Tuesday, 05 December 2006
 

Once For Yea, Twice For Nay
Contributed by The Gray Dog

Some days I don’t know whether to commit suicide or go bowling.  I was somewhat disheartened weeks ago when Rummy resigned, but for some reason I’m taking the news about John Bolton a little harder. I really like JB. He’s a “take no prisoners” kind of guy that couldn’t be bullied by the third world thugs that overrun the U.N. and he certainly isn’t your typical smug, debate society type that shares “pinky up” High Tea with Kofi and the boys in between Security Council votes.  Nope, I rather fancy old John as my kind of guy; a fellow gray dog.  The President was behind him, and there were ways he could have remained on the job.  But for some inexplicable reason, JB wasn’t interested any longer.  That’s why I have decided to ask for your support in urging President Bush to nominate me, The Gray Dog, as John Bolton’s replacement for U.N. Ambassador.

Continue reading "Once For Yea, Twice For Nay"

Contributed by The Gray Dog on December 5, 2006 at 06:51 PM in Current Affairs, DisUnited Nations, The Gray Dog, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Saturday, 26 August 2006
 

UNIFIL spied for Hezbollah during war
Contributed by Bill Faith

What did you do in the war, UNIFIL?
You broadcast Israeli troop movements.

[Read on.]

DURING THE RECENT month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel, U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon.

UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.

Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah "fired rockets in large numbers from various locations" and Hezbollah's rockets "were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations" are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 26, 2006 at 08:03 PM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 25 August 2006
 

Kofi Annan's UN
Contributed by Bill Faith

Click the pics, bookmark the site. H/T: Kerry Leight.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 25, 2006 at 02:47 PM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 21 August 2006
 

If this is New York it must be 1939
Contributed by Bill Faith

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 21, 2006 at 11:30 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Israeli PM rejects UNIFIL troops
from countries without relations (Updated and bumped)
Contributed by Bill Faith

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not accept the presence of peacekeepers in Lebanon from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the state, officials said on Sunday.

The decision complicated efforts by the United Nations to form a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force to help enforce a truce that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hizbullah.

The decision was made at a meeting of Olmert's inner Security Cabinet, meeting participants said.

"We will not agree that countries which do not have relations with Israel will participate in the multinational force," Olmert was quoted as saying ....

[Read on. H/T: Dan Riehl]

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 206.08.20.15:58

Israel Rejects Peacekeepers Who Reject Israel

Israel has formally rejected the UN's plan to comprise its bolstered UNIFIL force with nations who do not recognize Israel. Ehud Olmert has warned Lebanon and the UN that it will not abide by 1701 if the UN stations hostile troops on its northern border:

ISRAEL said last night that it would veto the presence in Lebanon of peace-keeping forces from nations with which it does not have diplomatic links.

Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, ruled out countries that do not recognise Israel, complicating the already difficult task of assembling 15,000 troops to oversee the United Nations’ ceasefire resolution and bolster Lebanese forces.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh — Muslim states that do not have diplomatic links to Israel — are among the few countries that have offered troops for the stabilisation force that is expected to be led by European troops.

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 21, 2006 at 09:43 AM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Annan to give UNIFIL 'teeth'
Contributed by Bill Faith

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to recommend Monday that the rules of engagement of the enhanced UNIFIL force to be deployed in Lebanon include opening fire on Hizbullah where necessary, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

[...]

Israel has been pushing for the need for an effective force, arguing that one of the criteria would be the ability to open fire on Hizbullah if the force saw, for instance, Hizbullah launching rockets toward Israel. ...

[Read the whole thing. H/T: Ed Morrissey, who comments here.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 21, 2006 at 09:24 AM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Disproportionate Response II
Contributed by Bill Faith

[...]

From the Boston Herald: With doublespeaking France, honor gets lost in translation.

In recent weeks, France stepped forward to act as a broker of peace in Lebanon. “Act” is the key verb in that last sentence, as it now would seem that the only other verifiable part of the sentence is “in recent weeks.”

