The United Nations said on Sunday Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks that have been denounced by Israel's own allies.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations to evacuate the troops of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force from combat areas in Lebanon. Hours later, the force reported what it described as additional Israeli violations, including two Israeli Merkava tanks destroying the main gate of a base and forcibly entering before dawn that morning.
Soon after the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened U.N. personnel, causing 15 to require treatment despite wearing gas masks, it said. It did not say who fired the shells or what sort of toxic substance it suspected.
It also accused Israel's IDF military of halting a logistics convoy. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the statement.
You know, even though it's still rewarding Israel's actions in a way, out of all the support the US is giving, this one I probably mind the least. It will prevent further innocent deaths (regardless of what side they are on, this is always a net positive), and it can't be used by Israel against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Let the US take over all of the defense of Israel if it means they stop delivering bombs and missiles that Israel will use to further their genocide.
I’m telling you to evacuate your house, if you don’t I’ll just fucking kill you. If you don’t evacuate your own house I’ll also call the police and tell them you had it coming because I told you to evacuate and you refused. I see no flaw in your logic at all.
Seriously though, Israel has proven over and over again that it has no respect for the UN whatsoever. Maybe it's time to kick them out, at least until they have a fucking non-genocidal government.
I had a good feeling you were being sarcastic... but I have former acquaintances who have unironically posted things along the lines of "The UN says Israel's doing war crimes? They must have been paid off by Hamas."
What have those "peacekeepers" been doing for the past 20 years, aside from watching while Hezbollah turns southern Lebanon into a terrorist base? Do they snack on popcorn while watching Hezbollah's rockets fly into Israel?
This is fucking disgusting, and a testament that Israel believes they have so much control over the narrative by Cambridge Analiticising the major social networks and their owners that they feel they can get away with it. If there's one thing I agree with Israel now, it's that the UN was certainly wrong - by choosing after WW2, to legitimize the Nazi Haavara Agreements on partitioning Mandatory Palestine and enabling the neocolonialism that became Israel hidden under the faint veil of religious superiority claims. What the persecuted minorities needed were their homes and their wealth back, not an appointed figurehead to lead them into colonialism 2.0.
In its version of events, the Israeli military said militants of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post and a tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post, it said.
"It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm's way," the military's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
In a statement, the military said it used a smoke screen to provide cover for the evacuation of the wounded soldiers but its actions posed no danger to the U.N. peacekeeping force.
OK, sounds plausible enough...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: "The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones."
"The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields
You want to have your cake and eat it too. Why do you want the peacekeepers out? Why not coordinate with them?
Why do you want the peacekeepers out? Why not coordinate with them?
Because the Peacekeepers aren't there to fight a war, that's not their role. The real question is, what are they still there for? There is no real answer from the UN about this. Their mission was to try to disarm Hezbollah, which they clearly they didn't accomplish. Now Hezbollah is using the weapons the UN was supposed to remove (but didn't) to fight the IDF. And the UN is apparently just going to leave Peacekeepers stranded in the middle of a warzone because they're still pretending there isn't a war happening? Or are they hoping for a conflict to occur between the Peacekeeping force and the IDF? Like is the UN now trying to escalate the conflict? Really, what are they trying to accomplish?
Sure, never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence and the UN is a very incompetent organization. But this is getting so it goes beyond being able to be explained by incompetence.
The UN Peace Keeping Force is there for a number of things, but mainly to Keep the Peace.
They help citizens in a crisis, they monitor for illegal activity (including war crimes), and help with aid distribution. Their efforts are being hindered by the idf:
UNIFIL has said previous Israeli attacks on a watchtower, cameras, communications equipment and lighting had limited its monitoring abilities. U.N. sources say they fear any violations of international law in the conflict will be impossible to monitor.
I get that the UN has no real teeth, but the peacekeepers do have teeth.
The fuck is going on anymore. Like I get they have all sorts of freedom to fuck around because they have weapons given to them with no control over their use, but this seems to me they are truly beginning to test their fate.
Yeah, but this isn't new. The Israeli paramilitary assassinated a UN mediator in 1948 because they were afraid his peace deal wouldn't be good for the Israeli State
1948 is a big stretch for me to agree with "isn't new." No one alive today would have been influential then, and many countries have significantly changed in that region of the world since 1948.
Now if stuff like this happened in the 80s, then I'd say yeah, 100% this is up their alley.
oh it gets worse. The US is sending in ground troops to help. Missile defense ground troops, but ground troops all the same. When a few of them get killed (in some fog of war event, I'm sure) we'll send in a large armed contingent to "protect our lads".
My personal nightmare theory is Netanyahu believes one of two things. Biden will not stop him because he believes Israel must be supported at all costs or Biden believes he cannot take action against Israel until after the election. So it is Netanyahu's goal to start a war with Iran before the election, and make sure the US is drawn in.
In this case we know the troops were not Biden's idea. Netanyahu specifically requested them. And for either of the reasons above Biden immediately approved the request.
I sincerely hope it's just depression thoughts. But I will not be surprised if we end up pulled into a war with Iran just before or during the traditional lame duck period. Obviously if Trump wins this is all even worse. But putting troops under Iranian missiles is a breathtaking escalation of the conflict.
Yeah. We've been warned multiple times over the past couple decades that the Israeli far right has expansion on the agenda. And we derided them as conspiracy theorists and/or terrorist apologists.
