I warned many times that Security Council Resolution 1701 to which Israel was coerced by Condoleezza Rice into accepting was a peril to its defense. The resolution, whittled down so that it had as little substance as possible, vested the maintenance of the peace and the prevention of Syrian (and Iranian) smuggling of arms to Hezbollah to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. This international "interim" force was first mustered in 1978. It has not performed well. In fact, Hezbollah has remilitarized southern Lebanon with more rockets and missiles than before. Which tells us once again that you can't really trust the United Nations with anything over the long run.
So, UNIFIL is all that you have. And, ineffective as it was, it is disintegrating. Pressed by the Obama administration to send troops to Afghanistan--I support the presidents efforts in this regard--Poland and other trusted European countries have reacted by some announcing, some whispering that their military will not be long in Lebanon. Some European states have so few personnel stationed in the country that it hardly matters: Slovakia, 6; Slovenia. 14; Ukraine, 1.Yes, one. Many others are toy soldiers: Brunei and Nepal, as instances.Two countries represented are stalwarts of the Muslim International: Malaysia, Indonesia. Others are countries with rabid anti-Israel politics: Norway, Greece and Ireland, for example. You decide where Erdogan's Turkey belongs.
Encouraged by these neutral defections from UNIFIL, Hezbollah has now expanded its revolutionary turf to Egypt.