To correctly parse that sentence, one must understand that when France suggested it wanted to broker peace in Lebanon, it did not necessarily mean “broker” or “peace” or “Lebanon” in the way we might understand those words. The same is true when France further suggested it wanted to “lead” a “strong” “multinational” “force” there.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 21, 2006 at 01:02 AM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, France, Islamism Delenda Est, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 20 August 2006
 

Fuad And Kofi: Big Fans Of Newspeak
Contributed by Bill Faith

The war peace in Lebanon keeps getting stranger. Fuad Siniora and Kofi Annan seem intent on standing themselves on their heads rhetorically to ensure that they can blame Israel when Lebanon and Hezbollah violate the terms of the cease-fire. Although Lebanon has rejected the key component of UN Security Council 1701 -- the disarming of Hezbollah -- Annan made sure that he blamed Israel for violating the agreement to which Lebanon agreed:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced Saturday night that the raid in Baalbek constitutes a violation of the UN cease-fire resolution that went into effect on Monday.

A statement issued by Annan's spokesman said that the UN chief spoke with both Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Olmert about the fighting. "The secretary-general is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities," it said.

"All such violations of Security Council Resolution 1701 endanger the fragile calm that was reached after much negotiation," said the statement, issued by spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

That agreement died when the Siniora government and the UN itself refused to enforce the provisions of the agreement. ....

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 20, 2006 at 10:11 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
 

Israeli F-15s downed over Lebanon
Contributed by Bill Faith

Paris 14-09-2006.  Tragedy was narrowly averted hours ago when French Peacekeepers, operating in accordance with the provisions of U N Resolution 1799, which replaced Resolution 1701 after further discussions with Iran and Syria, put a quick end to renewed Israeli aggression.

The incident reportedly began when two civilian Lebanese youths inadvertently launched a homemade rocket that killed 23 Tel Aviv dwellers and injured a few dozen more. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, hot headed as ever, immediately ordered punitive airstrikes against the Lebanese populace. Disaster was averted when French Peacekeepers manning a freshly activated Iranian SAM site destroyed two Zionist aircraft enroute to carry out their grisly mission.

The fate of the Israeli pilots is currently unknown. Discussions of a prisoner swap are rumored.

Developing ...

***

LInking to the latest Beltway Traffic Jam

***

Of course, since Hezbollah's going to be disarmed, it can only happen if it's an accident by civilian youths, right?

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 15, 2006 at 10:13 AM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

U.N. Mulls Cease Fire in War on Terror Too
Contributed by Bill Faith

(2006-08-15) -- Now that President George Bush has declared Hezbollah defeated by its acceptance of the terms of a U.N. cease fire in Lebanon, the United States today will press the Security Council to grant it a similar 'victory' over al Qaeda.

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 15, 2006 at 09:45 AM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 14 August 2006
 

"Futility, Thy Name is Kofi"
Contributed by Bill Faith

Mary Katharine Ham:

[...]

One of my first reads this morning was the Washington Post, and I came across the perfect headline:

Cease-Fire Takes Effect; More Fighting Expected

Well, don't that just say it all? U.N. preens, furrows brow, accomplishes nothing, lives to blame Israel another day.

Here's the story, which includes a paragraph that seems a bit suspect after the fauxtography revelations of the past couple weeks:

Most of the Dahiya area has been evacuated during more than a month of repeated bombings of Hezbollah-connected office and residential buildings. But an Associated Press photographer reported that he saw rescuers pull the body of a child out of the wreckage, and local television reported that two civilians were killed. The exact number of dead and wounded was not known, police said, because Hezbollah activists were in charge of the area.

[Read the whole thing here.]

***

Israel-Lebanon Cease-Fire Goes into Effect
James Joyner

The UN-sponsored Israel-Lebanon cease-fire went into effect as scheduled at 8 a.m. local/ 1 a.m. EST. So far, both sides are complying with the terms.

Israel halted its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas as a U.N.-imposed cease-fire went into effect Monday after a month of warfare that killed more than 900 people, devastated much of south Lebanon and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. A half hour after the cease-fire took hold, Israeli warplanes — a regular fixture in Lebanese skies during the monthlong war — were absent across huge swaths of the country, including the Bekaa Valley, where airstrikes hit about an hour before.

