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Israel condemned but…

The impractical but vocal old-European nations were among the first to shout foul about Israel’s recent attempts to defend itself but it is Italy, not France or Germany, that is providing the majority of troops to the Lebanon.

France, according to the last figures I saw, are contributing 200 troops, Bangladesh (commendably) 1,000 and Italy 3,000. For obvious reasons Britain and the US are unable to commit troops.

But surely, as the second most powerful miltary power in Europe, France should be contributing at least as many troops as the coalition-of-the-willing-Italy. Israel, I am sure, would have happily allowed Hezbollah to be disarmed by third parties with no direct benefit. Israel, by implication then, would have been happy for the UN to stop terrorists attacking it and kidnapping its soldiers.

But the UN, despite all the obvious need, is again shown to be toothless. Were I a terrorist in the Middle East watching on at this, I would be more concerned about the serious efforts of Israel, Britain, Italy and the US than I would be of the rest of the world combined. The UN, if it did its job, could stop Britain, Israel and the US from appearing to be bullies in a world full of real bullies (Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda).

So, France, put your money where your mouth is and help Israel and the Lebanon avoid further anti-state terrorist activity.



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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Gavin Ayling's blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  1. #1 by Dave on August 20th, 2006 - 3:19 am

    I don’t see how its helpful for countries who refuse to recognise Israel to be sending troops to its border…

    The UN is working Gav, just not the way you want it to.

  2. #2 by Gav on August 20th, 2006 - 9:15 pm

    Surely no-one thinks the UN is working… Darfur? Afghanistan? Somalia? Any number of other dictatorships and oppressive regimes… What is the UN for since capitalism in China and the fall of communism elsewhere if not to save people from having a non-free life?

  3. #3 by j0nz on August 20th, 2006 - 9:32 pm

    I agree with Gav… The UN is pretty damned impotent, has been for a long time now unfortunately

  4. #4 by Dave on August 20th, 2006 - 9:58 pm

    Working to do what though? Hezbollah, Iran, Syria probably think it works great.
    It works for them, not for ‘us’.

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