Israel delegation to UN wins praise from unexpected source

The United Nations headquarters in New York is usually not a place in which Israel receives compliments, yet the Israeli delegation there recently garnered rave reviews for the way it responded to the explosion of a Hezbollah weapons cache in southern Lebanon.

Though unable to say so publicly, Arab representatives at the UN were impressed with the Israelis' efficient and successful diplomatic campaign following the incident.

Instead, Arab deputies and officials criticized the Lebanese government "whose representatives failed in a frightening fashion," in the words of one Lebanese journalist.

In the wake of the weapons cache explosion, diplomats in New York credit the Israeli delegation with exposing Hezbollah as "the neighborhood bully." This is a significant achievement considering that some in the UN have refrained from labeling Hezbollah as a destabilizing factor in the region.

The Israeli contingent can take solace from an article written by the Lebanese correspondent to the UN, Nazar Abud, which appeared in the al-Akhbar newspaper.

Abud mocked "the slowness of [the Lebanese government's] response to Israel's actions, its failure to deal with Israel's claims, and its hopelessness in the face of Israel's activity."

The Lebanese journalist referred to last week's Security Council session in which the secretary general's liaison claimed that the weapons cache which exploded belonged to Hezbollah.

"The Security Council meeting looked like a Lebanese failure," Abud wrote. "Israel acted in full force by launching a public relations campaign. The Israeli response was viewed as a success particularly in view of the failure of Lebanon's counter-response."

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, sent no less than three letters to the UN chief and to the head of the Security Council. The missives included details which prove Hezbollah's complicity in the incidents in south Lebanon.

In parallel, a number of Israeli diplomats, including Amir Weissbrod, who is the delegation's liaison to the Security Council, acted behind the scenes. They held discussions with ambassadors and senior UN officials, divulging information on Hezbollah's activities in south Lebanon.

"The fact that Hezbollah gave many different versions of the incidents and claimed that Israel wants to change UNIFIL's pattern of operation proved that Israel succeeded in presenting a narrative for what happened in southern Lebanon," Weissbrod said.