The cross-border Lebanese Armed Forces- Israeli Defense Forces incident occurred last Tuesday, August 3, and involved the obviously planned attack of Israeli troops who were clearing trees and brush on Israeli territory. The vegetation was being cleared by Israeli troops to improve the visibility for forces patrolling the area. After notifying UNIFIL troops of the planned maintenance work, the IDF was asked to delay the work until UNIFIL could prepare for the incident. They also apparently notified the Lebanese Army.
It is obvious that the commanding officer of the Lebanese in the area planned this attack and used the time to prepare to launch this illegal attack. What other reason can there be for the presence of journalists with these Lebanese forces? In the attack that left Lt. Colonel Dov Harari and wounded Captain Ezra Lakla, one of these journalists was killed in the incident, while another journalist was wounded. There are even some claims that there were camera crews in the area of the attack, that further support the suggestion that this attack was planned.
The UN supports the Israeli claims that the troops were operating in Israeli territory. The facts clearly indicate that the Israelis were operating 50 meters (which is more than one-half a football field) from the blue line that was established as the border between Israel and Lebanon after Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2002. UN support is surprising in itself, given the usual UN knee-jerk reaction to condemn Israel on any occasion in which Israel must defend herself, no matter how extreme the provocation has been against Israel and her security interests.
Unfortunately, the immediate response of the Obama administration was for both sides to exercise restraint. The NY Times and the AP, as well as other media outlets also were neutral in their reporting of the incident, seemingly inferring that somehow Israel was to blame for this sniper attack on its' soldiers on sovereign Israeli territory. Such neutrality would be encouraging if it were to extended to other situations, instead of their being permanent players in the 'blame Israel' game.
In the aftermath of this incident, the US Congress has blocked $100 million in 2010 military assistance to Lebanon that has already been approved, but not yet disbursed. Apparently, Israel can count on the US Congress and the American people to act appropriately in most situations and in defense of our most staunch ally in the Middle East, even though we can seemingly not count on our President and his administration. These funds are being held up for a number of reasons, including clarification of the attack, ascertaining if the LAF troops were using American supplied arms when they launched this attack, and clarifying the role of Hizbullah in the Lebanese Armed Forces. 2011 funding may also be held up pending the outcome of these investigations.
Thank you, Congress.
*UPDATE*
Further evidence that this attack was preplanned is evident from the article below.
Border Clash: A Case Study in Reuters Photography
In this article, the presence of no less than five Reuters photographers at the Israeli-Lebanon boarder during what was just supposed to be Israeli vegetation maintenance is very suspect. It is obvious that something different was expected at that time. Furthermore, the presence of these photographers put them at risk and this was the sole responsibility of the Lebanese military and those who invited the civilians into the area.
A correction to the post above: The decision to delay distribution of the $100 million aid package to Lebanon was made just prior to this attack, in light of the increased involvement of Hizbullah in the LAF and the concern that arms provided would be used by the LAF to attack Israeli soldiers, a key US ally.
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