Friday, August 6, 2010
Richard Landes has more from the scene of the clash: What the World Isn't Being Told about the Israeli-Lebanese Border Incident
...In an outdoor press conference held at a lookout point above the Lebanese border where the incident occurred, Ilan Diksteyn, the deputy commander of the Israeli brigade, explained what happened. The IDF had notified the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of its intentions and complied with multiple requests to delay a routine job that should have started early in the morning and didn't get going till midday.
According to Diksteyn, he had personally walked the border with the UNIFIL commander and identified all the trees and shrubs they intended to cut down, all approved of as being located on the Israeli side of the border by the UNIFIL commander. The key tree was some 200 meters from the Blue Line, so there was not the most remote possibility that Israel trespassed on Lebanese territory. The IDF even set out the crane without a man in it, just to demonstrate their intentions beforehand.
But no sooner did they put a man in the unit and lift him over the fence than a sniper shot and killed the commanding officer of the unit who was away from the border and observing from a distance. Despite claiming they fired first in the air, and that Israel initiated the hostilities, an LAF spokesman eventually asserted their right "to defend Lebanon's sovereignty."
The Israelis claim this was an ambush by units of the Lebanese Armed Forces. And as such, this was an unprecedented new level of aggression. Even the normally cautious UNIFIL, which the previous day had restricted itself to calling for calm and announcing its intention to investigate, eventually -- and exceptionally -- sided with Israel's claim that the tree was on their side of the border. Even the Lebanese admit they carried out an ambush...
And Caroline Glick asks a very important question: Are you aware that HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TAX-PAYER DOLLARS are going toward training armies that don't hide their goal of destroying Israel?
It wasn't a US Army sniper who killed IDF Lt. Col. Dov Harari and seriously wounded Capt. Ezra Lakia on Tuesday. But the Lebanese Armed Forces sniper who shot them owes a great deal to the generous support the LAF has received from America.
For the past five years, the LAF has been the second largest recipient of US military assistance per capita after Israel. A State Department press release from late 2008 noted that between 2006 and 2008, the LAF received ten million rounds of ammunition, Humvees, spare parts for Lebanese attack helicopters, vehicles for its internal security forces "and the same frontline weapons that US military troops are currently using, including assault rifles, automatic grenade launchers, advanced sniper systems, anti-tank weapons, and the most modern urban warfare bunker weapons."
Since 2006 the US has provided Lebanon some $500 million in military assistance. And there is no end in sight. After US President Barack Obama's meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in June, the White House proclaimed Obama's "determination to continue US efforts to support and strengthen Lebanese institutions such as the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Internal Security Forces."
And indeed, in late June, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates informed Congress that the Pentagon intends to provide the LAF with 24 120mm mortars, 24 M2 .50 caliber machine guns, one million rounds of ammunition, and 24 humvees and trailers. The latest orders should be delivered by the end of 2011...
Given the fact that this latest incident demonstrates the extent to which the LAF is increasingly intertwined with Hizballah, this military aid -- given to professionalize the Lebanese military precisely so it can stand up to Hizballah -- becomes increasingly problematic.
And at Fresno Zionism: Another kind of double standard
...this can't be allowed to just fade away. A man was murdered, a Jew was murdered because he was a Jew -- yes, that is the motivation here.
This isn't Hitler-era Germany. It's not acceptable to murder Jews to create diversions, or because you have an ideological commitment to a Jew-free dar al Islam, or just for the hell of it. That's why there is a Jewish state.
Someone bears the overall responsibility for this murder, and it's probably not the Lebanese soldiers who were killed when the IDF returned fire.
Perhaps some of the investigative resources being employed to track down the 'guilty' parties who executed Mahmoud Mabhouh in Dubai, a multiple murderer who was arranging for Iranian weapons to be shipped to Hamas when he was killed, could better be spent solving this crime? Possibly some of the indignation about the death of nine Turkish thugs who were trying (again) to murder Jews could better be applied here?
Update: Quite logically, Israel is asking for a court martial. At least, so says a Lebanese paper (so far): 'Israel demands LAF court-martial'
The Israeli government has requested that Lebanon court-martial the commander of the Lebanese unit that fired at IDF troops across the border in a deadly confrontation that occurred earlier in the week, Army Radio quoted from the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar on Friday.
According to the Lebanese paper, Israeli officials were supposed to have threatened to "take revenge" against the Lebanese commander for the death of Lt. Col. (res.) Dov Harari if Lebanon did not adequately resolve the issue. The report also said Israel threatened that if the issue was not handled satisfactorily the IDF would then view the Lebanese Armed Forces along the border as an enemy force and the IDF would respond to any future attacks with "an aggressive response without precedent."...