[...]

And you just have to love the UN:

UN Security-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to the government over the weekend warning that if one side was fired upon, the other side should not respond except in immediate self-defense. A source in the Prime Minister’s Office called Annan’s letter unacceptable and said a team was working on a letter in response that would reiterate the IDF’s right to respond to Hizbullah if it broke the cease-fire.

[Read the whole thing here.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 14, 2006 at 09:16 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 13 August 2006
 

Remember, We Won The War
Contributed by Bill Faith

From the always excellent All Things Beautiful:

Eventually....

It just took us a lot longer and left millions more dead.

It started the Cold War, which, some 40 years later, we won too.

It paved the way for the Marshall Plan, which critically led to the transformation of an entirely new Europe in the form of the European Union (EU), made up of currently 25 independent states based on the European Economic Communities (EEC), practically without borders, complete with common currency, Central Bank and an European Parliament, which supervises the European Commission (EC). Simply unimaginable at the end of WWII.

It caused the Japanese to realize that US-pioneered capitalism was the way to go following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, giving us today the second largest, entirely peace-loving and democratic economy after our own.

Fast forward....

Only by looking at the bigger picture in this wider historical context am I able to fight the heavy heart with which I must accept that the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 has handed Hezbollah and its state sponsor Iran and Syria a "near-total victory". [you must read the entire piece by Caroline Glick, it's brilliant]

[...]

Only by contemplating our eventual resilience against state-sponsored evil, be it Communism or Islamofascism, am I able to maintain my sense of optimism and faith. ...

[Read on.]

Hat tip: Our very own John Werntz, who left this comment on Alexandra's post and copied it to the comments on our latest "Bark Back At Us":

"Sigh..." Me too. What else is there?  Even at the height of the Cold War, I never experienced the oppressive forebodence that grips me now.  To recall something akin, I have to go back to when I was a sprout in the late 30s.  In those days the League of Nations was merely futile.  Kofi Annan's UN is virulently toxic, an active force for evil.  Why don't we bring it down?  Some budget cuts, the issuance of a few thousand Persona Non Grata orders, and a judicious exercise of eminent domain would do the trick.  Pipe dream.

It appears I need to have a talk with John about hiding perfectly good blog posts away in the comments. I'm sure it's just a case of not realizing how good they are.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 13, 2006 at 03:39 PM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, Iran, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Shebaa Farms
Contributed by Bill Faith

Bruce Kesler at Democracy Project:

Most newsreaders don’t have a clue as to what is involved in the issue of Shebaa Farms. Clue: It’s not about Elsie the Cow. Second clue: It’s about Hezbollah and Lebanon as cat’s paws for Syria, and the U.N.’s virtue as transparent as a whore’s white wedding dress.

Eugene Kontorovich, who teaches international law as an assistant professor at George Mason University School of Law, and currently as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, explains:

No one in the international community believes Lebanon has a legitimate claim to the Sheba Farms, known to Israelis as Har Dov. It has never been within Lebanon's internationally recognized borders. It was under Syrian control until 1967, when Israel took it in the Six Day War. Israel entered southern Lebanon in 1982; when it withdrew in 2000, the Security Council certified that Israel no longer occupied a single inch of Lebanon. However, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah were not satisfied, raising what Secretary General Kofi Annan described as an entirely "new claim": that Sheba Farms was also Lebanese territory. After looking into the matter, Annan and the Security Council unanimously concluded that the area was not Lebanese and never had been.

[...]

[Read on.]

So why in Hell has the UN decided now that rightful ownership of the area is negotiable?

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 13, 2006 at 03:10 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 12 August 2006
 

Re: Re: Peace in our time.
Contributed by Bill Faith

Kudos on a very well reasoned and well written post, Mike, even if I'm not sure you've won me over yet. I guess there's still enough wolf in this ol' dog that my natural instincts say "When you have a foe by the throat never turn loose and give him another chance at yours." In the last few hours you, and Ed Morrissey and Dafydd ab Hugh, have posted some good arguments for doing that. I'm not ready to say you're right and the Power Line gang and I are wrong,  but I will go as far as admitting there are two sides to the argument and both sides have merit. Only time will tell, I think. If I had to place my bet right now I'd predict Hezbollah will agree to the terms of the UN resolution and then violate it within hours, after which the Israelis will finally give them both barrels like they should have to begin with. In the long run I think historians will look back some day and realize that Lebanon is to Iran and Syria today as Spain was to Germany and Italy 70 years ago. The big question in my mind at this point is whether it's going to take another Pearl Harbor for this country to wake up and start taking "that war over there" seriously.

