A former Israeli spokesperson defended the ongoing violence in the Middle East by claiming Israel is doing the exact job the United Nations was meant to do in Lebanon – removing Hezbollah.
The conflict between the militant group and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) continues to escalate in the Middle East – and several UN interim force in Lebanon (Unifil) were killed in the last week by Israeli fire.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has now called on the UN chief Antonio Guterres to remove peacekeeping forces immediately.
On LBC on Monday, former Israel spokesperson Eylon Levy defended Israel’s actions by saying that after the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War the UN was supposed to oversee the dismantlement of the militant group.
But, he claimed: “For 18 years, Unifil hasn’t implemented its mandate, unfortunately. It had one job.”
Unifil’s mandate since 2006 has been to maintain cessation of hostilities, support Lebanese armed forces while Israel withdraws, ensure humanitarian access to civilians and to ensure that its area of operations is to utilised for hostile activities of any kind.
Levy, now head of the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons’ Office, said Israel had to act because of an “internal refugee crisis”.
He said 60,000 Israelis cannot go back to their homes near the border near Lebanon due to Hezbollah violence.
Asked what gives Israel the right to ignore a UN mandate, Levy repeated his claim that the UN has not implemented it.
He claimed: “They allowed Hezbollah to build a mighty terrorist army with 200,000 missiles and then started using them at the behest of Iran.
“And so Israel now finds itself, after a year of already being attacked by Hezbollah, no one else is going to do it but us.”
“But in breach, again, of a UN mandate, Mr Levy,” presenter Nick Ferrari pointed out.
“Nick, we’ve been at a war for a year since Hezbollah declared war on us,” Levy replied, adding that four soldiers were killed on Sunday by a militant drone.
“We don’t want to be in this war, we would much rather the UN dismantle Hezbollah as it was meant to do 18 years ago,” he said.
Levy continued: “I hear the calls around the world for a diplomatic resolution and Israel has been going blue in the face, not just in the last year, saying please enforce 1701.”
The UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was meant to end the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, by replacing Israeli troops with Unifil and disarming militants like Hezbollah.
But Ferrari hit back at Levy: “You want the world to listen to United Nations 1701 but when the UN’s actions don’t suit Israel, they just drive tanks through gates.”
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon reported that Israeli tanks burst through the gates of its base on Sunday, and reminded the IDF: “Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime.”
Isreal’s military claims it was just a “tank under heavy fire” backing up to “get out of harm’s way”.
Levy also told Ferrari that Israel is “picking up the pieces of the world’s failure.”