LEBANON – THE BLAME GAME

The UN is to Blame for much of the suffering in Lebanon

By Jonathan Feldstein

As the United Nations General Assembly was convening in New York this week, all eyes were on Lebanon, with daggers drawn to blame Israel. In looking to ascribe blame, paraphrasing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, they should have looked no further than their own backyard.

To that end, I launched a plan to send mirrors to each of the UN Member states (and observers) to mount behind the microphone and their country’s name, so when they sat in the General Assembly and blame Israel, they can see where the real blame lies.

Let’s be clear, every death and all the destruction taking place in Lebanon now is because of Hezbollah, and its Iranian Islamic patron. The Islamic regime has been funding and arming Hezbollah for decades, having hijacked Lebanon and putting all its residents in harms way. The long-range missiles being destroyed in the private homes and garages of Lebanese civilians are not part of a “terrorist chic” interior design trend but a central pillar of the “Axis of Resistance” decades long plan to eradicate Israel.

Guilty of enabling all this is the UN and thus responsible for much  of the death and destruction that’s happened so far, and what may come.  

The best example is the flagrant violation of UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Before the ink dried, Hezbollah and Lebanon were ignoring the text, and the UN turned a blind eye.

Resolution 1701 requires:

“Full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.”

The Lebanese cabinet approved 1701, yet Hezbollah never had any intent to implement any of it. Already entrenched into the Lebanese parliament, with a military arguably stronger than the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah is the authority that calls the shots in Lebanon.  The Lebanese Armed Forces has nothing to do with Hezbollah’s presence south of the Litani River. 1701 says Hezbollah cannot exist as a military in Lebanon, period. The UN and UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) never tried to enforce that.

Resolution 1701 was never implemented. While Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah  failed to withdraw from the border with Israel. Not only did they not withdraw, but Hezbollah significantly increased their weapons in terms of quantity and quality, all backed by Iran.  Today, they have an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles of all varieties that can strike all of Israel, and numerous drones as well.  Not only did they not withdraw but Hezbollah has deeply entrenched, excavating terror tunnels, weapon stashes, airstrips, and military installations.

All of this has been under the noses of Lebanese civilians in whose cities, towns, and villages Hezbollah has made them human shields, and under the noses of UNIFIL. The truth is, the Lebanese civilians who allowed their country to be hijacked by the Shiite Islamists are also guilty. I realize that confronting Hezbollah is dangerous, but what did the neighbors think when a huge truck pulled up in their neighborhood, unloading a delivery that was several meters long? That it was IKEA?

One might say the UN failed, but failure requires an attempt.  The UN and its complicit affiliate UNIFIL never made an attempt. That’s why they are to blame for what’s happening in Lebanon (and Israel) and those international players that made it possible.

Complementing this all, France is leading the charge with the US and others for a 21-day ceasefire. This is disgraceful because rather than calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities by Hezbollah after nearly a year of daily firing into Israel, they make a false equivalence between the terrorist aggressor, and Israel acting in defense of its population with brilliant precision in self-defense.

While condemnation of Israel is the lifeblood of the UN (with more anti-Israel resolutions each year than the sum of all the resolutions against actual terrorist states like Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, N. Korea, and more), maybe if they are looking deeply in the mirrors in front of them, they will have a reflective moment of introspection. Maybe, in the spirit of the season of the Jewish High Holidays, the UN will break out in mass repentance.

In an interview this week, I was asked by a journalist what’s the point of Israel remaining a member in the UN.  To be honest, I didn’t have a good answer. Its dysfunctional, ineffective, financially reckless, and morally way off course.

Maybe expecting the UN to repent and develop a moral backbone is – like Dorethy’s dream –  no more than a fantasy. It’s hard to imagine any meaningful transformation with its agencies complicit in supporting terror and a UN leader like Secretary General Guterres (whose immediate response to the October 7 massacre in Israel, was to rationalize “the context”. He set the tone by his wording at the time:

“It is important to… recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”

When the Secretary General speaks on global affairs, his words are significant and potentially impactful and here we had, the UN’s top executive justifying and legitimizing the October 7th massacre! Instead of directing his wrath at the perpetrators of October 7, Guterres chose to blame the Israeli victims for their murder, their torture, their rape, their mutilation and there being taken as hostages. His declarations served only Hamas and their nefarious ends as his declarations today serve Hezbollah.

Following my plan to send mirrors to each of the UN Member states attending the UNGA, let me conclude by paraphrasing another children’s popular fable, with:

 “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most to blame of them all?”

Clearly, when it comes to Gaza and Lebanon – a top contender is the United Nations.

About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein ­­­­- President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).