***

What'd I say?:

Nasrallah Endorses Cease Fire ... Sort Of
Ed Morrissey

Hassan Nasrallah has made a less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of the UN Security Council cease-fire resolution, promising to argue for modifications in the Lebanese Cabinet meeting taking place in hours to formulate an answer to Turtle Bay. Nasrallah objects to the arms embargo placed on Hezbollah, and vows to continue his "jihadic" responsibilities towards Israel:

Hizbullah Leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that if a UN-endorsed agreement were reached that would end the hostilities, then his organization would abide by it.

[...]

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 12, 2006 at 11:42 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Iran, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Peace in our time -- Post 3
Contributed by Bill Faith

Continued from Peace in our time -- Post 2.

The lessons of Lebanon
Paul Mirengoff

At a certain age, people tend to stop learning from new events and begin seeing them solely as confirming beliefs and prejudices they already hold. This is true, for example, of the latest war in the Middle East. I see these events as confirmation of my views that Israeli territorial concessions are a bad idea and that the U.N. is a curse on the world. Leftists see the same events as confirmaation that war is not the answer or that Israel is on the same moral plane as Hezbollah, or whatever it is that leftists believe about such matters.

Against the odds, however, the current war in the Middle East has caused me to modify my thinking a bit. Specifically, it has made me more sympathetic to the views of the "to hell with them hawks" and/or the "endgame conservatives," and less a fan of the Bush administration's quest to promote democracy in the Middle East.

[Read the whole thing.]

***

A response to Captain Ed
Paul Mirengoff

Captain Ed finds my suggestion that "the Bush administration didn't want to take the heat for more fighting in Lebanon" to be "an unfair shot at the White House." Ed writes:

Bush and his team made sure that they would not allow the UN to win the war for Hezbollah, and this document at least shows that effort, regardless of its implementation. It's really not our job to hold umbrellas for Israel, and they certainly didn't show too much enthusiasm for fighting the kind of war the post suggests in any case.

Except for his final clause, I'm not sure I understand exactly what Ed is saying, but let me try to respond.

[Read on.]

A Response To Paul
Ed Morrissey

Paul Mirengoff, a true gentleman and a friend, responds to my criticism that he unfairly criticized George Bush for agreeing to the Security Council resolution, rightly noting that I did not explain myself in much detail. Paul politely restates his case and attempts to interpret my thin line of argument. In fairness, I'll provide a better explanation and hope that makes for a better argument.

The overriding question of how to end the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is to understand Israel's goals and realistic expectations of military action in Lebanon. ...

[Read on.]

Destined to Fail
John Hinderaker

I don't disagree with the harsh assessments Paul and Scott have already delivered on the U.N. resolution brokered by the administration yesterday, but let me just add a few words from a slightly different perspective. In reading the resolution, I'm reminded of the old joke about the economist's solution to the problem of how to get out of a hole: "First, assume a ladder."

[Read on.]

Economist? They taught me in General Engineering 100 it was a Mathematician. Nonetheless the argument has merit.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 12, 2006 at 09:50 AM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Peace in our time -- Post 2
Contributed by Bill Faith

Continued from Peace in our time. A Dog's gotta sleep sometimes; sometimes alarms get ignored and "catnaps" last longer than they were supposed to. A lot happened while I wasn't paying attention.

Got a trackback on that last post from "President Neville Chamberlain" at Too Cool for Words. It's a good post. Go there. I'll swipe some of his links later.

