T. Belman. After reading this article carefully it is not clear if UNIFIL is tasked with reversing all violations to date or is just to stop new ones.
UN Security Council approves resolution requiring UNIFIL to take action against Hezbollah.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on Wednesday welcomed the adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding the mandate of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
According to the decision made upon the annual renewal of this mandate, UNIFIL is now required to expand its reports to the Security Council and take deliberate action against Hezbollah’s violations.
UNIFIL’s presence on the ground will increase significantly, and troops will be required to tour the Hezbollah-controlled areas of southern Lebanon. UNIFIL must also report all instances of Hezbollah’s violations and attempts to deny access immediately.
“This is a significant diplomatic achievement that could change the situation in southern Lebanon and expose the terror infrastructure that Hezbollah set up on the border with Israel,” Danon said on Wednesday.
“The resolution requires UNIFIL to open its eyes, and forces it to act against Hezbollah’s terror buildup in the area. We will continue the fight against Hezbollah and ensure that UNIFIL fulfills its duties on the ground,” he added.
The Security Council’s decision includes two main elements: higher presence of forces on the ground and reliable and timely reporting. Until now, and especially in the last few years, UNIFIL forces have rarely patrolled the area in southern Lebanon, refrained from entering villages widely agreed to be Hezbollah terrorist strongholds, and failed to report Hezbollah’s violations in real time.
As such, from now on, UN forces will be required to demonstrate a robust physical presence on the ground, to enter every village and to report, in real time, Hezbollah’s violations of Security Council Resolution 1701, negotiated by then Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to end the Second Lebanon War, and ignored by Hezbollah ever since. In addition, this landmark decision will dissolve Hezbollah’s longstanding attempt to be seen as a legitimate organization within the international arena.
The approval of this decision comes after many months of intense diplomatic activity by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN, led by Ambassador Danon.
This past June, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley visited the Lebanese border and was briefed on UNIFIL’s limited operations and the arming of Hezbollah by Ambassador Danon and Deputy Chief of Staff of the IDF, Aviv Kochavi. Since the visit, Ambassadors Haley and Danon have insisted on changing the mandate to the other members of the Security Council.
As part of these efforts, Israel revealed classified materials to representatives of the various member states, and senior IDF intelligence officials delivered security briefings to UN ambassadors per Ambassador Danon’s request.
“I thank the United States for leading this important effort, and for standing up for Israel’s security interests,” said Danon. “I also thank France for facilitating the negotiations along with the passing of the resolution. The United Nations Secretary-General and Security Council members have made the right decision to serve the most fundamental principle of the United Nations: combating terrorism and maintaining stability and tranquility.”
Sorry, three German occupations.
@ Edgar G.:
You mean the form of government he designed and ran. The word, “government” as you are using it to apply to Israel, is what we, here in the U.S. would call “administration.” Neither Shaked nor anyone else has that kind of power.
And, much of what Napoleon accomplished was reversed shortly after with the return of the Bourbons. France has had 5 republics and three monarchies since then, plus two German occupations and Vichy. Israel has had the same form of government since 1948, though Aharon Barak really changed things. It is that other Barak’s subtle coup d’etat that she is trying to legally reverse by degrees.
Certain of Napoleon’s lasting accomplishments were, of course, never reversed, uniform measurement and weights, roads, postal system, the aristocracy he appointed was merit based, he brought France into the modern world to stay. But, it’s apples and oranges here. Completely irrelevant.
He also sponsored the first official Zionism
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I’m surprised at you. The Europe of the late 18th to early 19th centuries, Napoleon’s world, was so completely static that is was almost moribund. Which was a large part of the reason why his policies and actions succeeded so completely. Britain was mired in commercial expansion, and rebellions in Ireland as usual- and unrest in India, Prussia was still living in the days of Frederick the Great, The Austro-Hungarian Empire was unweildy and rickety, hampered by the strong independent streak of the Hungarians, so that the Austrian Emperor was not an Emperor there, but, under protest, King. Italy was broken up into a series of princiaplities and oligarchies all feuding against one another.
The only swirling political and national turmoil was in France, which lasted from 1789 to 1793 when Robespierre was overthrown.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
He laster 20 years, which is about 6 timers the lasting power of an Israeli governement, no matter how sound it is. And this was for most of Europe, totalling millions of Sq Miles. Not a single tiny country of 10,000 sq miles.
In particular, Kahlon, who, in this case, as we see, was the lone voice in opposition. He is in a key position and he uses it to stymie the National Camp every time. Is there nothing that can be done to discredit him and send him into the political wilderness along with Barak, Lipni, and Herzog? it may require the ability to think outside the box that Shaked has.
Whatever happened to this? Was giving this up part of Shaked’s deal with the Court or was it just killed by the Court, either directly, or through its proxies in the Knesset?
February 7, 2017
http://hamodia.com/2017/02/07/knesset-bill-overrule-high-court-pipeline/
and, now, immigration. Illegal immigrants can only be deported if they wish it? Ha Ha.
Reminds me of the liberal argument against the death penalty for terrorists. ” It’s giving them what they want.”
Well, let’s all be liberals, then, and give them what they want. Voluntary death penalty for terrorists. LIberal Jurisprudence, unchecked, is truly running amok.
There are no Napoleons on the horizon, fortunately, since we saw how long he lasted.
