The Wall Street Journal editorial board has recently published an opinion piece on their website, detailing their issues with the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, with the flippant title ‘A U.N. Peacekeeper Is Hezbollah’s Best Friend’. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, better known by the acronym UNIFIL, has been in operation for almost half a century now, since 1978.
As the WSJ puts it, its primary goal is to ‘keep armed terrorists out of southern Lebanon, where they could shoot at Israel’. However, the authors argue that the mission has been achieving anything but that in recent years. As they point out, the Islamic terror group Hezbollah had no problem stockpiling weapons and building up infrastructure in the area where UNIFIL has been present. A tunnel dug by the terror group was found by IDF forces just 100 metres (110 yards) away from a UNIFIL outpost, the paper claims.
In October 2024, Israeli forces crossed the Lebanese border to go after Hezbollah operatives, since the terror group has been launching attacks from the neighbouring country since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, all under UNIFIL forces’ close watch. This is the first time Israeli forces have entered Lebanon since 2006.
‘For 11 months Hezbollah fired more than 8,500 rockets and missiles at Israel, mostly from southern Lebanon, under Unifil’s nose. The area, militia-free by order of the U.N. Security Council, was soon crawling with the world’s best-armed terrorists. But the peacekeepers said little and did less,’ the editorial board at The Wall Street Journal highlights.
‘The area in Lebanon, militia-free by order of the U.N. Security Council, was soon crawling with the world’s best-armed terrorists. But the peacekeepers said little and did less’
What’s worse, UNIFIL has even condemned Israel for endangering peacekeeping forces in the area, the opinion piece continues in indignation. The Israeli government has asked the UN forces to vacate the area and move north as the conflict was escalating, but they refused, since ‘There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the U.N. flag to still fly high in this region,’ as a spokesperson for the UN said.
In fact, some of the world’s leading nations, such as France, Spain, and Italy have joined in the condemnation of the Israeli Defence Forces after two UN peacekeepers were injured during the operation in Lebanon.
‘And where was this diplomatic energy when Hezbollah dominated the area, and used it to force the depopulation of Israel’s north? It was missing in action, like Unifil. That’s why Unifil grandstands, and leaves its peacekeepers in harm’s way, while Israel fights and does their job for them,’ The Wall Street Journal staff concludes
Hungarian Israeli security policy expert Robert C. Castel has also commented on the editorial, recalling his own experience with the Blue Helmets as a military liaison of the IDF in Lebanon. Castel noted on social media that the problem is not with the soldiers themselves who serve in UN peacekeeping forces but with the ‘biased and corrupt-to-the-core system that makes a mockery of their dedication’. The expert sarcastically remarked that the adjective ‘international’ with regard to peacekeeping forces has become synonymous with ‘kleptocrats who are not accountable to anyone’.
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