(National post).Now that Israel has withdrawn from Gaza and Lebanon, and taken down many of the roadblocks in the economically booming West Bank, its Arab enemies are running out of pretexts for attacking the Jewish state. Tuesday brought a particularly absurd episode: A Lebanese sniper shot and killed an Israeli officer for the crime of...pruning bushes on the Israeli side of the border.
At first, details of the event were sketchy, with both sides claiming that the other had initiated the hostilities. But on Wednesday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in South Lebanon, UNIFIL, confirmed that the Israeli workers and the foliage they were pruning were on their own side of the UN-recognized Blue Line, separating the two countries. Only after the Lebanese sniper had killed his victim did Israel return fire, killing four.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the story is the fact that uniformed Arab troops now seem to be openly copying the cowardly terroristic tactics of Hezbollah and other "militant" groups. At one point during Tuesday's fighting, the Lebanese side asked the Israelis to hold their fire so that the Lebanese troops could be evacuated. Shortly after the Israelis complied with this request, the Lebanese fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli tank.
Not surprisingly, the event is being used as a rallying point to try to unite Lebanese disparate factions against Israel. Even in the West, many of the usual suspects are simply ignoring the UN-stipulated facts and blaming Israel for what we now know was a Lebanese act of murder. From Jenin to Gaza to Lebanon, this pattern is always the same: Never let the truth get in the way of stirring up hate against the Jewish state.