UNIFIL: FF-FG Wilt in the Face of Israeli Aggression

As Israel attempts to clear the ground for carnage in Lebanon, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin calls out the Irish Government’s passivity in the face of Netenyahu and Biden’s march towards apocalypse.

With no force among the ‘rules-based international order’ willing to call a halt, Israel keeps pushing the genocidal boat out. Hossam Shabat, one of the few journalists left in besieged Northern Gaza reports that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are following an extermination policy in the area, intentionally starving 400,000 people, bombing civilian targets relentlessly, issuing evacuation orders for sheer depravity, it seems, and shooting fleeing civilians. It is escalating sharply in Lebanon, with a ground invasion and heavy bombing of Beirut and the South and, most recently, an aerial attack on a Christian district in Northern Lebanon that killed at least 22. No Western power seems willing to yank the reins and take concrete action to stop it: on the contrary the US has doubled down—dispatching a hundred troops along with its THAAD missile defence system to assist Netanyahu. Zionism continues its death spiral completely unchecked, with rumors that Syria is next, and with Tehran in the crosshairs.

Israel’s outrageous attacks on UNIFIL positions in Lebanon are in this vein: they confirm Israel’s total disregard for international law at the same time as they mark out new terrain. In mounting  repeated attacks on UNRWA workers and infrastructure in Gaza, Israel channelled the usual anti-Palestinian racism to justify attacks, claiming with little or no evidence that 12 UNRWA workers took part in the October 7th Hamas-led assault on the ‘Gaza Envelope’. So far, the attacks and threats against UNIFIL do not constitute anything like the ongoing devastation wrought on UNRWA, but their targeting constitutes a major escalation, aimed at clearing the way for carrying out Gaza-style destruction free from western scrutiny.

Attacks on UNIFIL

Over the past few days, the IOF has increased its threats and attacks against the UNIFIL forces. Lebanese media reported early on that the IOF attempted to force Irish peacekeepers from their position at Maroun al Ras, parking Merkava tanks just outside their outpost, and when that failed to use them as ‘human shields to cover up advances on the ground’. A UNIFIL report on 10 October documented attacks on three other positions, injuring three Indonesian peacekeepers. These attacks deliberately targeted an observation tower, a communications system and perimeter monitoring cameras. The open targeting of these areas, accompanied by menacing threats from Netanyahu, indicate clearly that Israel is attempting to clear UNIFIL from the area so they can carry out atrocities unobserved. 

Over the next several days, UNIFIL reported an escalation in IOF aggression: on Saturday 12 October the IOF blocked a UNIFIL convoy at Meiss ej Jebel from carrying out a ‘critical’ humanitarian mission. In the early hours of the next morning, two IOF Merkava tanks smashed through the main gate at the UN’s Ramyah outpost and “forcibly entered the position”, and two hours later, “peacekeepers at the same position reported the firing of several rounds 100 metres north”—likely a deliberate use of chemical rounds. UNIFIL reported that although their troops donned gas masks, fifteen peacekeepers had to receive treatment for “skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions”.

Later that day, Netanyahu demanded that the UN remove UNIFIL troops from Southern Lebanon. He resurrected the tired old claim about “human shields”—this time it is UNIFIL troops and not Palestinian civilians who are supposedly being used to protect Hezbollah. In fact, as one Spanish officer put it, “It’s a lie. It will be the other way around.” In sharp contrast to Israeli actions, Hezbollah ordered its fighters not to take action against IOF troop movements near the border village of Maroun al-Ras “to preserve the lives of the peacekeepers”.

Impunity

The motive for Israel’s attacks on UNIFIL troops is transparent. One need only look at the burning of hospital patients in tents, its wider extermination campaign in Northern Gaza and its carpet bombing of Beirut to imagine what it might do if unimpeded in Southern Lebanon. It wishes to operate with the same impunity, but the presence of UNIFIL troops hampers this.

All the while, the same Western leaders providing the weapons and political cover for Israel’s depravity continue to reach new lows. At this point, the Biden-Harris administration’s pretext that they are seeking a ceasefire cannot be viewed as anything other than a crass PR exercise. Their aim now is to attempt to decouple Israel’s genocide in Gaza from its assault on Lebanon, as though Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel up until Israel’s invasion were not done with the express purpose of forcing Israel out of Gaza. In the wake of Israel’s terrorist pager attack in Lebanon, the US agreed to provide an additional $8.7 billion in military aid to the Zionist state. As Israel steps up its assault on Lebanon, the Pentagon has agreed to provide Israel with the powerful THAAD anti-missile system, along with an additional 100 troops to manage it. The ‘Iranian threat’ is being repeatedly raised as a bogeyman to justify further escalation, and Kamala Harris has openly declared that when it comes to Iran, “all options are on the table”.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Germany asked Israel to sign a guarantee that these arms would not be used to commit genocide. Having received this, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared in parliament last week that “we have supplied, and we will supply arms”. As Stefan Talmon has argued, “this raises several questions: 1) Does this imply that the German Government shares in the suspicion that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip? 2) Can such an assurance absolve Germany from its responsibility under international law not to aid or assist acts of genocide?” The answers to these questions must surely be that, yes, the German Government knows that Israel is committing genocide, and that, no, such an assurance cannot absolve Germany of its responsibilities under international law.

Irish Government Hypocrisy

The Irish Government, which has contorted itself in recent months to try to appease public anger over the genocide while going out of its way to avoid offending its friends in Washington,  has demonstrated an unmatched ability to churn out meaningless statement after meaningless statement. Simon Harris has described the IOF’s threats and attacks on UNIFIL troops as “an extraordinarily unacceptable situation”, adding that “Israel will always have to be judged on what it does and not on what it says”. It does not seem to have occurred to Harris that the same might apply to him.

Mícheál Martin has said that “Israel is essentially now undermining the UN and the UN peacekeeping force.” This comes mere days after Martin admitted that aircraft carrying ammunition through Irish airspace did so illegally—but only to save fuel. Apparently, this is an acceptable justification for the transportation of weapons to be used in genocide, and now, to put UN peacekeepers in danger. No moves are being made to pursue the airlines who continue to violate Irish airspace.

The contrast between the relentless hysteria deliberately stirred up over the past two years about the ‘Russian threat’ and the same government’s extreme caution in trying to avoid offending the Biden regime could not be more obvious. In February, Ireland entered an agreement with NATO to counter this supposed threat, and the Irish Navy has conducted exercises with NATO vessels on the back of it. Everywhere in elite circles there is an aggressive push on to fall in with US-led European militarisation. Yet even after Irish troops have stared down the barrel of an Israeli tank, the same Government has proven itself utterly incapable of action.

The Irish Government’s obsequiousness to US imperialism is such that it is no longer simply complicit in the genocide in Gaza. The continued use of Shannon Airport by the US military and the refusal to lift a finger to stop the arms being transported through Irish airspace mean that the Irish State is knowingly facilitating genocide. Their empty statements stand in stark contrast with the thousands of people who descended upon Shannon last weekend demanding that the Irish State no longer be an accessory to the crimes of the US. We must redouble our efforts if we are to prevent Zionism and Western imperialism from pushing humanity into a catastrophe even beyond the horrors we have already witnessed.