High-ranking IDF officers said "good riddance" this week after reports emerged from United Nations headquarters in New York that longtime UNIFIL commander Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini, of the French Armed Forces, would be replaced by February. According to UN plans, the French who have been in command of UNIFIL for the past three years, will turn over command to the Italian Armed Forces. Pellegrini's Italian successor has yet to be named but Italian defense sources said Thursday that three well-respected and top generals were competing for the position. One candidate is General Paolo Geromatta, current commander of Italy's 2,500-strong contingent to the peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
"We are happy to see Pellegrini go," said a high-ranking IDF officer in Tel Aviv, who noted the French general's anti-Israel comments over the past three years since he took up the post in January 2004. Most recently Pellegrini said UNIFIL forces were allowed to shoot down IAF jets which patrolled the Lebanese skies, sparking harsh criticism from the IDF.
"After being in Lebanon for so long he must have forgotten whose side he is on and has turned pro-Hizbullah," said another officer in the Northern Command. Pellegrini also caused a stir within the IDF after he gave an interview to The Jerusalem Post in September in which he said that the multinational force would not automatically open fire on Hizbullah guerrillas even if they were on their way or in the midst of an attack against Israel.