Signed,
Alice,
Wonderland
@ Edgar G.:
But, Napoleon’s world was anything but statc and he quickly acquired absolute power. Israeli politics, for all of its apparent frenzy, is locked. But Shaked has found a couple of keys, where none appeared to exist, to implement key incremental changes within the existing framework. Everything else has been or is being reversed, e.g., Amona, the regulation law, etc.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Napoleon had an uncanny sense of being able to probe an enemy’s weak spots and capitalise of them. Militarily of course but also politically. He was a great politician and lawgiver whose dictats have been enshrined in all of Europe and much of the rest of the world up until today. For such a great man he was very modest and undemanding in his home life, just like any Corsican middle class person. I’ve read several memoirs about him and presently am gradually getting through the recollections of his long time valet and confidante known to history as Constant. (Louis Constant Wairy). They also include details of those who were involved in any way with Napoleon, making a connected memoir. Hugely interesting.
not intending to compare in any way with Shaked of course only correcting Sebastien’s assertion, really just enlarging on it.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Apart from Trump, Nixon was the best President for Israel.
I don’t believe Shaked could do more, at the present time, either as PM or Chief Justice, than she can in her present position. The Court can over-rule the PM or use the justice system to knock him or her out, personally, good thing she doesn’t smoke cigars, and I hope she doesn’t have any friends if she becomes PM, and the court rules largely by consensus; it’s really a kind of oligarchy.
She has, ingeniously, found the deep state’s achilles heel in at least two respects of which I am aware.
a) Basic Law forbids the relinquishing of state owned lands, though there is some vague wording about possible exceptions, which I don’t understand, but which have never been invoked. At her inititative, a big swathe of land in the Negev was just nationalized.
b) In order to avoid the Israeli judiciary’s equivalent of the U.S. senate’s “Nuclear Option” regarding voting, she has gotten the Court to agree to some inroads on their hegemony to avoid an all or nothing confrontation with the Knesset which they would probably win, as they have in the past, but which they might not. She played the game of chicken with them and won.
I am not aware of such a leader anywhere, ever, who could analyze and find just the right weakness to exploit in a seemingly static system. Her background as a computer software engineer probably has been of great assistance to her in this.
I am also reminded of Kirk and the Kobayishi Maru test in the world of science fiction in her finding a way to win in the “no-win” scenario she is presented with. Kirk won by re-programming the computer the night before the test, thus changing the paradigm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru
@ ArnoldHarris:
As long as the court has the power to over-rule the Knesset and is self-appointing and unaccountable, barring some uniquely and unpredictably paradigm-shifting crisis that changes the mind of the liberal elites that run the deep-state, that power will remain out of reach.
If Israel survives, it will be the last man standing by the end of the century, economically, militarily, and demographically, but it will be a question of who self-destructs first, albeit in different ways thanks to the inability to keep out the Trojan Horse. Israel has too many checks and balances in one direction but not enough in the other.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
“Let us hope.”
Indeed, that sad dirge of the Jewish nation is invoked both as a national anthem and as an excuse for avoidance of pursuit of the one force most needed for long term independence.
That one force is national power, without which national independence is nothing more than a hope. Indeed and in utter contrast, power is the only force which obviates hope.
In this, Stalin was absolutely right when he reminded his henchman, Iron Feliks, that power is the one thing in the world that nobody can fake. “You either have power or you don’t.”
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
Haley showed the way by carrying out Trump’s orders, so all credit is due to Trump who says what he means and means what he says (most of the time)
It’s now up to Danon to keep their feet to the fire.
@ ArnoldHarris:
Let us hope that the incremental changes Shaked has been able to engineer with regard to Court appointment procedure and adding to State lands will make a difference before time runs out.
“… Jews everywhere to cease” (not “Jews everywhere to case”).
Ted, why did you get rid of the screen editing feature for use after comments are posted?
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
@ Sebastien Zorn:
The time is over-ripe for knowledgeable Jews everywhere to case fooling themselves about the UNO, almost all foreign ministries, and the chattering class in general, in regard to Jewish national rights, international legalistics, and the rest of this crap.
Power is the sole thing that counts in this world, and we survive and maybe even thrive on the comparative levels of power that we have and are willing to apply to both friends and enemies.
Israel needs much more land for the scores of millions of Jews which its population will likely comprise within just a few generations. Nobody gets land without taking it by force, and that is precisely what Israel will have to do, irrespective of any general peace — which in any any case in the Middle East — is almost certainly unachievable. That and the need either to convert to Judaism or expel most of the Arab population.
But any of you are likely to tell me that Jews cannot and never shall be able to undertake or or even any of he above tasks. To which I respond that if you fail to do it, the Jewish state is living on borrowed time.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
Though Bush senior also threatened Israel over settlements, as did Reagan, Nixon, Ford, Johnson, Clinton. Truman and Eisenhower threatened Israel to withdraw from territory before 1967! 1949 armistice lines? Truman threatened Israel to withdraw from the Negev and not to declare independence before that. Every U.S. President has been part friend and part enemy or just an enemy. Trump is the first President to merely confine himself to saying that creating new settlements would be “unhelpful” to peace negotiations.
Longer. Condoleeza Rice was no better than Hillary when it came to public humiliation and harassment of Bibi over settlements, despite the Bush letter, which turned out to be worthless, anyhow.
I give more credit to Bush senior who, despite anti-Israel appointees, personally intervened to overturn the “Zionism is racism” UN resolution.
Trump has been in office only 7 months. The UN and various countries in the international community have taken more pro-Israel actions in that time than in the last 8 years maybe longer. And when’s the last time, you heard an American official, much less the President of Secretary of State, publicly threaten or humiliate Israel? Wasn’t it about 8 or 9 months ago?
If you let go of our disappointment at the fact that we expected the moon to be handed to us on a platter and didn’t get it, it’s a big improvement. Both in Israel and in the US, I think we can only expect small improvements, realistically. Of course, that being said, the UN has a miserable record of enforcement against Israel’s enemies while effectively getting in Israel’s way, and UN troops have also been indicted as some of the worst human rights abusers, so I hope this development doesn’t turn out to be more bane than boon.
Every bit helps. Credit to Danon on this.