Although the UN has finally agreed to give Israel the video-cassette of the area of the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers, it is still not clear when this will actually happen. The three soldiers were kidnapped into Lebanon along the northern border eight months ago. The UN also plans first to blur the faces of the Hizbullah terrorists who appear in the film, explaining that this is for the purpose of \"maintaining neutrality.\"
Israeli officials reject this explanation out-of-hand. Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold said today that UNIFIL soldiers chose to protect themselves rather than carry out their mission of ensuring peace and quiet. He said that for this reason they cannot be relied on, and should certainly not be invited to \"keep the peace\" in Judea and Samaria. Former Prime Ministerial security aide Maj.-Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom said that anything the UN could have done to prevent the kidnapping, or the transfer of any information it has on the topic, is a \"humanitarian gesture of the first degree.\" Israeli security sources say that the UN has additional information on the kidnapping that it has not given Israel.
Israeli officials reject this explanation out-of-hand. Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold said today that UNIFIL soldiers chose to protect themselves rather than carry out their mission of ensuring peace and quiet. He said that for this reason they cannot be relied on, and should certainly not be invited to \"keep the peace\" in Judea and Samaria. Former Prime Ministerial security aide Maj.-Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom said that anything the UN could have done to prevent the kidnapping, or the transfer of any information it has on the topic, is a \"humanitarian gesture of the first degree.\" Israeli security sources say that the UN has additional information on the kidnapping that it has not given Israel.