The continuing United Nations war against the Jews

Jersusalem Post OPINION by By ANNE BAYEFSKY

On August 6, 2014, the United Nations convened the entire global community for an unusual day-long “informal” session of the General Assembly. The purpose: to demonize the Jewish state and emasculate its right of self-defense.

 The UN formula for ravaging Israel by ignoring the criminal actions of its foes – and the foes of the civilized world – is breathtaking. Not one of the UN speakers – the Secretary-General, the representative of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the UN’s MidEast envoy, the head of UNRWA – even uttered the word “tunnel.” Israel was denounced for destroying “homes and neighborhoods” and “civilian infrastructure.” But the fact that Israel had destroyed an extraordinary labyrinth of 32 terror tunnels deep underground – running for miles, jam packed with explosives, opening near Israeli towns, and built for the sole purpose of killing Jews – somehow just got left out.

 Terror tunnels also did not make it into repeated references to “root causes.” Hamas’ promise to kill Jews and “obliterate” Israel did not count as a root cause of the conflict either. At the UN, “root cause” is reserved for the Israeli “occupation” – that is, the non-existent Jews that have not lived in Gaza for eight years.

 Part of the reason that Palestinian hate-speech does not make it on to the UN agenda is that the UN has no definition of terrorism. In UN circles, Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a welcome member of the Palestinian “unity” government. This may help explain why UN actors have difficulty distinguishing a Palestinian combatant from a civilian, and have no hesitation heavily relying on Hamas-affiliated sources for casualty figures.

At the General Assembly, UN representatives repeatedly talked about 1,800 dead in total; some referred to 1,350 civilian casualties. The numbers game was sufficiently confusing – or maybe not – to the European Union that its representative told the assembled: “We condemn the terrible loss of almost 2,000 lives” – genocidal Hamas killers included. The Secretary-General, UNRWA, and OCHA all called for an immediate “reconstruction effort” – that is, more concrete for Hamas that the UN will not ensure will be used for peaceful purposes.

 Disturbing evidence of possible UNRWA complicity in Hamas attacks, which warranted a full investigation, was ignored. The facts that UNRWA schools have been used as Hamas rocket storage facilities and that the immediate vicinity of UNRWA schools have been used as staging grounds for Hamas rocket attacks were shrugged off with an implausible “we had no clue,” a de minimis naughty-naughty, or a lecture about overcrowding.

 Meanwhile, UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl had the audacity to complain of Israeli actions that inadvertently have damaged its schools: “we cannot comprehend why they occurred.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added this whopper: “there were reports that Hamas rockets were fired from near UN premises. Yet, let me be clear: Mere suspicion of militant activity does not justify jeopardizing the lives and safety of many thousands of innocent civilians.” Mere suspicion? The video and photographic substantiation is in the public domain. And the lives and safety of the 3.5 million innocent Israelis jeopardized by those rockets were deftly omitted from this equation.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/The-continuing-United-Nations-war-against-the-Jews-370504