Mick Hartley

More on the uselessness of UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon], tasked with preventing the militarisation of southern Lebanon under Hezbollah, failing completely, and now, it seems, largely concerned with preventing Israel from doing the job. Shoshana Bryan at the Jewish News Syndicate:

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is a decorated retired Army officer. He was supportive of Israel’s foray into Lebanon in the beginning. It would have been hard for him not to be, as Israel delivered justice for hundreds of U.S. and Allied military personnel murdered by Hezbollah in Lebanon and elsewhere. But his Oct. 12 phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pivoted into this:

“The secretary strongly emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety and security of [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces and reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible. Sec. Austin also raised the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed that steps must be taken to address it.”

There is a lot that remains troubling in those two sentences.

Israel seeks no conflict with either UNIFIL or the LAF. If they get out of the way, they will have no problem. The Israel Defense Forces is destroying Hezbollah’s vast arsenal in Southern Lebanon, doing the job that had been entrusted to both UNIFIL and the LAF, largely at the U.S. taxpayer’s expense. Between 2006 and 2022, according to the U.S. State Department, the LAF received more than $3 billion in U.S. funding. For UNIFIL, the United States pays about 25% of the tab (the United Nations wanted 26.94%, but Congress capped it). In 2023, the assessment was $143 million. But despite the infusion, both organizations failed in their stated mission, either out of fear or out of commonality with an internationally labeled terror organization.

The “dire humanitarian situation” in northern Gaza is a function of Hamas stealing aid which it sells at enormous profit (watch the video here or see @Imshin on X). Is Austin proposing Israel return to northern Gaza and carry out police functions against Hamas to protect the shipments? And what happened to the U.S.-built Gaza pier, the floating disaster that cost either $320 million or $230 million, depending on which Department of Defense report you read? Either seems a bit much for a four-month boondoggle that was canceled in July.

There are times when negotiations with the enemy are simply not possible. Bryan cites Nazi Germany as one such enemy. Putin, I'd suggest, is another. And from Israel's point of view Iran and its proxies, which seek nothing less than Israel's annihilation, are in the same league.

Negotiations work best when the parties agree on an endgame and discuss, even acrimoniously, how to get there. Israel seeks security for its people; the removal of the military and political power of Hamas and now Hezbollah as well; and the return of the hostages. As long as Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and friends believe the endgame is the destruction of Israel, their surrender is necessary.

There was nothing then and there is nothing now to negotiate with evil.