The frustrating thing is that institutionally anti-Israel spokespeople - the public faces of organizations with ingrained anti-Israel biases like the UN and the State Department - get to just make things up. And not only do they get to make things up, but they get to make things up with no consequences for their credibility or their careers when they're contradicted within days or weeks.

US Lt-Gen Keith Dayton - the guy in charge of giving weapons and training to Fatah - officiously demanded that Israel make Gaza-related security concessions because Hamas was nothing to worry about. He insisted that "Hamas was weakening" even while Hamas was obviously gaining strength (how did he avoid the obvious contradiction: he blamed it on Israel naturally). He became a sarcastic prick when Congresspeople asked him about Israeli claims that Hamas was getting ready to take over Gaza. Then Hamas took over the Gaza Strip a couple weeks later. No worries - the State Department pressured Congress to move him to the West Bank and start all over. Because he's obviously both a gifted military analyst and very good at his job.

French Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano - the guy in charge of UNIFIL's mission to implement UN resolutions and prevent Hezbollah from rearming - condescendingly and all but openly mocked Israelis for claiming that Hezbollah was returning to their former strength. Two money quotes here: "we also do not see a rearmament happening" and "we are physically patrolling every corner of southern Lebanon and if there was a bunker [system] we would have found it." Opps:

More than a year later, the Lebanese guerilla group appears to be again solidly entrenched across the country's south - looking, in fact, as if its fighters never really left but merely went underground. The Shiite Muslim militia's banners hang everywhere, boasting of the "divine victory" over Israel and thanking its chief sponsor, Shiite-majority Iran, for helping with post-war reconstruction... Hizbullah appears to be in a strong position north and south of the Litani, both in its political wing and as a militia... Villagers across the south point to various places they say are arms depots for Hizbullah, but it was not possible to verify their statements.

They just make stuff up based either on ego, institutional bias, or sheer stupidity. Then they demand that Israel make security concessions as if their delusions of competence and grandeur were true. Because what's the worst thing that could happen if they're wrong - it's just some Israelis getting killed.

This quote will obviously become totally irrelevant the next time that Israel is hysterically blamed for killing civilians, but just for the sake of pretending that there are still rational people out there:

Hizbullah boasts that it is both everywhere and nowhere, meaning it's hard to tell who's a civilian and who's a fighter. "Hizbullah is not from Mars, they're the people of this land," said Hussein Ayoub, a 40-year-old Shiite in the nearby village of Selaa. Ayoub said he lost six cousins last year when Israeli planes bombed two houses in Selaa. "They are among us, even if we don't see them," interjected his uncle, Ahmed Ayoub. "That guy over there may be a Hizbullah, or that one," he said, pointing to his son, who's really a policeman, not a militiaman.

This is how it happens: the UN promises to fix something, they make it worse, they endanger Israeli civilians, and then they blame the Jewish State so they don't have to admit that their spineless approach to international relations and their manifest incompetence have failed.

References:
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* US To Bring Abject Failure Of Security Assistance To West Bank, Renew Pressure On Israel. What Could Go Wrong? [MR]
* State Dept Pushing Congress To Move Abject Failure Keith Dayton To West Bank [MR]
* Katyushas Hit Israel Two Days After UNIFIL Commander Promises Peace [MR]
* Hizbullah getting stronger in Lebanon [JPost]

Previously:
* How Badly Does the UN Draft Screw Israel? Part II: Hezbollah Not Really So Much Included
* UN Set To Blame Israel For Intentional, Hamas-Engineered Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza
* UN Building Hit in Lebanon. UN, AP blame Israel. Yawn.

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit