After Israel pursued PLO terrorists into Lebanon in 1978, the UN created the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to monitor Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and assure that the PLO wouldn't attack Israel again. So UNIFIL set up camp on the Israeli-Lebanese border to watch.
And watch they did.
But watching didn't prevent the PLO from launching artillary attacks into Israel in 1982. Because of this (combined with attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador in the UK by Fatah) Israel invaded southern Lebanon and engaged PLO, Syrian, and Muslim Lebanese troops. They continued to occupy souhthern Lebanon up until 2000 when they withdrew.
UNIFIL continued to watch.
And file reports.
You can read some of them here.
Soon after the Israeli pullout in 2000, UNIFIL filed a report saying
Five serious breaches of the Blue Line occurred in the so-called "Shab'a farms" area, in the foothills of Jabal ash-Sheikh (Mount Hermon) south-east of Kafr Shuba. In addition to the attacks on 7 and 20 October, which I detailed in my interim report, Hizbollah launched two attacks across the Blue Line at Israeli targets in that area. On 16 November, Hizbollah detonated several roadside bombs in an attack on an Israel Defence Forces convoy, injuring two Israeli soldiers. On 26 November, another roadside bomb killed an Israeli soldier and injured two others. In retaliation, the Israel Defence Forces fired artillery and dropped two bombs north of the Blue Line. On 3 January, an unidentified group fired 35 mortar rounds from south of Kafr Shuba at an Israeli position across the line. The Israeli forces responded with artillery and small-arms fire. Israeli violations of Lebanese air space, which had resumed after Hizbollah's attack on 7 October, continued on an almost daily basis.
The grave incident that took place on 9 January occurred when a Hizbollah roadside explosive device was detonated as an IDF convoy was passing on patrol one kilometre south of the Blue Line in the Shab'a farms area. The first vehicle in the convoy was hit and an IDF soldier was killed and three others wounded. Several minutes later, two United Nations military observers and one Lebanese interpreter from Observer Group Lebanon, on patrol north of the Blue Line in the same vicinity, came under IDF tank and machine gun fire. One United Nations observer, a French national, was killed and another, a Swedish national, was injured. The observers were on foot and wearing the United Nations insignia and blue berets....
Following those events, on 17 January another Hizbollah roadside bomb exploded on the Israeli side of the Blue Line and damaged an IDF demining vehicle sent to clear any remaining explosive devices in the same area of the Shab'a farms....
Earlier in the reporting period, perpetrators yet to be apprehended though generally believed to be Palestinian militants fired rockets on three separate occasions. On 9 October one rocket was fired from near Yarun in the general direction of Israel. The rocket malfunctioned and landed on the Lebanese side of the Blue Line. On 28 October a rocket was fired from the general area of Alma Ash Shab, which did cross the line. It landed in Israeli territory in an open field in the vicinity of Shlomi. On 15 November another rocket fired from Lebanon crossed the line and again landed near Shlomi.
On 12 July, three Hizbollah fighters crawled within 10 metres of the barbed wire around the technical fence near United Nations position 1-32A, south of Naqoura, and fired four AK-47 rounds at an IDF position. IDF soldiers did not respond to the firing. Later that day, several Israeli aircraft violated Lebanese air space
So terrorists came within 10 meters of the UNIFIL compound and they watched as the terrorists shot as Israelis...And did nothing to stop it.
on 11 May, a Katyusha rocket, fired by unidentified armed elements from the vicinity of Naqoura in Lebanon, landed in the Israeli town of Shelomi. Although there was property damage, there was no reaction from IDF. The following day, IDF claimed that Hizbollah launched two missiles from the vicinity of Ghajar into the Shab'a farms, but no impact was reported by UNIFIL. While UNIFIL was unable to verify this claim, local residents reported hearing explosions. Subsequently, on 13 May, IDF and Hizbollah exchanged fire. UNIFIL first recorded small arms fire from the vicinity of an IDF position in the Shab'a farms area. Local Lebanese residents claimed that a house in Kafr Shuba was hit. Several loud explosions followed near IDF positions in the area. Hizbollah claimed responsibility for an attack, stating that it came in retaliation for IDF machine gun fire into Kafr Shuba that morning and for the firing of the shell by IDF on 9 May. Subsequently, IDF launched tank and artillery rounds, six aerial bombs and several rockets into a broad swathe of Lebanese territory from Kafr Kila to Shab'a. At the same time, there was an exchange of fire between IDF and Hizbollah in the general area south of Rmaich. Lastly, on 21 May, IDF opened small arms fire to ward off Lebanese shepherds who violated the Blue Line in the Shab'a farms area. Local residents reported that three houses in Shab'a village had been hit. Subsequently, Hizbollah fired several artillery and mortar rounds towards IDF positions in the area, stating that this was in retaliation for the IDF fire on Shab'a village. IDF responded with artillery, tank and mortar fire, with rounds impacting in the area between Ghajar and Kafr Shuba. No casualties were reported in these incidents....
on 4 March, of two Katyusha rockets in the general area of Markaba. The rockets were located about one and a half kilometres from the Blue Line, ready to be fired and aimed in the direction of Israeli territory. At the request of UNIFIL, the Lebanese security forces defused and removed the rockets. In another instance, Lebanese security forces reported that they discovered and removed a Katyusha rocket near Addaisseh village on 4 June. The rocket was reportedly set in a firing position and was located about two kilometres from the Blue Line.
UNIFIL has been on scene in Southern Lebanon for years, watching the frequent incursions by anti-Israeli forces and reporting on it. They have been on-scene while Hezballah built up their arsenal of Katyusha rockets, Fajr-3 and -5 missiles and built underground bunkers.
UNIFIL has seen it all and did nothing. This despite the UN Security Council passage of Resolution 1559 which calls for the disarming of Hezbollah. UNIFIL watched hezballah violate the resolution each and every day since its passage.
When the time comes for a peacekeeping force to take the place of combatants, it is clear that the UN will not be able to fulfil this role. A peacekeeping force sometimes has to shoot people, or at least at people, to keep the peace. Simply observing and reporting is not enough.
NATO would be a good solution. Of course, France opposes this
French President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday that NATO should not lead a proposed international force in Lebanon, saying the alliance is seen in the region as "the armed wing of the West."
Um, the armed wing is the one required. Quite obviously the unarmed wing was useless.
If the world really wants peace in the Middle East, a good place to start is with an armed peacekeeping force that has a license to kill violators of whatever peace agreement is decided upon.
And it couldn't hurt to put them in Palestine as well.
UPDATE: Wretchard has more along these lines. Much more