I don't know if anyone here is interested in uncomfortable facts, but I'll try my luck: UNIFIL has been neglecting their job for the past 18 years, and especially in the past year. Hezbollah has been firing rockets on Israel daily, directly from UNIFIL territory, and UNIFIL has done nothing to hinder them. The IDF revealed yesterday, with video proof, the existence of a tunnel entrance into a Hezbollah bunker, 100 meters away from a UNIFIL base, and 60 meters from a UNIFIL guard tower. It's becoming apparent that UNIFIL isn't truly neutral, and if they are that neglectful or incompetent, staying there puts them at risk, while Israel fights back.
Nothing. It's election year. If Biden does something, then Harris is going to be asked to up the ante which could be criticized as a running promise that might not be followed up on and cost her points
That's the only credit I will give Trump. He's not afraid to throw guarantees and promises around like they're Halloween candy. Now him following up on them (especially that don't benefit him or his friends) is a different story...
Its faster to quantify what Biden would Not do for Netenyahu than figure out what he will do. i cant think of a single thing Biden wouldnt do if Netenyahu told him to. He'd cheerfully drop to his knees and felate the entire IDF if told to, and then write Netenyahu another check of our tax money, to thank the IDF for the opportunity.
In its version of events, the Israeli military said militants of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post and a tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post, it said.
"It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm's way," the military's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
So the UNIFIL report just doesn't mention the combat taking place so close to their base that an Israeli tank accidentally backed up into their main gate during retreat?
EDIT: After further research, and a few high-school level insults, I’m fairly certain, given the mind-boggling complexities of what went down in 1948, (like to what degree the British are to blame for however much of the violence, or how did the population of Arab-Jews factor into anything) that I am seriously under qualified to make the assessment that I made. I’m not sure anyone even can (although numerous books have written about it, one of which my Zionist parents tried to push on me), unless they were a truly neutral, on the ground observer at the time. (Maybe it's another reason to have a different term, since saying it is loaded doesn't even seem sufficient.)
I wish people would stop throwing around the term Zionist willy-nilly. It’s not accurate to the situation, and I don’t understand why it was twisted into this weird genocidal war-mongering meaning that has nothing to do with the word itself.
Now, clearly, there is a large portion of the Israeli government/military/and I guess, population, that is intent on genocide and war mongering, and it’s sickening and they need to be stopped.I just don’t like this term being used inaccurately. Maybe I’m being pedantic.
The term “Zionist” itself does not inherently imply war-mongering or a desire for genocide. Zionism originally refers to the movement for the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in what is now Israel, beginning in the late 19th century. It emerged as a response to centuries of persecution, including pogroms in Europe, and sought to create a safe, sovereign space for Jews.
However, over time, some have associated Zionism, especially in its modern form, with certain political actions taken by the State of Israel. Critics of Israeli policies, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, may use “Zionist” to refer to those who support aggressive military actions or expansionist policies, which clearly are contributing to extreme violence and the attempted genocide of Palestinians. This is where the connotation of war-mongering or even genocidal intent comes into play, often in highly polarized or emotionally charged discussions.
It’s important to note that many Zionists strongly reject these characterizations. They argue that Zionism is about self-determination for Jewish people. Equating Zionism with war-mongering or genocide often reflects political bias or misunderstanding of the broader spectrum of Zionist thought, which ranges from more moderate to more hardline positions.
The term can thus be polarizing, with very different meanings and implications depending on the speaker’s perspective and the context.
Zionism is a settler colonial ideology that aims at creating a Jewish ethno-state in Palestine. It cannot exist without violence. You can’t colonize someone else’s land without violence, and you can’t commit this violence without rationalizing it through dehumanizing the colonized. The genocide against the indigenous Palestinians is the logical consequence of their dehumanization that spans now over more than a century.
I would love some citations, because my research did not indicate any kind of requirement for a Jewish ethno-state inside Gaza. Palestine and Israel are the same thing, so that's what the settlement was about. Not Gaza.
You people are like leftist zombies, you just mindlessly repeat the same phrases over and over and over again. Of course you can't engage with the issues beyond your catchphrases and clam up as soon as someone starts challenging you.
Precision in language is a worthy goal, and another thread and time would be a fine place for a discussion about Theodore Herzl being a gigantic piece of shit who was a wrecker for what may have been a nobler movement among successful high-status Jews in wealthier parts of the Pale of Settlement during one extremely narrow time and context.
Unfortunately, you can’t just start a conversation that’s the equivalent of “swastikas are good luck charms” without seeming like an asshole.
Oh I knew I would seem like an asshole. Fortunately this is the internet, and there aren't really penalties for that (for better or worse). And yes, I am actually very intrigued by the discussion you propose. I've also been reading further after people started replying to my comment. I'm fairly certain, given the mind-boggling complexities of what went down in 1948, (like to what degree the British are to blame for however much of the violence, or how did the population of Arab-Jews factor into anything) that I am seriously under qualified to make the assessment that I made. I'm not sure anyone even can (although numerous books have written about it, one of which my Zionist parents tried to push on me), unless they were a truly neutral, on the ground observer at the time. I think I will append my comment, but leave it up, since I own what I said, despite how views can rapidly evolve.
Im so shocked, its almost as if international law is made up by the global north in order to justify oppressing the global south while taking no accountability.
Their job isn't to stop war crimes. Their job is go record war crimes and report back to the UN, where the world's job is to use this information to stop future war crimes by diplomatic or violent methods