this, instead referring to the culprit as an “armed element".

Of course no one wants to see UNIFiL peacekeepers killed.

But yet again, just as in the Gaza war, if those motivated by a base anti-Israel agenda and their pathological need to demonise Israelis, insist on advancing antisemitic fantasies in positing cause and effect, clearly more people will be killed.

I.e. The same vicious circle as we saw in Gaza, with the same base element at its centre, the same element that so many posters on here partake in with something approaching glee at any Israeli misfortune their rhetoric plays a role in.

[AnFearRéabhlóideach]

Gas timing this isn't it Aggie? I wonder what inspired you to start this delightful thread today? I'll just leave this here post mostly verbatim from our fun times over on the Iran war thread. Just want to get the thing going.

Many of the violent deaths of Irish soldiers on the UNIFIL mission occurred due to attacks by the so-called South Lebanese army. It was a Christian Lebanese militia backed by the Zionists during the long and brutal Lebane

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