UN's Human Rights Agenda is Hijacked
by Vic Alhadeff, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Australia.
ISRAELI foreign minister
Abba Eban once jested that if a resolution was tabled at the UN that the world
is flat - and that Israel flattened it - it would pass by a majority of 170-5
with 17 abstentions.
…The UN is mandated with the moral authority to
adjudicate on matters of international concern, yet an alarming number of its
agencies are headed by countries whose human rights records range from
questionable to appalling, including Libya, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Sudan, Iran,
Saudi Arabia and Burma. The Human Rights Council has studiously avoided
condemning the brutalities in Darfur, war in Congo,
Chechnya and Sri Lanka, but has directed 26 out of 32 resolutions
condemning human rights violations against Israel.
…The Goldstone report in its 575 pages blithely
ignored Hamas's ideology - which declares that Israel will exist only until
Islam obliterates it. Nor did its executive summary breathe a word about the
10,000 rockets Hamas fired into Israel in eight years. And even though Hamas MP
Fathi Hamad admitted Hamas "created a human shield of women, children, the
elderly", Goldstone did "not consider it to constitute
evidence".
There have been more than 400 anti-Israel
resolutions in the General Assembly - more than against all other UN nations
combined - and six emergency sessions on Israel…
Rocket Factory in the West Bank. A weapons lab
containing explosives and pipes that were apparently meant to be used to
assemble rockets was discovered in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. The Shin Bet
revealed in a report last year that Hamas terror operatives in the West Bank
had increased efforts to obtain a rocket capability and to develop Kassam
rockets that could be fired into central Israeli cities.
Food for Thought. by
Steven Shamrak
Similar Conflict Different International Response: Tamils waged a terror
war against Sri Lanka illegitimately demanding, because they are non-indigenous
migrants from India, independence from Sri Lanka. At the moment, some 300,000
Tamils are detained in concentration camps after the crude and bloody defeat of
the Tamil Tigers by the Sri Lankan government. There are neither ‘Goldstone
reports’ nor Human Rights outcries. Where are the International condemnations
and UN hearings of real atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government? The
difference is: Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, Israel is the Jewish one!
Goldstone
Backing Away from Report. In an interview
with the Jewish Daily Forward,
Goldstone denied that his group had conducted “an investigation.” Instead, it
was what he called a “fact-finding mission” based largely on the limited
“material we had.” Since this ‘material’ was cherry-picked by Hamas guides and
spokesmen, Goldstone acknowledged that “if this was a court of law, there would
have been nothing proven.” (Do you remember another infamous anti-Israel campaign
– the Jenin ‘massacre’, instigated by the UN? There was heavy ‘smoke’, but
the UN stopped short of initiating an investigation, to avoid embarrassment,
because there was no ‘fire’!)
What Palestinians, What Unity? Not long ago
Abbas's Fatah party finally signed Egypt's plan for separate signings of a reconciliation
deal with Hamas after the Islamist group balked at attending a unity ceremony.
Hamas said it still had not decided whether to agree to the proposal put
forward by Egyptian mediators, which was rejected and postponed many times by
both sides. A powerful Palestinian Dughmoush clan has become split between
pro-Al Qaida and pro-Hamas elements. Factions are being formed, and the clan no
longer works as a unit. (How many Israel-hating
terrorist splinter groups must Jews negotiate with?)
Rabbis
Boycott Pope's Visit. Italian rabbis have decided to boycott the upcoming
visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Rome’s main synagogue on January 17th.
The decision was made in protest of the revival of a prayer which calls for the
conversion of Jews by the Church. (Finally, some
rabbis have shown guts and self-respect! Reconciliation requires mutual respect
and genuine confession of the sins of the past! Isn’t this the main ritual of
the Catholic Church?)
Abbas’
Declaration of NO Peace. "There will be no Israeli-Palestinian
peace treaty until the occupation of Jerusalem ends. We are determined to
safeguard the Aksa Mosque and Jerusalem," Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech in Ramallah last week. (There will be
no peace until Arabs’ occupation of Jewish land ends!)
