How UNIFIL became Hezbollah's human shield

"Over the past week, the confrontation between Israel and UNIFIL – the United Nations peacekeeping force stationed in southern Lebanon – has become inevitable. If not on the ground, then certainly in rhetorical and diplomatic exchanges. Once again, Israel finds itself ensnared in a familiar conflict with an odd UN entity, whose real role has always been somewhat unclear.

UNIFIL was deployed to southern Lebanon in 1978, following UN Security Council Resolution 425 after Operation Litani. Israel hoped that the force would hinder terrorist attacks on its northern border. Did that happen? Absolutely not. The terrorist organizations were unimpressed by the blue helmets. Their attacks on Israel escalated, their boldness grew, and their weaponry became so advanced that Israel was forced to launch Operation Peace for Galilee, which turned into the First Lebanon War...

Following the Second Lebanon War, Israel's government demanded two things it believed would make UNIFIL more effective in preventing Hezbollah from growing and threatening Israel: expanding the force's mandate to include authority to act against terrorists and incorporating soldiers from Western countries.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed after the Second Lebanon War, seemed to address Israel's two demands. On the one hand, UNIFIL soldiers were authorized to arrest armed Hezbollah militants if they threatened the force or engaged in terrorist activities south of the Litani River. On the other hand, friendly Italy was put in charge of the force, and French soldiers were added...

During the 18 years of UNIFIL's ‘new’ operations, Hezbollah has only strengthened its grip on southern Lebanon, both in quantity and quality. In recent weeks, IDF soldiers have been uncovering and destroying terror bases built under UNIFIL's nose, in clear violation of its mandate...

A comprehensive study by Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President of Human Rights Voices Anne Bayefsky, recently published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, reveals that the UN and its institutions follow a tested and proven method of reversing reality: excusing, justifying, and blaming the victim. This approach was in full force after October 7. Initially, in the wake of the massacre, senior UN officials – from Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, to UN representatives on health issues – sought to downplay Hamas's actions.

Next, they sought to justify them, expressing sympathy for the attackers and portraying their actions as merely a Palestinian response to Israeli deeds. From there, it was a short leap to blaming Israel itself for the massacre of its own citizens, from babies to the elderly. This inversion of reality was completed in just a few days. As Albanese shamelessly declared on February 7, 2024: ‘The victims of October 7 were not killed because they were Jewish, but in response to Israeli oppression.’

This same approach is found throughout all UN agencies and actions, including with UNIFIL. Hezbollah's violations are concealed, justified, and rationalized, while Israel is blamed for the terrorist group's actions against it in territory supposedly overseen by UN soldiers....

Bayefsky told Israel Hayom the following:

‘The United Nations operates as the political arm of the states and terrorist organizations that don't recognize Israel's right to exist and are committed to genocide against the Jewish people. The majority of UN member states are not free democracies. The top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, has members which are among the world's worst human rights abusers. Nothing gets done at the Security Council without the approval of the Russians and the Chinese who each hold a veto. The UN has no definition of terrorism because Islamic states have a treaty that says killing Jews aka 'occupiers' of Arab–claimed land is not terrorism. The UN building hosts a permanent 'Palestine' exhibit – disputing the legitimacy of the partition resolution of 1947 (agreeing to a Jewish and an Arab state) – beside a Holocaust exhibit. Every visiting member of the public and student group is told, in effect, that Israelis are like Nazis.

‘So where does this all leave Israel? Despite the mountains of evidence – including from the murderers, torturers and rapists themselves – the UN Security Council has never condemned Hamas for October 7th or for anything at all. The same goes for the General Assembly and Human Rights Council. The Security Council – the UN body with a job description to maintain international peace and security – has never even condemned October 7th. UN women's rights authorities ignored and even questioned the veracity of the atrocities Palestinian terrorists perpetrated against Israeli women and girls. Me–too–unless–you're–a–Jew was sickeningly dead on.

‘The UN's top official, Secretary–General Antonio Guterres, said on October 9, 2023 that October 7th didn't happen in a vacuum and proceeded to try to hand mass murderers a political win while mutilated Jewish bodies were still in unidentifiable piles. Israel gave the world incontrovertible proof of UN involvement in October 7th and the Gaza war ever since: UN employees who participated in the butchery, UN facilities doubling as munitions depots and terrorist staging grounds, UN agencies contributing to human shielding by impairing civilian evacuations, UN agencies disseminating false information on casualties and facts.

‘Whether operating in Lebanon, Jerusalem, Gaza or the West Bank/Judea & Samaria, UN agencies dance to the same drummer. No doubt they have soothing names, like 'peacekeepers.' In practice, it is an absurdity to call UNIFIL members 'peacekeepers' when their de facto role for decades has been to operate as Hezbollah enablers, a job description to stand down and watch terrorists rearm and reorganize to kill Jews.

‘Today, as long as UNIFIL deliberately remains in harm's way, having been duly warned, their members aren't even unfortunate human shields. They are shielding Hezbollah on purpose. As long as their UN bosses like the Secretary–General and the Security Council insist that they serve as cannon fodder for a terrorist organization openly dedicated to the violation of the right to life of the civilians in a neighboring state – then blame for UN casualties lies not only with the terrorists operating among them, but with the UN itself.

‘Perhaps what is most important at this moment in time is to recognize the role being played by the Biden–Harris administration. The Biden–Harris team is using the United Nations as a weapon, as a sword of Damocles hanging over Israel's head. They dangle the specter of withholding a veto from an anti–Israel Security Council attack – just as their Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, did. For almost four years, the Biden–Harris foreign policy has been to legitimize UN bodies, including UNRWA and the Human Rights Council, thereby undermining any prospect of accountability for shameful UN bias and antisemitism. Biden–Harris officials produce throw–away lines on 'reform' and 'change,' while throwing hundreds of millions of dollars on the unreformed and unchanged. At least until the American election, the ball is really in Israel's court. If I am not for myself, who will be for me?’"