Remember when UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano condescendingly mocked Israelis for saying that Hezbollah was rearming and reasserting its authority? Remember how he did it while lecturing the Israelis about how security overflights to protect their citizens were totally unnecessary? His exact line was "we are physically patrolling every corner of southern Lebanon and if there was a bunker [system] we would have found it." The UN has already admitted that that was a bit of a fib, albeit months after anyone with eyes could tell that the Hezbollah was in control because their banners and troops were everywhere.

But the sheer beauty of this is simply staggering. Physically patrolling every corner did you say?

The commander of UNIFIL's forces in Lebanon, Major General Claudio Graziano of Italy, was recently stopped by Hizbullah militants at a checkpoint in Beirut to prevent him from gathering information on the terror group's activities in the capital's south.... the militants acted under direct orders from senior Hizbullah officials. UNIFIL is tasked with keeping Hizbullah weapons out of the area south of the Litani River, and a number of confrontations between the sides have been reported in the past few months... Hizbullah continues to operate unabated in other parts of the country as well. A senior Lebanese official said recently that the countries that sent contingents of soldiers who make up the international force do not want it to expand its activity to the border with Syria due to the region's "sensitivity".

They condescendingly instructed Israel that they would take it from here, except they won't because they're terrified of actually having to engage Hezbollah. UNIFILS's job, as A Blog For All points out, is to enforce UNSC 1701's provisions calling for Hezbollah's dismantling. We would add that the resolution also calls for UNIFIL to assist Lebanon in ensuring that there is "no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon" and that UNIFIL is "to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this includes the existence of checkpoints with armed troops enforcing Hezbollah's authority. The checkpoint Hezbollah used to block the UN from discovering violations of UNSC 1701 is already a blatant violation of UNSC 1701. So perhaps Graziano has at last encountered a tiny bit of evidence that maybe Hezbollah is not following the UN and State Department's instructions? UNIFIL's operations are a model of anti-Israel diplomacy in process and outcome, stacked with pro-Hezbollah collaborators, human shields, and useful idiots. The organization should be disbanded now.

Incidentally, great job State Department!

References:
* Katyushas Hit Israel Two Days After UNIFIL Commander Promises Peace [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security I - UN Admits Hezbollah Is Rearming [MR]
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields) [MR]
* Report: UNIFIL chief in Lebanon stopped at Hizbullah checkpoint [YNet]
* Classic Confrontation [A Blog For All]
* Text: UN Lebanon resolution [BBC]
* Take Away Hezbollah's Collaborators, Human Shields, And Useful Idiots. Disband UNIFIL Now. [MR]
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]

Previously:
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence
* UN Report: UNIFIL Sucks. They Totally, Totally Suck.
* UNIFIL Spy Ship Disrupts Electronic Signals Across Israel (Plus: Syria Confirms It Was A Nuke Facility)