The Last Exile

As events have started to unfold it appears more and more likely the Israeli narrative is closest to what actually happened. The Israeli narrative goes as follows – Lt Col Avital Leibovich:

Lt Col Avital Leibovich of the IDF told Just Journalism in a conference call consisting of bloggers and journalists:

‘The incident itself took place on Israeli territory, in some places along the northern border. There is some gap between the border fence itself and the actual border. Our troops were conducting routine maintenance work that included, among other things, clearing bushes from that area.

‘In 2006, we had some soldiers that were kidnapped in a similar area [where shrubbery provided cover for kidnappers]. This maintenance job was coordinated with UNIFIL. It was routine, there was nothing unique. The LAF decided in a very provocative manner to initiate fire toward our forces. This is a strict and clear violation of UN Resolution 1701. We retaliated with artillery and helicopter fire, now we are checking at the deeper, intelligence level if it was pre-planned attack from the Lebanese army. We put the responsibility on the Lebanese Armed Forces.’

Leibovich also said that while there is some evidence that Hezbollah has infiltrated the ranks of the LAF, she could not at this point state with certainty if the Islamist party had any hand in today’s violence.

When asked about the LAF’s claim that its forces first fired into the air, then at Israeli troops, Leibovich responded that it was not the Israeli maintenance crew itself that was first targeted by gunfire, but rather a gathering of senior IDF commanders who were standing nearby, a clear sign, she maintained, of a Lebanese ‘provocation’.

The IDF has released a map of the border area at the site of today’s skirmish clearly showing the Blue line, the border of Israel, the Israeli fence and the area of where Israeli troops were located.

Ha’aretz is now reporting UNIFIL confirms 2 key facts. The IDF was well within the Israeli side of the Blue Line when the Lebanese army attack and UNIFIL did receive notitifcation of the Israeli maintenance which it duly passed on to the Lebanese Army.

Milos Strugar, UNIFIL’s senior political adviser said that the IDF had “informed UNIFIL that it was going to conduct maintenance works” on the border, adding that while the Israeli unit had been “on the northern side of the border fence,” it was nonetheless “south of the international borderline.”

However, the UNIFIL official added that the information he had was “preliminary,” adding that he will look into the evidence “more thoroughly” later in the day.
“The situation became tense right away, with the Lebanon army also being there,” Strugar said, adding that UNIFIL forces had tried “to calm the situation and allow the IDF to work.”

Asserting the IDF’s claim that it had informed the Lebanese side of the planned border works, Strugar said that UNIFIL had received a message from the IDF “regarding these works, and we had passed that on to the Lebanese army.”

Ha’aretz is also carrying a report suggesting the Lebanese officer who gave the command to fire was a ‘lone’ wacko wolf.

Israel Defense Forces analysts believe that the Lebanese sniper fire at the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday, which killed Lt. Col. Dov Harari and seriously wounded Captain Ezra Lakia, was in fact an ambush planned by a Lebanese officer who was encouraged by his commanders.

Israel Defense Forces analysts believe that the Lebanese sniper fire at the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday, which killed Lt. Col. Dov Harari and seriously wounded Captain Ezra Lakia, was in fact an ambush planned by a Lebanese officer who was encouraged by his commanders. The exchange of fire began when Israeli soldiers approached the border in order to trim some bushes that had grown along the fence. The operation had been coordinated in advance with UNIFIL, which in turn informed the Lebanese army.

As in previous cases of such Israeli activity, the Lebanese army deployed soldiers to the area. After a round of yelling, unanswered by the Israeli troops, Lebanese snipers opened deliberate fire at the IDF observation post several hundred meters into Israel, the IDF said. Harari and Lakia had manned the observation post, and both sustained serious gunfire wounds.

According to information gathered by the IDF, the sniper fire was ordered by a commanding officer within the Lebanese army. The IDF has found no indication that the officer received an order to open fire, and believe that the decision was his alone. However, it is known that the particular officer was influenced by inciting remarks against Israel made by the top commanders of the Lebanese army in the recent past.

I’d be willing to accept the whole lone wacko wolf scenario except something still  really reeks. It turns out there was just happened to be a Reuters photographer on hand to witness the Lebanese side of the exchange wherein the soldiers were given the order to attack. Although, that still doesn’t distract from the lone wolf wacko scenario except….take a good look at where the Blue helmets are standing and ask yourself what is UNIFIL’s role? Acting as cover or shields while the Lebanese army snipers attack an Israeli officer well within the the border of Israel does not strike me as within the terms of their mandate. In fact, I would suggest these blue helmets have seriously compromised the mission they were tasked in carrying out.

The Israeli government needs to seek a very public explanation from the UNIFIL command.

Ynet News is reporting a French general has been convicted of downloading 1,000 of images of child pornography and receives a 10 month suspened sentence as well as a ’symbolic’ fine of a single Euro.

Colour me not surprised given the ‘deployment dress/uniforms’ for the French UNIFIL forces.

Yes, I am sure we all sleep better for these French pronouncements from the French contingent of UNIFIL. Ynet News:

It is highly unlikely that Lebanese Hezbollah militants have more weapons now in southern Lebanon than they did at the time of their 2006 war with Israel, the head of UN peacekeeping said on Wednesday. “I think it would be very difficult for Hezbollah to put additional weapons in the area,” Alain Le Roy, the French head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping, told reporters. (Reuters)

Isn’t amazing how soundly one can sleep if one does not patrol at night?

The Jerusalem Post is reporting France has volunteered to send soldiers for an international force to be potentially deployed in the Gaza Strip:

France is offering to take part in an international force in Palestinian areas, an idea that the Palestinian Authority and Israel have begun to embrace in the Gaza Strip but which is opposed by Hamas, which has power there. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told the American Jewish Committee Thursday night that “France and Europe can, when circumstances permit and if the parties so wish, take part in an international force to support the Palestinian security services.”

France will be the next country to assume the presidency of the European Union, which has already sent monitors to the Gaza border crossing. With the heightened role of forces in Southern Lebanon, and as the violence in Palestinian areas has continue to roil the region, the possibility of an international force has been increasingly raised. Yet Hamas has been clear in its opposition to any force in the coastal strip it seized last year.

Let us remember what French troops deployed in Lebanon for UNIFIL looked like.

Call it a failure of imagination on my part but I cannot see these troops putting fear G-d into Hamas’s heart. It certainly didn’t work for Hezbollah. Of course, now I understand completely the rational behind the creation of the French Foreign Legion. French troops just don’t do ‘cowboy’.

Perhaps you were under the impression that a UNIFIL force actually meant something in the real wider world – if so, read this Ha’aretz article and weep:

Armed Hezbollah militants warded off members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last month when the peacekeepers discovered a truck carrying weapons and ammunition belonging to the Lebanon-based guerilla group.

The incident was referred to briefly in a semi-yearly report submitted to the UN Security Council by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The incident was the first time that UNIFIL forces were confronted by armed Hezbollah men south of Lebanon’s Litani River, an area which Security Council resolution 1701 prohibits Hezbollah from entering.

According to a government source in Jerusalem, the incident caused great embarrassment for UNIFIL. The source described the incident, explaining that UNIFIL troops on patrol discovered the truck and chased it down and pulled it over. When the UNIFIL troops approached the vehicle, the source said, armed Hezbollah men exited the truck and threatened the troops at gunpoint. The UNIFIL patrol then went back into their cars, according to the source, and returned to their base.

I am sure there is a perfectly rational explanation for UNIFIl actions (or perhaps I should say – lack of), like say, the Hezbollah gunman were really nice guys for guys with loaded guns and we didn’t want to hurt them. It was the first time we caught Hezbollah and we didn’t want to embarrass the Hezbollah guys …pride and all that. Besides if we had embarrassed them. maybe they would have blown-up our barracks…

Really, all I want to know is which contingent of soldiers turned tail – the French, Germans, Italians, South Koreans or East Indians. Nah, I can’t believe the East Indians would run – so strike them off the list of possibles. Of course, this really isn’t surprising since it has already been widely reported that UNIFIL will not patrol at night in Lebanon.

On Friday, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal rejected any European mediation of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Yesterday, Hamas leader on the ground in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh suggest France can mediate the conflict and put a ‘peacekeeping’ force on the ground. The Jerusalem Post:

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday called on France to provide assistance to the Palestinians, saying he welcomed “all international efforts” aimed at enhancing security in the region, AFP reported. In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Haniyeh said the Gaza government is “prepared to cooperate with all international efforts to establish security and stability in the region.”

According to AFP, the Hamas leader praised Sarkozy’s call for an international peacekeeping force in the Palestinian territories, made at an international donors conference in Paris last month. Haniyeh said Sarkozy had proposed some “positive and encouraging initiatives” at the conference.