U.N. Security Council Passes Lebanon Ceasefire Resolution
By Chris Lawrence

A joint U.S.-French effort to pass a resolution calling for an end of hostilities in Lebanon was unanimously approved Friday by the U.N. Security Council:

The Security Council agreed unanimously on Friday on a measure calling for a full cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, deploying 30,000 Lebanese and United Nations forces in southern Lebanon and calling upon Israel to withdraw its forces “in parallel.”

After rejecting earlier versions, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel accepted the resolution. But, under a deal an Israeli official said was approved by the United States, Mr. Olmert will wait until Sunday to obtain his cabinet’s approval. Until then, he will expand his monthlong military campaign against the Hezbollah militia and its rocket arsenal.

[...]

[Read on.]

Alexandra von Maltzan: "To Be, Or To Cease Fire" That Is The Question (UPDATED) 

Incompetent Ehud Olmert?
David Bernstein

Word from Israel, from both the English-language media and my relatives there, is that folks are very unhappy with various aspects of the cease-fire deal that the U.N. Security Council has just passed, to wit (I haven't seen the final version of the resolution, but this is what I picked up from the media):

[Read on.]

Dafydd sees it differently:

Hey, Mulligan Man!

I was going to blog on the American-French ceasefire agreement offered for the Israel-Hezbollah war, but Captain Ed beat me to it; he is nothing if not prolific! In any event, I would have said more or less what he says here:

[...]

But allow me to go over this a little more thoroughly and show why Ed and I are right, and the boys at Power Line are wrong, wrong, wrong.

First, here is a summary of the main points of the agreement:

[Read the whole thing. Really. All of it.]

***

Ed Morrissey: Now It's Time To Play Beat The Clock

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 12, 2006 at 07:53 AM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 11 August 2006
 

Peace in our time (Updated and bumped)
Contributed by Bill Faith

Continued from Israeli troops expanding thrust into Lebanon (Updated and bumped)

No, no, no! God damn it, man, come to your senses before it's too late! Ariel Sharon would have been in Beirut by now, and probably Damascus. Get mad at them damned jihadis!

Breaking: Olmert accepts UN ceasefire deal
Allahpundit

And is urging the Israeli government to approve it. The ground invasion is still on, but perhaps only until the UN votes on a resolution tonight or tomorrow.

[Read on.]

***

The amateur hour continues
Paul Mirengoff

The Jerusalem Post reports that the U.S. and our partner the French have agreed upon a cease fire resolution. From what I can tell, the resolution is a bad joke. Apparently, the same U.N. clown force that has been doing nothing in south Lebanon will be deployed. Then, the job of defanging Hezbollah will be turned over to the Lebanese army, made up in part of Hezbollah sympathizers and in part of those with no stomach to take on Hezbollah, especially on Israel's behalf. Hezbollah will correctly viewed as the force that, for the first time in Lebanese history, prevented a meaningful Israeli advance. Thus, the prospects of it being truly defanged by the Lebanese would appear to be nil.

The JPost says there's a good chance that the wobbly Olmert government will accept this resolution. ...

[Read on.]

John Podhoretz is predicting the fall of the Olmert government if he goes along with this. I'd say he's earned it.

***

More Podhoretz here. The practical implications of this may not be as bad as they sound at first blush. Olmert still deserves to lose his job if he doesn't have balls enough to tell the UN to shove it.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 17:13

Rick Moran isn't any happier with the situation than I am. Ed Morrissey doesn't think it's quite that bad, but he's not totally thrilled with it either.

Dan Riehl: Bush Ensures Legacy Of Failure

Ace thinks Olmert's doing the right thing.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 11, 2006 at 07:15 PM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Israeli troops expanding thrust into Lebanon
(Updated and bumped)
Contributed by Bill Faith

UPDATE & BUMP: Olmert accepts UN ceasefire deal

***  ***  ***

 

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel began an expanded offensive into Lebanon Friday night, but authorities said it could be stopped if negotiations at the United Nations produce an acceptable cease-fire plan.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the offensive in the belief that a resolution under discussion at the U.N. did not satisfy Israeli security concerns, Olmert's spokesman, Asaf Shariv, told The Associated Press.

[Read on.]

