French "peacekeeping" forces in southern Lebanon were "within two seconds" of firing antiaircraft missiles at Israeli fighter jets that overflew French positions.
In the most serious confrontation, French troops were said by sources in Paris to have been "just two seconds" from launching an anti- aircraft missile at two Israeli F-15 fighters carrying out mock low-level attack runs over one outpost. As this was happening, a pair of Israeli reconnaissance aircraft circled over the headquarters of the French battalion in the Jabal Maroun area, possibly taking aerial photographs there.However, the French general in charge of UN forces in southern Lebanon will be replaced next month by an Italian. The Israelis are happy about that.
I wrote last month about an incident of the IAF intercepting a Continental Airlines flight and coming close to shooting it down.
In other news, the sentiment against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is mounting rapidly. One hundred thousand people demonstrated against Olmert in Tel Aviv today.
Is this a new story? I remember a rather exact version of it being reported last September or October when the French and Israelis were making hissy noises at each other? Just curious.
French and UN officials admitted - or bragged, maybe - last November that they almost fired at the IAF. These were the days of Green Helmet, fauxtography, and the very unfortunate Lebanese woman who had her home blown up seventeen times. The French wanted co-belligerents everywhere to know that they were doing a good job of providing air cover for Hisballah's rearmament. No international Nuremberg Rally is complete without a touch of Gallic perfidy, after all.
Hmmm ... the linked article gives no date, but it was a fresh link off Shmuel Posner's blog. Even so, you may be right, that this is old news after all.
The post states it was first posted January 25, 2007 and is speaking of that time period.
The Israelis are violating the UN cease fire resolution by their overflights. But since, there is no way of stopping arms coming into Lebanon, the Israelis insist they need to continue these overflights. That is a continuing violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a continuing provocation and temptation for someone to fire off an AA missile.
On the other hand, Hizballah rearming under the nose of the UNIFIL and Lebanese is nothing to worry about, right?
The incident described in the article happened last year.
To clarify, I was responding to chew2(#4)
chew2
That is a continuing violation of Lebanese sovereignty
LOL
To say that Southern Lebanon is under Lebanese sovereignty is simply political fiction at the service of Tehran.