French and Israeli Tanks Stand Toe-to-Toe in Lebanon Showdown

OK, I took some journalistic license with the title to this blog entry, but the following Debka release is why it may not be such a great idea to put "neutral" European military forces, with unclear military directives (as previously reported here from a NY Times dispatch), on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hezbollah penetrates the border and attacks Israel, Israel attempts to retaliate (or in this case to purportedly recapture siezed weaponry as well -- which was confirmed by other journalistic sources), and European "peacekeeping" forces prevent Israeli forces from achieving its mission or maintaining its deterrent posture. See my release yesterday on the recent Washington Institute seminar on the importance of deterrence ("Deterrence in the Mideast: Consequences of the Lebanon War ....").

I know why the European (cum UN) forces are supposedly there, and if they did the job they were orignally to do (i.e., to assist the Lebanese in disarming Hezbollah) it would be great, but they are doing no such thing. There is a side of me (and many Americans) who wouldn't mind seeing the back of a French tank aflame (though this would be a serious international incident).

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DEBKAfile Exclusive: French tanks obstruct Israeli tanks over suspected Hizballah robbery of Israeli weapons store September 30, 2006, 11:50 AM (GMT+02:00) The south Lebanese village of Merwahin was the stage Thursday, Sept 28 of the first near-showdown between UN and Israeli forces. DEBKAfile publishes here the first photo of an encounter between 4 French Leclerc and at least 5 Israeli Merkava tanks in that Lebanese village. Despite the photographic evidence, Israel officially denies the incident. DEBKAfile reports the French force sought to prevent the Israeli unit from combing through the Hizballah-dominated village in search of the raiders who crossed into Israel and broke into the IDF’s Kibbutz Shomera arms store last week. They made off with a large quantity of side-arms, anti-tank weapons, LAU rockets and hundreds of combat grenades, which the Israeli force was determined to recover. American and German correspondents who witnessed the incident report that the two tank units held menacing positions 50 meters apart for about half an hour, after which the French tanks broke off contact and turned tail. The French commander claims the Israel tanks retreated first. DEBKAfile’s military sources note that this was the second incidence of French backing for Hizballah. On Sept 22, French fighter jets were seen cruising in Beirut’s skies above the podium of Hassan Nasrallah’s “victory speech.” He boasted then that he was not afraid to address the masses directly instead of through armored glass.

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