Colonel,
"If French UN Peacekeepers turned their guns on the IDF, then they should have no qualms about the Hizbullah. In fact, I do know that Italian and French troops have not backed off when threatened."
Haaretz says otherwise-
Israel: UNIFIL hiding info about Hezbollah from Security Council - Haaretz - Israel News]
Sir, that was an Italian UNIFIL contingent. The problem is simple from Israel's perspective- a whitewash at UNIFIL H.Q. An oblique mention to this incident in a UN report alerted Israeli officials to the limited knowledge held by the UNSC about the incident. Apprised of the full facts, UNIFIL had to admit to the UNSC the complete nature of the incident. Thus corrected- or not. The UN amended it's report to include the full disclosure of this solitary incident only to be apprised again by Israel that it wasn't isolated at all.
Major General Claudio Graziano of Italy is the UNIFIL force commander as of February, 2007.
There was no reason to believe that Israel's withdrawal was anything but defeat and the U.N. has no more interest now in maintaining a de-militarized zone than before July 2006. Nobody thought it would be and that's exactly what the Europeans have delivered- a facade of security masking a fait accompli.
This isn't a fair shake and it's not right. POG is NOT the Lebanese gov't and has no business south of the Litani- plain and simple. The U.N. is facilitating a war by this gross mismanagement of it's responsibility.