“We followed your speech at the recent Paris conference in which we found many positive and encouraging initiatives aimed at ending the occupation and restoring the legal rights of the Palestinian people and ending their suffering,” wrote Haniyeh. He also said he would accept French mediation in resolving the Hamas-Fatah feud. However, Haniyeh blasted the revived peace talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

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You have to ask yourself – why France, and not, say Norway? Afterall, Norway has been a long time supporter of the Palestinians with words, deeds and pocketbooks. All I can do is wonder if Haniyeh is gambling that any French troops being deployed in the Gaza Strip would be reflective of French UNIFIL forces which have been deployed in Lebanon.

A French hosiery company thinks men want their own line of panty-hose – I shit you not.

DIJON, France (AFP) – One of France’s leading hosiery makers is launching a new line for men next month — pantyhose with a welcome front opening and big feet, available in thick mannish knit but also as sheer tights.

Gerbe, which is based in eastern France, said this week that the country’s first hosiery line for men would go on sale in March “due to increasing demand from male clients.”

The pantyhose comes with a larger belt than for women as well as an opening, with “Men opaque”, “sheer” or “satin” available in four models of tights, with and without feet, and three models of feel-good knee-high hosiery made to help drain toxins and massage tired limbs.

Where’s John Wayne when you need him? But seriously, I am told lumberjacks will actually wear women’s queen-size panty-hose under the thermal long johns for extra warmth while working in the woods during the winter but….I haven’t actually met a man who owned up to it. Lumberjack or not – well except for the Trannie I met in the public laundry mat a few weeks ago (my washer died after 15 years – damn the Japanese and their planned obsolesce).

The Yahoo article goes on suggesting a French fashion messaging board was responding to the announcement “with a touch of scepticism” but before you breathe a sigh of relief for French manhood the comments posted ranged from “Why create pantyhose for men when women’s tights are fine?” said one. Tights are unisex,” said another, “except that women’s are always softer.”

I shouldn’t really be too surprised as this was this was one of the military get-ups of French UNIFIL forces deployed last summer in Lebanon. (French soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).(AFP/Dominique Faget)

French manhood is now officially an oxymoron at The Last Amazon. And for the Last Amazon as well as her mother. I am not sure about the boys. As soon as they can get control of themselves and pick up their heaving selves off the floor – I’ll try asking again. I don’t know, maybe France should seriously consider attracting a huge influx of Lebanese men to coach French males on how to be men and French at the same time.

Reports the Jerusalem Post:

Fearing attacks by Global Jihad and Hizbullah, the UNIFIL has raised the level of alert around its bases in southern Lebanon, a high-ranking officer in the multinational force told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

According to the officer, threat-warnings recently relayed by the IDF regarding potential threats were “taken seriously” and were being handled with extreme caution. The officer refused to say what changes had been made to security procedures in UNIFIL bases, except that “necessary measures” were taken.

“This threat is serious,” the high-ranking officer said, “and we are taking the necessary precautions.” Two weeks ago, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence’s Research Division, told the cabinet that there were increasing signs that Global Jihad elements were establishing a presence in Lebanon and planning attacks against UNIFIL.

The high-ranking UNIFIL officer said the Global Jihad terror cells posed a direct threat to the multinational force in southern Lebanon, particularly to its French, Italian and Spanish soldiers. UNIFIL issued a year-end press release over the weekend saying it now had more than 11,000 peacekeepers in its area of operations, Lebanon south of the Litani River.

There is a particular smell to this report, and it’s not because I doubt that the threat assessment is inaccurate. I just have a hard time believing Hezbollah, (whose grip on southern Lebanon could be aptly characterized as a total lockdown for the last six plus years) would tolerate outside competition in their hood….. Unless ‘Global Jihad’ is the new code for Iranian Republican Guard.

Under the very noses of UNIFIL, Hezbollah has been re-arming and UNIFIL does relatively little but bunker down at night, and while in the day, UNIFIL forces avert their collective gaze. Now French soldiers of UNIFIL have now been given orders to fire on IAF planes which have been conducting flyover missions in Lebanon for purpose of gathering intelligence on Hezbollah positions & re-armament activities reports the Jerusalem Post:

French soldiers in Lebanon who feel threatened by aggressive Israeli overflights are permitted to shoot at IAF fighter jets, a high-ranking French military officer told The Jerusalem Post. Wednesday, several days after meeting with an IDF general in Paris to discuss what he said was a “blatant violation of the cease-fire.”

Last weekend, Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, head of the IDF Planning Directorate, traveled to Paris and met with military officials to explain why the IAF flies over Lebanon despite the UN-brokered cease-fire.

