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Israeli Suspicion of UN Clouds Lebanon Force Plan

[Reuters] Adam Entous - An Israeli commander at the Lebanese border recalls peering through binoculars one afternoon to see UN peacekeepers sipping tea with Hizballah guerrillas. Some Israeli leaders accuse UNIFIL of providing legitimacy to Hizballah, allowing it to build up arms. Relations between Israel and the UN plummeted after information emerged that UN peacekeepers on the Lebanon border suppressed video tapes of three soldiers being abducted by Hizballah in 2000. "We know that they had line of sight and could see the actual kidnapping. They could have put roadblocks up to prevent Hizballah from escaping. But they didn't lift a finger," said Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the UN. "There was an international force in place in 2006 and it didn't prevent the current crisis from erupting," Gold said. "What that means is that providing security for southern Lebanon requires more than a knee jerk proposal to put international forces on the ground." Efraim Halevy, a former director of Israel's Mossad, noted, "Israel has a lot of experience with multinational forces. And it has not been good."
2006-07-21 01:00:00
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