[HN Gopher] Israel launched a dozen attacks on UN troops in Leba...
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       Israel launched a dozen attacks on UN troops in Lebanon, says
       leaked report
        
       Author : zhengiszen
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2024-10-24 19:23 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ft.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ft.com)
        
       | vaidhy wrote:
       | What are the repercussions? If there is no reaction from the
       | international community, did this action really happen?
        
         | tstrimple wrote:
         | Every reaction from the international community is vetoed by
         | the United States of America. A veto power it has used on
         | behalf of Israel to protect it from international scrutiny more
         | than it has for literally any other country on earth. Over half
         | of all US vetoes in the Security Council have been on behalf of
         | Israel.
         | 
         | https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/how-us-has-used-its-pow...
         | 
         | > The U.S. has vetoed resolutions critical of Israel more than
         | any other council member - 45 times as of December 18, 2023,
         | according to an analysis by Blue Marble. The U.S. has vetoed 89
         | Security Council resolutions in total since 1945, meaning
         | slightly over half of its vetoes have been used on resolutions
         | critical of Israel. Of the vetoed resolutions, 33 pertained to
         | the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories or the
         | country's treatment of the Palestinian people.
         | 
         | > The first time the U.S. used its veto to support Israel was
         | in September of 1972, when it vetoed a resolution that called
         | on Israel to cease its aggression in Lebanon.
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | There's a mechanism for bypassing the Security Council by the
           | GA during deadlocks caused by vetoes (Emergency Special
           | Sessions convened under Uniting for Peace--5 of the 11
           | convened so far have concerned the Arab/Israeli conflict,
           | including one of the two that is currently open, which is now
           | on its 27th year), but no combination of countries otherwise
           | willing to act to constrain the conflict has the capacity to
           | effectively act against both Iran and its proxies and the
           | Israel (directly) backed by the US.
        
         | NomDePlum wrote:
         | Did what action actually happen? Those reported in the article?
         | If so, clearly yes. They've been widely reported and confirmed
         | repeatedly. The initial international outrage appears to have
         | subsided. I'd guess partly mainly due to the obvious support of
         | the US, who gave up on being outraged when it became obvious
         | there was no one listening on the Israeli side.
        
       | neonate wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/o7atF
        
       | Sabinus wrote:
       | "Israel has also said that UN forces are being used as a human
       | shield by Hizbollah fighters, which it is fighting near several
       | Unifil posts along the border. It has demanded the UN evacuate
       | its peacekeepers from southern Lebanon for their own safety.
       | Unifil, and the 50 countries that contribute troops to its ranks,
       | have unanimously refused."
       | 
       | Why aren't the UN troops keeping the peace? Did they let
       | Hezbollah fire rockets into Israel unimpeded? What is the point
       | of the troops being there?
        
         | nielsbot wrote:
         | It's all on Wikipedia:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Interim_Force_i...
        
         | pimpampum wrote:
         | Israel has lied repeatedly countless times, like the tunnels
         | under hospitals that never show up, or when they say the didn't
         | kill the journalists they did end up admitting to. Or the
         | claims of rape and beheaded babies that were all fake. You can
         | not take anything they say as serious.
        
           | mlazos wrote:
           | I love how their rationale for blowing up a hospital is that
           | there were tunnels underneath it. As if that's justification
           | for blowing up a hospital.
        
           | Sam713 wrote:
           | Not disputing general truthfulness of Israeli government, but
           | specifically as to the latter two examples you listed: A)
           | There is no direct evidence that Israeli government publicly
           | stated that babies were beheaded. That claim came from a
           | single journalist, spread like wildfire on social media (as
           | did tons of videos and footage of the attacks), and was
           | exacerbated by a statement Biden made.
           | 
           | B) there is very credible evidence that rape did occur as
           | part of the atrocities Hamas committed on Oct. 7th attack.
           | https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-sexual-
           | violence-...
           | 
           | Just wanted to point that out, because regardless of the
           | moral standing of either side, I think the facts do matter if
           | there is ever going to be a resolution. Obviously the actions
           | committed by Hamas do not absolve Israel from following
           | ethical rules of war, and there are plenty of issues with how
           | Israel is waging war in the current conflict as well; for
           | example using machine learning algorithms to track targets
           | with what appears to be a reckless disregard for non-
           | combatants: https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-
           | gaza/
        
             | Qem wrote:
             | https://www.oct7factcheck.com/index
        
         | sterlind wrote:
         | Unifil has been there since the '70s, apparently. Their role
         | was to monitor Israel's withdrawal and to assist the Lebanese
         | government, to patrol the Blue Line and various humanitarian
         | tasks. They're not a counterinsurgency force or an occupying
         | army - as I understand it, they're a tripwire for treaty
         | enforcement.
         | 
         | Also, you don't get to shoot through human shields. It's still
         | immoral to kill noncombatants, just as it's immoral to hide
         | behind noncombatants. You don't gain moral high ground, you're
         | just sinking to the level of the enemy.
        
         | NomDePlum wrote:
         | There's absolutely no evidence of UN forces being used as human
         | shields. There's clear evidence, including that cited in the
         | article, of the situation being very different from the
         | claims/report of the IDF.
         | 
         | The most credible reason for Israel wanting Unfil to vacate is
         | less impartial observers.
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | The most credible reason for Israel to want UNIFIL to vacate
           | is that UNIFIL's mission is to help keep unauthorized
           | military forces out of South Lebanon, and Israel's invasion
           | force is decidedly unauthorized.
        
             | Qem wrote:
             | Given they targeted observation posts and monitoring
             | cameras first, I suspect they don't want witnesses
             | observing war crimes. Local witnesses are outright killed
             | or smeared with accusations of belonging to militant
             | groups, as it's being done to journalists in Gaza. They
             | just put targets on the backs of the few surviving
             | journalists that are still documenting the siege of
             | northern Gaza. See:
             | https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-
             | story/2024/10/24/wh...
             | 
             | That trick is harder to pull when the witnesses are
             | external UN observers.
        
       | Qem wrote:
       | At this point the country should be suspended from UN, like
       | Apartheid SA was before, in 1974. See
       | https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/13/archives/south-africa-is-...
        
         | libertine wrote:
         | The UN is in need of serious reform.
         | 
         | For example, it's hard to comprehend how a country like Russia
         | is not suspended?
         | 
         | A country which signed the Charter, and is member of the
         | security council, is trying to annex a country of 40 million
         | people, claiming they and their culture don't exist.
         | 
         | They don't even hide the genocide intent, and yet Guterres is
         | visiting the BRICS conference in Russia legitimizing the
         | regime. Despicable.
        
           | throw310822 wrote:
           | Whatever Russia is doing pales in comparison with what Israel
           | has done for the past 70 years.
        
             | Teever wrote:
             | And if you compare what Russia has done in the same time
             | frame?
        
               | throw310822 wrote:
               | Oh well. We certainly didn't help it doing it or gave it
               | diplomatic support, in any case. Besides, ethnic
               | cleansing and genocide are their own special kind of
               | evil- I'm not sure Russia is guilty also of that.
        
       | leoh wrote:
       | Part of the story here, really, is that the UN has been co-opted
       | by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
       | 
       | Another part of the story is: where was the UN when Hezbollah
       | launched rockets from Lebanon this week?
       | 
       | Unless the UN starts doing serious counter-terrorism, Israel is
       | not going to particularly care about their presence in Lebanon.
        
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