UN vs IDF Smackdown
For those UN “peacekeepers” in Lebanon, the fun and games have ended. There’s serious work to be done. Like ensuring that Hizbullah disarms engaging in a confrontation with the IDF.
UN and Israeli tanks have been involved in a brief face-off on a road in southern Lebanon where the Israeli army has been setting up checkpoints.Four French Leclerc tanks with UN peacekeepers moved up the hill to stand 500 meters (yards) from the entrance to the border village of Marwaheen, as two Israeli Merkava tanks operated nearby on Lebanese soil.
Standing some 50 meters from each other, the tanks were locked in a 20-minute face-off, the first between the Israeli army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been boosted to oversee the current truce.
Needless to say, this confrontation ended the same way that all confrontations involving the French end.
The French tanks then withdrew from the area, as observers of the UN Truce Supervision Organisation deployed in the area.
Update: Here’s an AP picture from the confrontation.
A French U.N. peacekeeper, left, gestures as he talks to an Israelisoldier after French peacekeepers with Leclerc tanks blocked an Israeli
tracked armoured vehicle and jeeps from penetrating deeper into
Lebanese territory near the southern village of Marwaheen, Lebanon,
Thursday Sept. 28, 2006. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
I can’t work out whether the French “peacekeeper” is crying, or doing a mime.
Filed Under: General
About the Author: An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
He’s doing a mime:
“Cavalryman with tank”.
Similar to the more famous “infantryman with rifle” that French mimes performed during WWII.
OK, so let’s get this straight. You don’t like having rockets fired at you. Your military fails miserably to deal with the threat. Soldiers from an unrelated country risk their lives and cost their citizens big bucks to protect you. You take the piss. Hmmm.
Anynymous, love, if the countries from which these soldiers hail were not so keen in their antisemitic Islamists-appeasing zeal to stop Israel from defending herself, there would be no Hizballah left. As simple as that.
And don’t give us the bullshit about these UN troopers being there to protect Israelis – they are there to protect Hizballah. Did you check their mandate?
From where I stand, there should have been 4 white barbecued Leclercs there – interrupting IDF in fullfilment of their duty in war means taking a side in that war. But then again, maybe the whining and seething over ‘em pesky Evil Jooz ™ daring to protect themselves would have once again been too much for Olmert and Co.
*spit*
Anynymous, love, if the countries from which these soldiers hail were not so keen in their antisemitic Islamists-appeasing zeal to stop Israel from defending herself, there would be no Hizballah left. As simple as that.
And don’t give us the bullshit about these UN troopers being there to protect Israelis – they are there to protect Hizballah. Did you check their mandate?
From where I stand, there should have been 4 white barbecued Leclercs there – interrupting IDF in fullfilment of their duty in war means taking a side in that war. But then again, maybe the whining and seething over ‘em pesky Evil Jooz ™ daring to protect themselves would have once again been too much for Olmert and Co.
*spit*
Dear A. Nonnymouse
These UN troops cost their own countries’ citizens NOTHING. Their country, in this case France, is paid by the UN. France uses that money to pay it’s troops and pockets the difference. Some countries who send their troops on UN missions actually MAKE MONEY!
… but don’t let the truth get in the way of your prejudices…
So … Fwance is profiting on UN funds when it sends its Mimes to Lebanon.
And who pays most of the UN funds? Gee … that would be the USA. So we Americans are the ones getting stuck with most of the bill.
thanks god marcel marceau was jew heh
So four French tanks came rolling and stopped next to an Israeli checkpoint. Judging from the photo they had a nice little chat with the Israeli guys and then continued on their patrol.
Not really news, is it?
There’s more to this than meets the eye.
According to DEBKAfile the Fwench UN troops were protecting Hezbollah.
DEBKAfile reports the French force sought to prevent the Israeli unit from combing through the Hizballah-dominated village in search of the raiders who crossed into Israel and broke into the IDF’s Kibbutz Shomera arms store last week. They made off with a large quantity of side-arms, anti-tank weapons, LAU rockets and hundreds of combat grenades, which the Israeli force was determined to recover.
Optional caption – “Do I have something in my eye?”
what a bullshit is that?? european countrys pay a lot for those missons! and they do not get 2 billions of US dollars evry year for their troops from the big brother
i do not understand why you israely guys always belive evry bullshit from your newspaper. The european countrys don’t make a single dollar by sending their troops to libanon. It just costs a lot of money and European taxe payer pay for it…. If they are successfull or not or if the mandat is good or not. That is often not the fault of the soldiers, but of UN and the countrys who signed it like israel. I always wonder how you proud IDF people like to take the gives of all the wapons from all those antisemetic countrys in europe in middle of last war like the geraman submarines etc… May be without it your second srike capability wouldn’t be that good, that you are so proud of. And by the way all those antisemetic countrys do not give a dam shit on your nuclear weapons… No body says something against that, even if they are not really legal, but a least already a little against Iran, even though they do not even have wappons. So stop that shit, that all europe doesn’t do anythink for you. By the way your first nuclear power plant and nuclear rockets, didn’t come from france??
The US pays for more than half of the UN’s operating costs. The French are getting their money back from their own contribution when they send in their troops. The UN does nothing for the US … except for spending US contributions.
I cordially invite you to host that sodding nuthouse in NYC yourselves. We will just declare the inmates personna non grata, give them all 48 hours to leave, and then bulldoze the building into Turtle Bay.
Don’t you have some rioting moslems in your own country to surrender to?
Here’s one example:
http://akbayanrisa.wordpress.com/tag/press-kit/press-releases/
The solon filed today a resolution to investigate the AFP’s policies in joining UN peacekeeping missions and the alleged misuse of the United Nations Support Fund for peacekeeping. Through a Memorandum of Understanding, the AFP gets reimbursement from the UN for the expenses that it has incurred for fielding Filipino soldiers in UN missions abroad. The reimbursements cover the US$1, 028 uniform allowance for per peacekeeper (the Troop Cost Allowance, or TCA), the soldiers’ subsistence, and the military equipments that are needed to support the troop during the entire mission (the Contingent-Owned Equipments, or COE).
Citing a report by Newsbreak magazine, the solon said that since 1999, when the country started to deploy troops again for UN peacekeeping missions, the AFP was able to save millions of dollars by recycling old equipments and by using vehicles and armaments donated by the country’s military allies like the US. “How can they protect themselves if they can’t even have new helmets or better vehicles?” asked Rep. Hontiveros.
The report also said that the AFP was able to scrimp funds from the UN money to construct an international peacekeeping center in Capas, Tarlac, which was later abandoned for its substandard materials.
“Furthermore, the decision to cut by 40% the allowance of Filipino soldiers in UN missions abroad means that the AFP is saving P8 million monthly from the TCA reimbursements,” Rep. Hontiveros said. “No one knows where the money goes. We believe that since the UN money is treated as a discretionary fund, then it is very prone to be used for corrupt practices such as conversion.”
Rep. Hontiveros urges Congress to investigate the policy of AFP on peacekeeping to prevent the misuse of the funds from UN. The government should focus its attention on the repatriation of Filipino migrant workers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, the solon from AKBAYAN added.
More here.
Where Did The Dollars Go?
The United Nations pays back the military what it spends for sending peacekeeping troops abroad. Do officers profit from it? (Newsbreak, July 31, 2006)