June 19, 2013

Israel, UNIFIL, and the Blue Line

By Michael Curtis
The world has become familiar with the Green Line, and the Red Line, supposedly a game-changing demarcation.  Now it is likely to become acquainted with the Blue Line, the line devised by the United Nations on June 7, 2000 that demarcates the Israeli-Lebanese border.  This results from events 22 years earlier and the hostilities that began on March 11, 1978, when members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) assaulted Israel from their base, which was virtually a state within the state, in Lebanon, killing and wounding a considerable number of Israelis.  In response, Israeli forces invaded three days later and occupied most of southern Lebanon. Almost immediately, on March 19, 1978, the U.N. Security Council met to pass two Resolutions, 425 and 426, which called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces and created the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Its mission was to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, help restore peace...(Read Full Article)