***

UN-dermined: Olmert orders ground assault to push to the Litani
Allahpundit

For reasons explained here, I got a sick feeling this morning when I saw this headline. Looks like Olmert did too because he’s finally given the order for a massive ground invasion to push Hezbollah back past the Litani River and hold southern Lebanon until UN peacekeepers arrive.

Assuming they ever do.

Olmert’s under tremendous pressure from three sides right now: the UN, which essentially wants to restore the status quo ante; the Israeli public, whose morale is finally starting to cool; and the military, which has accused him of being too timid and too enamored of air power. In fact, the IDF’s been begging him to give this order for days:

[...]

[Read the whole thing. It's long, but worth it.]

Now'd be a good time to reread THE ISRAELI HESITATION WALTZ

***

Michelle: It's on?

***

Dan Riehl: Lebanon Baloney Sandwich, Hold The Fries, Lebanon Ground War On

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 12:58

Olmert accepts UN ceasefire deal   Peace in our time.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 11, 2006 at 04:44 PM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 04 August 2006
 

Who will protect the Israelis? (Updated, bumped)
Contributed by Bill Faith

There's Gotta Be Irony In Here Somewhere
Ed Morrissey

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has told an interviewer that he wants German troops in any international force protecting the Jewish state. I'm really not kidding:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would welcome German troops participating in an international force in southern Lebanon, according to a newspaper interview published Friday. ...

Olmert said he told Merkel that Israel has "absolutely no problem with German soldiers in southern Lebanon."

[...]

So now we have the spectacle of another genocidal nutcase threatening to kill off millions of Jews in the form of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the nation that will protect them will be the last nation with the same genocidal impulse, if Olmert gets his way. Not that the Germans still have that illness -- they lost it sometime during the Nuremberg trials, for the most part. However, the historical irony is too great to simply dismiss -- and some Israelis with living memory of the Holocaust may find the irony more than just a historical curiosity.

[Read on.]

Folks, the problem that's becoming more and more obvious as the days wear on is that no one who's qualified for the job is willing to staff an international peacekeeping force to stand between Israel and the jihadis. Israel would have to be nuts to accept a UN force comprised of Muslim troops. Reading farther into the Morrissey article you learn Germany is just one more country that could do the job well but doesn't want it. The French don't want it, and who in their right mind would trust the French anyway? Britain and the Commonwealth nations are "stretched too thin" already, as is the U.S. Japan's constitution forbids deploying armed troops on foreign soil? I've heard Brazil mentioned, but are they really up to the job militarily? I'll hazard a prediction at this point that whether we or they want the job or not, American and Australian troops are going to end up staffing a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah.

*** Update and bump

Allah has more here.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 4, 2006 at 05:14 PM in Bill Faith, Current Affairs, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 29 July 2006
 

"A Generation of Hatred"
Contributed by Bill Faith

More Moral Confusion at the UN
The Redhunter

Jan Egeland, the guy who called US aid to Indonesia "stingy" after last year's tsunami, is at it again. Now he says that Israel has "created a generation of hatred" with it's attack on Hezbollah (hat tip TigerHawk)

Talk about being born yesterday. The Arabs have hated Israel from day one. The never accepted that country's right to exist.

But what's most interesting is that he goes to great lengths to be evenhanded in the way he condems both Hezbollah and Israel

"The rockets have to stop. The terror has to stop. But please remember that for every civilian killed in Israel there are more than 10 killed in Lebanon. It has to stop on both sides." He charged that Israel had used "excessive" and "disproportionate" force in violation of international humanitarian law, and dismissed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's contention that proportionality is measured in relation to the threat posed by a force.

"You cannot invent new kinds of proportionalities. I've never heard that the threat is supposed to be proportional to the response," he said. "Proportionality is there in the law. The law has been made through generations of experience on the battlefield. If you kill more civilians than military personnel, one should not attack," he said.

[...]

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 29, 2006 at 07:37 AM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 28 July 2006
 

CQ: UN Acts Late In Removing Observers
Contributed by Bill Faith

The UN has finally started withdrawing its observers from the war zone in southern Lebanon, the AP reports this morning:

The United Nations has decided to remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday.

The decision came after one of the posts of the observer force, known as UNTSO, was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, killing four.

