Danny Gillerman, Israel's outgoing ambassador to the UN, said that UNIFIL soldiers assigned to maintain the cease-fire that ended the Second Lebanon War are not carrying out their mandate and are potentially laying the groundwork for another round of violence between Israel and Hizbullah.
Gillerman, who served as Israel ambassador to the UN for the past six years, had harsh words for the UN's failed implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which he said should have constituted a positive achievement for Israel.
The Israeli ambassador said he had brought up his concerns with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and said that the Israeli government had made a concerted effort to persuade the UN leadership to take a more assertive approach on the implementation of Resolution 1701.
Gillerman said that Israel has raised the issue with UN officials and claims that the UN is well aware of the situation in southern Lebanon. Resolution 1701 was perceived as a major diplomatic achievement for Israel, because it both put an end to the Second Lebanon War and created a new political and military reality on the ground in southern Lebanon.
The resolution brought over 30,000 soldiers to southern Lebanon, including 15,000 Lebanese armed forces and 15,000 international soldiers under UN mandate. Gillerman also noted that before the resolution went into effect on July 12, 2006, southern Lebanon was essentially a Hizbullah state within Lebanon.
Yet recent intelligence reports state that Hizbullah has rearmed itself with 3 times more weapons than it had at the time of the Second Lebanon War, clear evidence of the failure of the resolution which supposed to halt all arms shipments to militias in southern Lebanon.
Resolution 1701 also demanded the release of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were instead released in a prisoner swap with Israel.
Overall, Gillerman believes that while the resolution was an extremely positive achievement for the State of Israel, the UN’s the failure to fully implement the resolution could have disastrous effects for region and eventually lead to a Third Lebanon War.
While Gillerman's criticism is shared by many in the defense establishment, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, officers in the IDF Northern Command are less critical, and in recent briefings have said that Israel is "far better off with UNIFIL than without." 07/25/08
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