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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: April-March 2021

Without Irony, Israel Condemns Hezbollah’s UN Violations

Israeli officials are claiming that Hezbollah’s violation of a 2006 United Nations resolution somehow justifies the intimidating presence of low-altitude Israel war planes in Lebanese air space. The 2006 UN Resolution forbade Hezbollah “…from building up its military capabilities and operating near the Israeli border…” UN Resolutions notwithstanding; foreign aircraft that violate Israeli air space have a low survival rate.

The context for these Lebanon over-flights is Israel’s ongoing policy of bombing Iran-backed forces in southern Syria. While that is understandable from a purely military perspective, Israel’s resort to the UN Resolution defense is remarkably hypocritical considering its long history of indifference to the international body.

Before continuing, I’ll protect myself from possible anti-Semitic accusations emanating from those who have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “working definition” of that concept. According to their expansive interpretation, any who dare offer even an accurate critique of Israeli state violence are somehow expected to simultaneously oppose the sins of every other nation. Therefore, I also condemn the ongoing state terror of Morocco, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Myanmar, China, Russia and the United States.

I return now to the bizarre notion of Israel official outrage at Hezbollah’s failure to obey the United Nations since Israel is the world leader in ignoring UN Resolutions. From 1948 to 2017, the State of Israel, with full U.S. support; has blithely ignore nearly 70 UN Resolutions, mostly pertaining to its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and mistreatment of Palestinians both within Israel proper and those under martial law in the Occupied Territories and Gaza.

History shows that nothing taken by force is ever enjoyed in genuine peace. This truth is irrelevant to Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters in Israel and the United States. The so-called peace process remains an Israeli expansion tactic and its recent pacts with certain Arab states are cynical public relations stunts creating illusory good will while transferring high-tech weapons and surveillance gear to brutal autocrats determined to silence dissent. It takes a real talent for Orwellian Newspeak to call that a peace deal.