Defense Establishment: End UNIFIL's Mandate
The defense establishment decided that UNIFIL has caused more harm than good in Southern Lebanon and needs to go.
The Israeli defense establishment has reportedly decided to recommend that UNIFIL's mandate in southern Lebanon not be renewed, according to a report today (Sunday) by i24 News:
"The security establishment has decided to recommend to the political level not to support the renewal of UNIFIL's mandate.
"The committee that was supposed to convene at the end of the upcoming weekend will likely be postponed to next week.
"The security establishment has decided not to recommend continuing the coordination.
"A senior military source tells me that similar voices exist in the United States as well, mainly following the positive results brought by the American cinematics and work with the Cross.
"The one who might pose a problem is France, which is also a signatory to the event and is particularly interested in continuing coordination with UNIFIL.
"The background is that during the war, the dysfunction of the system was made unambiguously clear - it not only failed to contribute but also caused damage.
"In Israel, they understand that if there is a system that works, it's better to stick with it."
The UNIFIL force was established by UN mandate in 2006 at the end of the Second Lebanon War, with the aim of supervising the southern Lebanese area and keeping the peace. Despite this, the recent war with Hezbollah revealed that the force did little or nothing to stop Hezbollah from operating in the area, including stocking missiles, stationing troops, and digging terror tunnels.
At least one report spoke of how UNIFIL forces were even bribed to look the other way as Hezbollah forces established terrorist infrastructure within visual range of UNIFIL outposts. Former IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari even showed some of these tunnels.