IDF
is Fighting Jewish Patriots. IDF
Central District Commander Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni issued orders banning two
prominent Land of Israel activists from returning to their homes, or anywhere
in the Shomron (Samaria), for the next six months. MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari
(National Union) has condemned the issuing of administrative orders against
Land of Israel activists without trial. "I find it strange that we only
hear about such orders coming out against nationalist activists. Who has ever
heard of administrative orders being issued against leftists…” At the same
time, according to a senior IDF source, weapons are flowing freely into
PA-controlled towns in Samaria thanks to the recent removal of IDF checkpoints.
Quote of the
Week: “The real opponents of Zionism can never be placated by any
diplomatic formula: their objection to the Jews is that the Jews exist, and in
this particular case, they exist in Palestine.” - Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s
first president.
Is
Sensitivity Always Needed? After Turkey
recently cancelled a joint air manoeuvre exercise with Israel due to the
situation in Gaza, Industry and Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said:
"Israel has important strategic interests with Turkey and we must act with
extra sensitivity to prevent dire predictions concerning our relations from
materializing." (Strangely, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt have shown
no “extra sensitivity” toward Israel. Must Israel be always nice to her
enemies, especially to disguised as a friend ones?)
Is Turkey a NATO Member or Islamic
Stooge? The U.S. and Italy pulled out of the multinational
Anatolian Eagle drill after Ankara banned Israel, so forcing NATO to cancel the
exercise.
Hamas
Cowards Ran Away to Sinai. After weeks of absorbing criticism from
Hamas, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas struck back, accusing the Gaza
terror group's leadership of running away to Sinai during Operation Cast Lead
this past January. "Hamas leaders escaped, leaving its people to
die".
Jews Still Living in Mental Slavery.
While support for Israel is important to U.S. Jews, a new survey by the
National Jewish Democratic Council shows that they would vote Democrat even if
the candidate was apathetic about supporting Israel. (Democracy
means that people do have a freedom of choice and are not guided by redundant
dogma!)
Normalization - Islamic Style. Following the historic accord normalizing relations between Turkey and
Armenia, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that opening the border between
the two countries is linked to the question of the enclave of Nagorno-Karbagh.
This Christian Armenian enclave is located in Muslim Azerbaijan. (This accord worth nothing, as Turkey has still not
accepted responsibility for the slaughter of up to 1.5 million Armenians in 1916.)
by Spengler
"The
situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable," declared United
Sates President Barack Obama in his June 4 Cairo address. Really? Compared to
what? Things are tough all over. The Palestinians are one of many groups
displaced by the population exchanges that followed World War II, and the only
ones whose great-grandchildren still have the legal status of refugees. Why are
they still there? The simplest explanation is that they like it there, because
they are much better off than people of similar capacities in other Arab
countries.
The standard
tables of gross domestic product (GDP) per capital show the West Bank and Gaza
at US$1,700, just below Egyp’s $1,900. …GDP per capita, moreover, does not
reflect the spending power of ordinary people. Forty-four percent of Egyptians,
for example, live on less than $2 a day. …Literacy in the Palestinian Authority
domain is 92.4%, equal to that of Singapore. That is far better than the 71.4%
in Egypt, or 80.8% in Syria.
Without
disputing Obama's claim that life for the Palestinians is intolerable, it is
fair to ask: where is life not intolerable in the Arab world? When the first UN
Arab Development Report appeared in 2002, it elicited comments such as this
one: "With barely an exception, its autocratic rulers, whether presidents
or kings, give up their authority only when they die; its elections are a sick
joke; half its people are treated as lesser legal and economic beings, and more
than half its young, burdened by joblessness and stifled by conservative
religious tradition, are said to want to get out of the place as soon as they
can."
…Palestinian
Arabs are highly literate, richer and healthier than people in most other Arab
countries, thanks to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the
blackmail payments of Western as well as Arab governments. As refugees, they
live longer and better than their counterparts in adjacent Arab countries. It
is not surprising that they do not want to be absorbed into other Arab
countries and cease to be refugees.