Nehushtan, new to his post and previously deputy commander of the air force, told his French counterparts that Israel was conducting the flights to collect intelligence on Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon.

According to the French officer, Nehushtan apologized for an incident on October 31 when an IAF fighter carried out a mock bombing run over a French UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon, almost prompting troops to fire anti-aircraft missiles. “There was a reality on the ground and it was important for us to reaffirm what we had seen and explain clearly what are the orders of the French soldiers to protect themselves,” the French officer said.

The French told Nehushtan they would view further aggressive flyovers as a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. “No assurances were made to us that they [the IAF] would stop [the flights],” the French officer said. “The orders that the [French] soldiers have is that their weapons are for self-defense and if a commander will feel threatened, as it was about to happen on the 31st of October, he would have the right to use force.”

Milos Strugar, spokesman for UNIFIL, supported the French position, saying that according to the UN resolution, UNIFIL had the right to use force in self-defense, even against Israeli aircraft. “UNIFIL has the right to take all necessary action to protect UN personnel in self-defense,” he said

Has anyone advised France that after two millenniums of running – Jews can now be counted on to fight back? And if, French UNIFIL forces fired on the IAF and the IAF response by blowing them to kingdom come – am I really suppose to care?

I cannot think of a worse UN resolution for Israel than what Ha’aretz is currently reporting.

The UN Security Council will convene Friday to discuss the new proposal, which has been agreed to by the United States as well as France.

The sides are currently putting the finishing touches to the final wording of the resolution. The revised draft calls for a “progressive” Israeli withdrawal, a senior Lebanese political source said on Thursday.

“The Americans have moved their position. A deal with the French is very close in the next hours, but most likely on Friday,” he told Reuters. “The breakthrough is based on the inclusion in the call for a cessation of hostilities for a progressive Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory to go simultaneously with the deployment of the Lebanese army backed by reinforced UN peacekeepers.”

The source said the peacekeepers would mainly be reinforced by French soldiers. As part of the deal, Hezbollah would pull out from south of the Litani river. After 30 days, the source said, there would be a more comprehensive resolution that declares a ceasefire and sets out solutions for the Shaba Farms issue, the release of captive IDF soldiers, the release of Lebanese prisoners and the disarming of Hezbollah.

Otniel Schneller, an adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the UN was at work on a new approach. “A new proposal is being drafted, which has positive significance that may bring the war to an end,” Schneller said.Both the American and French envoys to the UN briefed Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the progress in talks.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said there could be a vote Friday on the resolution. “We’re making progress and it’s entirely possible we could have a vote tomorrow,” Bolton said after a meeting with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere. “We’ve closed some of the areas of disagreement with the French.”

The terms of the resolution were agreed upon following talks between the five permanent members of the Security Council – U.K., France, U.S., Russia, and China.

The deal was coordinated with Israel and apparently with the Lebanese government. In his efforts to advance the cease-fire, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch departed Beirut on Thursday and arrived in Israel, where he updated Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the latest diplomatic developments.

The resolution will stop short of requiring peacekeepers to disarm Hezbollah but will call for an embargo to prevent the group from bringing in arms from Iran and Syria, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution would also call for creation of “an emboldened UNIFIL”, the UN force currently in Lebanon and long derided by Israel as ineffective.

But the official said: “The (international) force will not have any mandate to disarm Hezbollah.“

So Israel concedes land to a bogus claim, obtains a formula for the possible “one day over the rainbow release of its soldiers, the missile threat from Hezbollah’s arsenal remains, and the Lebanese Army gets propped up by French forces, but no one disarms Hezbollah.

And what the hell is a more “emboldened UNIFIL” anyway? UNIFIL has been the embodiment of the words ‘apathy’ or ‘inefficiency’ or ‘ineffectual’ since its original deployment 28 years ago. So what does it really mean – it will only be characterized as only two out of the three given states at any one time? Fat lot of good the arms embargo will do – like Iran really cares! Remember the Silkworm.

Oh yeah, not only has Hezbollah survived but it has launched a successful coup d’état of the Lebanese Cedar Revolution and Iran is about to gain a border with Israel. If the Olmert Kadima government agrees to this resolution Israel will have mortgaged not only the current citizens of Israel but their children’s children as well and hundreds will have died in vain. With my luck, I will be bringing the Last Amazon to Israel right about time Iran will probably be launching an offensive. I must make a note to pack iodine pills and buy more life insurance.

Do I ever hope Ha’aretz is wrong. And for the record- Bush is such a wangster.