The press will no doubt spin this as the fault of the Israelis. However, the UN has known of Hezbollah's efforts to use the UNTSO bases as shields for their offensive operations for at least the last two weeks, if not longer. Their own report from July 20th, compiled by their own analysts, made this clear:

[...]

[Read on.]

Uncle Jimbo comments here.

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 28, 2006 at 10:14 AM in Bill Faith, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dafydd: Der Spiegel Und der Baradei
Contributed by Bill Faith

RealClearPolitics pointed to an interview in the German magazine Der Spiegel of Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Tom Bevan at RCP Blog noted rather cryptically that it was "a rather frightening interview."

Reading the interview itself removed all mystery. Here are some of the lowlights:

[...]

[Read it. It's an eye opener.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 28, 2006 at 08:49 AM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Israel Rejects UN-Led Force In Lebanon
Contributed by Bill Faith

Two good related items at Captain's Quarters:

UN Report Reveals Uselessness of UNIFIL

The United Nations quietly released a report on the UNIFIL mission on July 20th covering events since the beginning of the year in southern Lebanon. The report reveals the uselessness of the UNIFIL mission as the UN itself details how Hezbollah held control of the territory and how the UN stood by as the terrorists dug into their positions.

After a lengthy description of tit-for-tat provocations during the reporting period, the report describes the situation on the ground prior to the eruption of war earlier this month:

[...]

[Read on here.]

Israel Rejects UN-Led Force In Lebanon

Israel's outspoken ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, explicitly rejected the deployment of another United Nations-led force in southern Lebanon as part of any cease-fire initiative. Gillerman said that any force deployed to replace the Israelis would have to have more professional leadership than that offered by Turtle Bay:

Israel's U.N. ambassador on Thursday ruled out major U.N. involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation. ...

Gillerman was highly critical of the current U.N. peacekeeping force, deployed in a buffer Zone between Israel and Lebanon since 1978, saying its facilities had sometimes been used for cover by Hezbollah militants and that it had not done its job.

[...]

[Read on here.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 28, 2006 at 08:19 AM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 27 July 2006
 

Uncle J: Kofi Annan- Worst Public Official Ever
Contributed by Bill Faith

I once watched UN workers loot a warehouse full of relief supplies during our efforts to help people after a tropical cyclone that killed a quarter million people. They took all the valuable things, like batteries, and generators and sold them to a known black marketeer, who then resold them to the few live people in the area. This was almost four days into the effort and the first time a single UN functionary had made it to Bangladesh. Then they commandeered all the small planes and helicopters we had assembled to distribute the aid for use taking their clowns on aerial joyrides to assess the damage, something we had accomplished days before, prior to actually helping some people. Sadly this was not the only instance of UN malfeasance I saw. I hate the UN......period. I don't know if there has ever been an organization with loftier goals that has failed so badly that they are literally harmful wherever they go. I realize they have been responsible for immunizing quite a few children, but honestly when you look at the scope of their incompetence and the damage they have done in the name of good, they are a major net loss to the world.

[Do read the whole thing, won't you?]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 27, 2006 at 04:59 PM in Bill Faith, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CQ: "General MacKenzie Responds To Annan At G&M"
Contributed by Bill Faith

General Lewis MacKenzie told the CBC yesterday about communications from the Canadian soldier killed in the Israeli bombardment at their UNIFIL position, information that Kofi Annan could have used before leaping publicly to the conclusion that the IDF deliberately attacked the UN. Today he expands on his comments in the Globe & Mail in an article entitled, "Kofi's Rush To Judgement" (via Newsbeat1, one of the best aggregators in Canada):

The blast on Tuesday claimed the lives of Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian serving with the UN Truce Supervision Organization mission in southern Lebanon, and three other UN soldiers. On July 18, Major Hess-von Kruedener had sent a number of his colleagues, including regimental officers such as myself, an e-mail describing what the situation was like at his location since the Israeli attacks began against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"Based on the intensity and volatility of this current situation and the unpredictability of both sides (Hezbollah and Israel), and given the operational tempo of the Hezbollah and the IDF, we are not safe to venture out to conduct our normal patrol activities. We have now switched to Observation Post Duties and are observing any and all violations as they occur." ...

