Translated from the French by Llewellyn Brown

A reminder:

On December 29 2009, we published a photographic scoop showing, at a few meters’ distance from the Israeli border, on the Lebanese side, this picture of a permanent base of the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) [See (in French) Le poids des mots, les photos du déshonneur].

It shows two UN tanks as well as a sentry box, topped by a Hezbollah flag, a portrait of the movement’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and a smaller photograph, showing the military funeral of an Israeli parachutist killed by the Lebanese shi’ah militia.

Superimposed on the image of the funeral we see the Arabic inscription: “Khitman ila zawal”,

which means in English : “YOUR EXTERMINATION IS CERTAIN!”

Abracadabra:

It seems that people at the UN were more troubled by the Ména’s article than the entire media’s editorial staff; our fellow journalists welcomed our revelation with deafening silence.

Indeed, while walking this morning with Nihya (my girl) and Taz (our Boxer) in the Metula orchids, opposite the UN position, I noticed that the UNIFIL base, which had been positioned there for many months, had quite simply… um… disappeared.

The UNIFIL position this Friday morning

(Photo by Ilan Tsadik, © Metula News Agency)

We can notice that the Hezbollah flag – a green hand holding a Kalashnikov – is no longer there either. We do not know who removed it.

The Ména’s December scoop caused some work for the United Nations soldiers: not only did they have to dismantle the sentry box and remove it elsewhere, which, I agree, is not a labor for Hercules, but they also packed up the barrels that protected it.

They are the green barrels filled with sand that we can distinguish on the first photograph of this article, intended to secure the occupants of the white sentry box against an eventual attack using a vehicle. They are much heavier to shift.

But there is no question of the valiant warriors taking down the picture of Nasrallah, with his call for our genocide. The comrades are courageous but not foolhardy. I remind them however that they are “peacekeeping” soldiers, and that a call for a new holocaust does not exactly constitute a peaceful message.

It is true that their mission, based on resolution 1701 of the Security Council, also provides for the disarming of Hezbollah and the control of the borders, around the complete perimeter of Lebanon, in order to prevent the importing of arms and munitions for the illegal militia.

In reality, Hezbollah is transforming, with complete impunity, each shi’ah village of southern Lebanon into a fortified bastion, surrounded by as many human shields as there are inhabitants in the built-up area concerned.

It is now that Goldstone should come and have a look: when the area is strewn with corpses, it will be of no use.

As regards the smuggling of arms from Syria, UNIFIL has not even attempted to oppose it. The influx of arms has transformed the country of cedars’ legal government into a simple observer, with Iran as the real master, with the consequence that a conflict at their initiative seems inevitable today.

In these conditions we can only consider the dismantling of the UNIFIL position as excellent publicity for the Metula News Agency. Our readers can thus be reassured that we are not superfluous, that everyone is influenced by our work, and that those whose subscriptions are not up to date would be well advised not to wait for the next conflict.

Many warm thanks from Ilan to our publicity agent Ban Ki-Moon, who also happens to be the UN’s Secretary-General, our best public relations mouthpiece!

So, the soldiers of the international contingent have broken camp. But on looking a little closer I realized…

(Photo by Ilan Tsadik, © Metula News Agency)

that these intrepid nowadays Richard the Lionheart had only moved a small distance away (about fifty paces) from Hassan Nasrallah and his calls for our collective assassination: it is simply a matter of remaining politically correct.

The rogues have hidden themselves among the olive trees, in order to conceal their presence from the abominable photographic attacks of the Ména and their Canon cameras.

If they had had the intention of camouflaging themselves from the eyes and the Kalashnikovs of Allah’s madmen, they would have hidden themselves on the other side of the trees. That is obvious to anyone!

But it is not so easy to deceive the eagle eye of Ilan Tsadik, who has been accustomed since infancy to unmasking those who attempt to fade into the scenery. What is more, our alert readers – who are the best, the ones the entire profession envies us – will have noticed, even before I draw their attention to it, that the white object that I immortalize in the fronds is none other than the rear of the vehicle on the right of the December photograph (or a tank of the same model).

But what good is it taking pains to try to avoid my attention, when, less than 500 yards from there, another UNIFIL tank is standing on guard (but against whom?) under another poster of the shi’ah militia, topped by its banner that this time is waving in the wind?

At the summit of a small pass, four peacekeeping soldiers are calmly chatting, with no idea of the danger, under the slogan “Nakhnou almofajaat!”, literally: WE WILL SURPRISE YOU!

It is intended for us, but it could well concern them too, if they forget for one minute the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, perpetrated by the same Hezbollah, and which cost the lives of 58 French parachutists.

Before I leave you, temporarily, I must add that the UNIFIL soldiers are innocent of these acts of cowardice. In spite of my natural impishness, I wish to avoid stigmatizing the persons who are not responsible for the matter I am speaking of.

They strictly execute the orders that are delivered on a political level. Not only at Manhattan, at the UN head offices, but also at the head of the nations that provide troops for the international contingent.

Those who believed that their mission was dictated by the resolutions of the Security Council are victims of their naivety. But then, it is necessary to add that these soldiers are not soldiers of the United Nations even though they wear its uniform.

And Israel was cheated when it accepted to end its operation in Lebanon in 2006, after the assassination of eight of our boys by the Hezb, in return for promises by the permanent members of the Security Council – not the least of which was France, the instigator of 1701 – to enforce the terms of this resolution.

Michaël Béhé in Beirut, to whom I presented a preview of this small report, considers that the betrayal of 1701 costs him much more than that, as it is a matter of the independence of his country, of the liberty and security of himself, his family and his friends.

He informed me that he would shortly speak about it to our readers in a forthcoming article. An article that should not be missed.

Technical note:

[1] The photographs we have taken had to be considerably reduced in order to be published for the agency’s readers and appear on the Ména’s web site.