More fallout from the Lebanese border incident

Most of the info in this post comes from Army radio, some of it, not necessarily in that order or one place, could be found on the Internet.

Yesterday a meeting as held in Nakura between UNIFIL commander in the area, IDF and LAF representatives. UNIFIL confirmed its earlier statement that the maintenance operation, used as a pretext for opening fire by Lebanese sniper, is located on the Israeli part of the international border (While many anti-Israeli sources and some of mass media present the picture of a crane carrying an IDF soldier over the fence as proof of the border being crossed, this only serves the willing. The fence, at least in this region, is located south of the border, leaving quite a sizable enclave that belongs to Israel - see, for example, the last paragraph with the satellite shot in this Lebanese article).

The response of Lebanese general was, nevertheless, one of complete disregard of this fact, continuing the aggressive and uncompromising line taken by the Lebanese officials in general. According to him, IDF was in breach of the relevant UN resolution and thus the aggressor, and would be repealed in the same way in the future.

At this point the Lebanese general added something worthy of attention. The LAF armed "response", according to him, was not a singular occurrence, but an act that was approved on the LAF staff level as a matter of policy. This statement, as some commentators see it, comes to disprove a common sentiment, shared by many analysts that see the shooting as a local initiative of a low rank Lebanese officer, Hezbollah "activist" or sympathizer, in place.

The response of the Israeli representative was hard. According to some (Lebanese?) source, IDF stance currently is that if a single shot is directed at Israel from Lebanese side, IDF will raze all Lebanese army positions along the whole border. As a side remark - I hope it will impress the Lebanese sufficiently...

As for the possible outcome of the affair: most of the pundits interviewed yesterday and today agree that the shooting was a singular incident and that it wouldn't be repeated nor would it cause a conflagration between Israel and Lebanon. And re the militant speeches by various Lebanese VIPs: all agree that these are for internal consumption - to mute the unfavorable conclusion by UNIFIL and other criticism from abroad. Be interesting to know whether Mr Nasrallah in his infinite underground wisdom agrees with these predictions.

Meryl and Soccer Dad have done a great roundup of sometimes truly ridiculous coverage of the incident in mass media, so I would recommend it to all of you as time saver. I, for one, would like to contribute only a honorable mention of a thoroughly dishonorable Gideon Levy with his article Only we're allowed. This character continues to amaze me by his single-minded endless vituperative railing about his country. "My country - wrong or wrong" should become his motto. Mr Levy could have shut his prodigious trap (for a day, at least) in a situation when even UNIFIL, the normally anti-Israeli outfit, considers Israel to be in the right and, lo and behold, says so publicly. But no, Mr Levy cannot control his self-destructive habit that just has to be fed by a daily dose of an anti-Israeli outburst.

And meanwhile lieutenant-colonel Dov Harari, RIP, is still dead...

Cross-posted on Yourish.com