The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) came into being in 1978, when Lebanon was in the midst of a civil war and the IDF was trying to stop Palestinian terrorists from launching raids and rockets into the Galilee. After the 2006 war, the UN revamped its mission (updated for a different terrorist group): to keep Hizballah away from the Israeli border and keep the peace between the two sides. Not only did it fail at that task completely, Tony Badran explains, its presence shielded Hizballah from attack and strengthened its economic base:

Just how blatantly Hizballah operated with UNIFIL’s blessing became clear after Israel launched its invasion of southern Lebanon on September 30. IDF units operating close to Israel’s northern border uncovered the openings of elaborate, large-scale Hizballah tunnel networks a few yards away from UNIFIL positions. It was clearly impossible for UNIFIL commanders not to have been fully aware of the construction of those positions and their use by large squads of armed Hizballah militants who moved in and out. Needless to say, the construction and deployment of Hizballah’s tunnel network, which made a mockery of UNIFIL’s supposed role in demilitarizing southern Lebanon, was never reported back to the UN through official channels or made public. Instead, UNIFIL paid local Hizballah operatives and supporters to act as contractors and provide other services, essentially melding its functions with those of the terrorist army for which it was providing cover.

UNIFIL only bestirred itself to comment when the IDF moved in to dismantle Hizballah’s infrastructure—not to denounce the terror organization for blatantly abusing its hospitality and violating its mandate, but by refusing to withdraw from its positions adjacent to the terror group’s fortifications in order to keep Israel from blowing them up.

In the event Donald Trump wins [the U.S.] election, Israel will likely have a wider margin vis-à-vis Iran and its proxies. However, Jerusalem should not underestimate how similar Republican impulses toward Lebanon are to those of Team Obama, even if their ostensible motives are different.

Commenting on the wave of anti-Hamas demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, Seth Mandel writes:

Gazans have not have been fully honest in public. There’s a reason for that. To take just one example, Amin Abed was nearly beaten to death with hammers for criticizing Hamas. Abed was saved by bystanders, so presumably the intention was to finish him off. During the cease-fire, Hamas members bragged about executing “collaborators” and filmed themselves shooting civilians.

Which is what makes yesterday’s protests all the more significant. To protest Hamas in public is to take one’s life in one’s hands. That is especially true because the protests were bound to be filmed, in order to get the message out to the world. The reason the world needs to hear that message is that Westerners have been Hamas’s willing propaganda tools. The protests on campus are not “pro-Palestinian,” they are pro-Hamas—and the people of Gaza are Hamas’s victims.