by Ruthie Blum
In fact, Ban is a prominent member of the Israel-bashing choir he has been conducting for the past 10 years
The outgoing
secretary-general of the United Nations outdid himself this week. In his
final briefing to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, Ban Ki-moon
said, "Over the last decade, I have argued that we cannot have a bias
against Israel at the U.N. Decades of political maneuvering have created
a disproportionate number of resolutions, reports and committees
against Israel. In many cases, instead of helping the Palestinian
issue, this reality has foiled the ability of the U.N. to fulfill its
role effectively."
Listening to the head
of the international body that long ago ceased to fulfill any role other
than that of providing a platform for despots, one might have mistaken
him for an innocent bystander whose voice has been drowned out by the
cacophony against the Jewish state.
In fact, Ban is a
prominent member of the Israel-bashing choir he has been conducting for
the past 10 years, taking every opportunity to equate the only
democracy in the Middle East with the forces bent on its destruction
and on the subjugation of the West.
Indeed, he even
performed this feat in his farewell address, admonishing both Israel and
the terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip in the same
breath. Israel, he warned, "needs to understand the reality that a
democratic state, which is run by the rule of the law, which continues
to militarily occupy the Palestinian people, will still generate
criticism and calls to hold her accountable." Hamas, with its
"anti-Semitic charter, which seeks to destroy Israel," he said, should
"condemn violence once and for all and recognize Israel's right to
exist."
He conveniently forgot
to mention that Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in 2005, and that
Hamas -- which took control over the enclave two years later -- has no
reason to "condemn" the violence against Jews that it perpetrates and
promotes.
But no matter. Ban,
like the rest of his cohorts at the U.N., never lets facts get in the
way of ideology. Nor do his own contradictions in terms cause him to
pause, which is why he had no problem saying that though the
Palestinian conflict is not at the root of the other wars in the Middle
East, "its resolution can create momentum in the region." If he has
some notion of how, exactly, the mass murder of Syrians at the hands of
the Russian- and Iranian-backed regime of President Bashar Assad and
rebel forces would be affected by some deal between Jerusalem and
Ramallah, he is keeping it under wraps.
What he has never been
quiet about, however, is his belief that Israelis are responsible for
Palestinian terrorism, and his hurt feelings when called to task for
holding this view. Take last January, when Ban said it was "human
nature" for downtrodden people like the Palestinians to express their
frustration through violence. This caused a stir among defenders of
Israel, particularly since the U.N. chief had never made a similar
statement about, say al-Qaida, Islamic State or Boko Haram -- the
group that, at the end of the same month, burned 86 Nigerian villagers
alive, among them many children.
Offended at the mere
suggestion that he had justified Palestinian terrorism, Ban penned an
op-ed in The New York Times -- titled "Don't shoot the
messenger, Israel" -- to claim that his words had been unfairly
"twisted." To prove that he had been misquoted, he clarified,
"The stabbings, vehicle-rammings and other attacks by
Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians are reprehensible. So, too,
are the incitement of violence and the glorification of killers.
Nothing excuses terrorism. I condemn it categorically."
Then, without skipping a beat, he proceeded to blame Israel.
"It is inconceivable
... that security measures alone will stop the violence," he wrote. "As I
warned the Security Council last week, Palestinian frustration and
grievances are growing under the weight of nearly a half-century of
occupation. Ignoring this won't make it disappear. No one can deny that
the everyday reality of occupation provokes anger and despair, which
are major drivers of violence and extremism and Israeli settlements
keep expanding. ... Palestinians -- especially young people -- are
losing hope over what seems a harsh, humiliating and endless
occupation."
Given his false
depiction of the situation -- including by omitting Israel's withdrawal
from more than 90% of the territory it obtained after the attempt of
surrounding Arab armies to obliterate it in the Six-Day War -- it
stood to reason that his proposed solutions would be preposterous. And
they were.
"We continue to work
with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to rebuild Gaza and prevent
another devastating conflict, and to press Palestinians for genuine
national reconciliation," he wrote, ignoring the fact that it has been
impossible to "rebuild" Gaza, when Hamas has used all the American
and European funds provided for this purpose to rebuild all its terror
tunnels through which to kidnap and kill Israelis -- and boast about
this in video clips.
However, he said he
was "disturbed by statements from senior members of Israel's
government that the aim [for a two-state solution] should be abandoned
altogether" because the "stalemate" will lead to "a corrosion of
the moral foundation of Israeli and Palestinian societies, ever more
inured to the pain of the other."
After attacking Israel
for "lashing out at every well-intentioned critic," Ban concluded that
"the status quo is untenable. Keeping another people under indefinite
occupation undermines the security and the future of both Israelis
and Palestinians."
It takes serious nerve
for someone who has exhibited anti-Israel bias for years to bemoan the
practice. But then hypocrisy is what Ban and the U.N. are all
about.
Ruthie Blum is the managing editor of The Algemeiner.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17939
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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