[...]

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 27, 2006 at 10:57 AM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MM: Contradicting Kofi
Contributed by Bill Faith

The NY Sun reports this morning that Kofi Annan's smear against Israel is threatening to "unravel:"

An apparent discrepancy in the portrayal of events surrounding the deaths of four unarmed U.N. observers in Lebanon threatens to unravel Secretary-General Annan's initial accusation that Israel "deliberately" targeted the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

[...]

LGF posts a CBC radio interview with retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie discussing the emails. He noted:

"What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that’s a favorite trick by people who don’t have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can’t be punished for it."

The full email from the deceased Canadian is at the CTV site.

Canadian PM Stephen Harper is not buying Kofi's krapola. Andrew Bolt at The Herald Sun takes a closer look at UNIFIL press releases to explain why the UN post was bombed. More journalists in the MSM should follow suit.

Gene at Harry's Place links to this story, which features the photo of the side-by-side U.N. and Hezbollah flags at the UNIFIL outpost that you won't see printed on the front page of the NYtimes. Let's see it again:

[image]

The story reports:

[...]

Indeed.

[Read the whole thing.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 27, 2006 at 06:04 AM in Bill Faith, DisUnited Nations, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 26 July 2006
 

Bryan Preston: Mourning Kofi
Contributed by Bill Faith

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is vexed. Yesterday, Israeli forces destroyed a UN outpost, killing four of its personnel. Annan quickly lashed out at Israel, claiming its forces deliberately targeted the outpost, and therefore murdered the UN peacekeepers inside. That’s a strong charge.

His evidence for the claim, made before any investigation is even possible, is that Israel was warned not to hit the site, and that precision strike bombs were apparently used. But again, there has been no investigation, and it’s not completely clear that it was Israeli forces that struck the site. That seems to be the case at this point, but it’s premature to state definitively that it is so, especially when Hezbollah has so much to gain by maneuvering in such a way to make such a strike happen. And Annan apparently hasn’t taken into account the very thing he rightly accused Hezbollah of doing a day before, namely “cowardly blending in” and around civilian and other sensitive positions to endanger them and bait Israel into striking them.

[Read on.]

Michelle has much more here.

Kofi's snap judgment
Ed Lasky

On what possible basis can Annan make this snap assertion? The Secretary General is now claiming that the unfortunate killing of UN personnel by the Israeli Defense Forces during its maneuvers against Hezbollah terrorists were the result of “deliberate” targeting. He has called for an inquiry into what he called Israel’s “apparently deliberate targeting ” of the UN observer force.

In the fog of war accidents inevitably happen and that Israel has already deeply apologized for this accident. Hezbollah has a tactic of locating its forces near UNIFIL and other UN outposts (as well as civilian outposts) to discourage Israeli attacks, since Israel, unlike Hezbollhah, tries to spare the lives of innocents.

Annan seems more exercised by this accident than the truly deliberate kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldiers and the indiscriminate mass rocket attacks Israel is  being forced to endure because the UN was pusillanimous in refusing to enforce its resolutions regarding terror forces in Southern Lebanon.

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 26, 2006 at 04:50 PM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 22 July 2006
 

UNuseful
Contributed by Bill Faith

Hezbollah’s UN Accomplices
(Blue Crab Boulevard)

The people who continue to insist that the UN is needed to help stabilize the situation in Lebanon really, really need to read this post by David Kopel over at the Volokh Conspiracy. I was not aware of a lot of these details. This is an extremely well researched and thoroughly documented indictment of the UN and it's "peacekeepers". And it will chill you.

UNIFIL's most notorious collaboration with terrorists involved the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers, and the subsequent cover-up.

On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah terrorists entered Israel, attacked three Israeli soldiers on Mount Dov, and abducted them Lebanon. The kidnapping was witnessed by several dozen UNIFIL soldiers who stood idle. ...

[...]

[Read on.]

Closely related: Jack Kelly: No peace through the U.N.

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 22, 2006 at 12:41 PM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est, UNuseful | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack