Hezbollah in southern Lebanon has assaulted Israel with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles for over a year, forcing over 60,000 northern Israeli residents to flee their homes. Although Israel has been responding with airstrikes against Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and command centers, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ground forces entered southern Lebanon at the end of September in a campaign to disarm the terrorist group and cripple their offensive capabilities. The United Nations and European officials decried Israeli boots on the ground in Lebanon as a violation of international law. But, in less than two months, the IDF uncovered Hezbollah tunnels, military training centers, arms depots, and rocket launch sites all within meters of U.N. facilities. What is UNIFIL? The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created in 1978 to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon after the IDF’s weeklong Operation Litani. The U.N. expanded its forces mandate in 2004 with the Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for disbanding “all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.” Following the Second Lebanese War in 2006, Resolution 1701 permitted the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to be the only armed group in southern Lebanon. These resolutions call for the 10,000 members of UNIFIL and the LAF to actively prohibit militias, such as Hezbollah, from arming and operating between the Litani River and the “Blue Line” border between Lebanon and Israel. In light of Hezbollah’s yearlong display of powerful aggression, it’s evident that UNIFIL and the LAF have utterly failed. Not only had UNIFIL been sleeping on the job, but recent evidence suggests they may have been in bed with the enemy. UNIFIL’s failure to uphold the mandate throughout the early 2000s allowed Iran to strengthen Hezbollah as the region’s hegemonic force. Under Hassan Nasrallah — the Hezbollah leader killed by IDF airstrikes this past September — the terrorist group established full military occupation between the Litani River and Israel’s border with over 20,000 active militants. This illegal occupation facilitated overland shipment of rockets and missiles from Iran via Syria and Iraq, allowed the unhindered positioning of rocket launchers along Israel’s border, and generated stockpiles of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles under cover of civilian residential neighborhoods. UNIFIL ignored these violations of international law and, under intimidation, allowed the Iranian proxy to dictate when and where the U.N. could patrol in southern Lebanon and what was off-limits for inspection. With its hands fully tied, UNIFIL shifted its objective to providing humanitarian aid to the southern Lebanese people. Israel’s current ground operation to disarm Hezbollah, therefore, enforces the U.N. resolutions that UNIFIL abandoned. Recent discoveries by the IDF also question whether it was UNIFIL’s complacency that allowed Hezbollah to prosper — or its compliance. Is UNIFIL complacent or complicit in attacks on Israel? Last week, on Nov. 8, the IDF’s 9th Infantry Brigade discovered a Hezbollah training center roughly 200 meters from a UNIFIL base. The center, according to the IDF, “was used by terrorists for training, studying, and storing large quantities of weapons.” Inside, Israeli troops found “maps of Israel, explanations of IDF equipment, as well as tunnel shafts and additional weapons… [and rocket] launchers prepared for firing at Israeli communities.” Other Hezbollah rocket launch sites and arms depots have been found in closer proximity to UNIFIL posts. Last month, then-Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz presented the U.N. Security Council with a map showing the entry to Hezbollah tunnels leading across Israel’s border that was positioned only 150 meters from UNIFIL posts. The training center discovery follows two weeks of daily Hezbollah attacks against Israel, where the northern cities of Safed, Nahariya, Acre, and Haifa are often targeted multiple times per day with barrages of 10–80 rockets. Most projectiles are intercepted, but several have landed on buildings, cars, and public spaces, injuring close to a dozen people. Seven Israelis were killed in rocket attacks near Metula and Haifa at the end of October, and two were killed in Nahariya on Nov. 12, bringing the recent death toll from Hezbollah attacks to 41. Ahead of the IDF’s ground campaign in Lebanon, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Danny Danon delivered a statement recommending “that UNIFIL relocate 5 km (3 miles) north to avoid danger as fighting intensifies and while the situation along the Blue Line remains volatile as a result of Hezbollah’s aggression.” The Israeli government further requested that more than 20 UNIFIL observation posts along the Blue Line relocate as IDF forces could not guarantee their safety while conducting military offenses against Hezbollah positions in their vicinity. UNIFIL rejected Danon’s statement, interpreting his request as a veiled threat to their mission. UNIFIL members have become collateral damage as a result. Last month, an IDF tank shell collapsed an observation post, injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers. Two other UNIFIL outposts have also reported taking IDF artillery fire. At a U.N. Security Council meeting in October, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix stated: “The safety and security of peacekeepers [in Lebanon] is now increasingly in jeopardy.” Indonesian U.N. Ambassador Hari Prabowo claimed that “Israel positioned itself above international law…and above our shared values of peace.” Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto called the IDF’s actions “not a mistake” and “could constitute a war crime.” Italy is the second largest contributor of troops to UNIFIL after Indonesia. Israel denies claims of targeting U.N. posts. According to Katz, “It is the Hezbollah terrorist organization that uses UNIFIL personnel as ‘human shields,’ deliberately firing at IDF soldiers from locations near UNIFIL positions in order to create friction.” The IDF offensive in southern Lebanon — vehemently condemned by the U.N. and hindered by UNIFIL — constitutes the first action by an international body to enforce U.N. Resolutions 1701 and 1559 since they were mandated almost two decades ago. “We are fulfilling our obligations to ensure [U.N. Resolutions] … and the [U.N.] council must support us in our efforts,” noted Danon, As early as 2021, security analysts Sarit Zehavi and Eric Mandel questioned the legitimacy of UNIFIL. If their purpose is to maintain peace in southern Lebanon, then, at best, they have succeeded by not rocking the boat and forcing Hezbollah to disarm. But if their purpose was to enforce peace by prohibiting armed militias from operating in southern Lebanon under U.N. resolutions, then UNIFIL has been a “profound failure.” The U.S. contributed $145 million per year toward maintaining UNIFIL during President Biden’s administration. With a new administration on the horizon, President-elect Trump’s objective to “end wars” might entail defunding players that facilitate local conflicts through their ineffectiveness and compliance with terrorism. If UNIFIL had done its job, there would be no need for IDF boots on Lebanese soil. READ MORE from Bennett Tucker: Israelis Choose to Limit Attack on Iran … For Now Israel Eliminates the ‘Butcher of Khan Younis’ Israel Fends Off Massive Iranian Missile Barrage Nasrallah’s Death: Israel Takes Step Toward Victory The post The UN’s Failure in Lebanon appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.