The Blue (Helmet) Litmus Test

There has been much to catch up on since my wife and I returned from Israel almost two weeks ago, so I haven't been posting.   I have already done two out-of-town excursions since then (home in time for late dinner), and a few more are planned for me in the coming weeks, and my wife is out of town today for the day.

For reasons not yet appropriate for discussion, the litigation I am conducting has taken a subtle but interesting twist, even as I work on writing the legal memo for the Judge.

And today is my first day back to teach for the semester, with its usual attendant first-day-of-the-semester dysfunctions (which, thankfully, have been quite minor thus far).

Though I have some very strong opinions on the events now transpiring in Israel and in the world, most of those views have been more than adequately expressed by others elsewhere, and will not now be given the "me, too," other than to give a perfunctory "me, too."

And the one matter I do, at this moment, feel a strong compulsion to comment upon, does not warrant much in the way of comment because it speaks for itself:

The detention/kidnapping of 48 U.N. "peacekeeper" troops in the Golan by Muslim terrorists.

If the UN does nothing, then it (A) shows the futility of depending upon UN "peacekeepers," and if the UN uses force then that  leaves a wide opening for Israel to do likewise, in spades – if Netanyahu has the baytzim to act.

And it really cannot be said that the UN is a "neutral" in this conflict because a UN agency, UNRWA, is allowing its schools in Gaza to be used as safekeeping facilities for Hamas rockets.

So if the blue helmet does not guarantee the safety of the peacekeeper soldier, it is because the UN is not the neutral party it is touted to be.