The UN and Hezbollah flags fly side by side

A very interesting opinion article from Australia's largest newspaper, with the opinion well documented. Click on the links in the text to read the relevant documents that give a very different view of what happened and why. Why have we not seen this in the Dutch papers?

Kissing cousins: The UN and Hezbollah flags fly side by side at the UN observer post. (Pic thanks to Michelle Malkin <http://michellemalkin.com/>)

By Andrew Bolt
<http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/>
Herald Sun
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/

Thursday, July 27, 2006 at 09:22am

The lynching of Israel continues, this time with United Nations boss Kofi Annan accusing it of the "apparently deliberate targetting <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1153291996858&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>"
of a UN observation post, killing four observers. The usual suspects are now running with this line, with The Age front page screaming: "UN told: please explain.'' The venom against Israel - as splashed about by former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer on ABC 774 this morning - is extraordinary. Do these people seriously think Israel aims to kill UN staff, and that this was not simply - as Israel insists - a tragic mistake?

What makes Annan's allegation so unforgiveable is that his UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been warning for days about what almost certainly caused this tragedy. Hezbollah fighters, who have already been firing behind screens of women and children, have also been shooting from behind and next to the UN positions, presumably hoping Israel will not dare shoot back and risk exactly this kind of propaganda disaster.

Read the UNIFIL press releases for yourself to learn that Hezbollah has not just shot at <http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr09.pdf> and seriously wounded <http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr08.pdf> UNIFIL observers - without any protest from Kofi Annan or The Age. You'll also learn that UNIFIL has repeatedly <http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr05.pdf> reported Israeli shelling and bombing near UNIFIL outposts <http://www.un.org/Depts/ pko/missions/unifil/pr09.pdf> because Hezbollah fighters were shooting from right beside them
<http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr04.pdf> .Says the UNIFIL press release of 20 July:
Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naquora and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents (of Israeli return fire). Can the jeering critics of Israel stop catcalling for a minute and explain how Israel is to defend itself against an enemy that shoots from among women and children, and from behind UN soldiers? Can they explain why they are such apologists for terrorists? Can Annan explain why he did not call on Hezbollah to stop risking the lives of his staff, or pull them out when they were being used to screen terrorist fighters?

UPDATE 1: More evidence. Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie says he recently received emails from the Canadian peacekeeper killed at the UN post who'd told him that Hezbollah was using his post as cover.

We received emails from him a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted. Now that's veiled speech in the military. What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it.

(Thanks to Little Green Footballs
<http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php>)
UPDATE 2: Canada's prime minister Steven Harper also makes sense
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060726/wl_canada_afp/mideastconflictcanada>:
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said an Israeli attack on a UN
outpost that killed four, including a Canadian, was a "terrible tragedy"
but not likely deliberate.

At the same time, he questioned why the UN had manned the outpost in Lebanon near the Israeli border as bombs exploded all around.

"We want to find out why this United Nations post was attacked and also why it remained manned during what is now, more or less, a war during obvious danger to these individuals," he told reporters.