He writes:
December 6, 2018, marks the day the United Nations General Assembly (“UNGA”) infamously sold its soul to evil by failing to agree on whether a resolution condemning Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza required two-thirds – or simple – majority vote.
December 6, 2018 also happened to be the first anniversary of President Trump’s announcement of America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the intended relocation of America’s Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
December 6, 2018 was also the fourth day of the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah marking the rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem following the Jews uprising against their Greek-Syrian oppressors.
America had submitted draft resolution A/73/L.42 (“L. 42”)to the UNGA on 29 November 2018:
- Condemning Hamas for repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence, thereby putting civilians at risk;
- Demanding that Hamas and other militant actors, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, cease all provocative actions and violent activity, including by using airborne incendiary devices;
- Condemning the use of resources by Hamas in Gaza to construct military infrastructure, including tunnels to infiltrate Israel and equipment to launch rockets into civilian areas, when such resources could be used to address the critical needs of the civilian population;
“The representative of Kuwait, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, said the situation in the Middle East is directly linked to international peace and security. He condemned Israeli policies that violate international humanitarian law and the Charter of the United Nations and requested a vote to apply the two‑thirds majority rule for the adoption of draft “L.42”.The Assembly then voted to apply the two‑thirds majority requirement by a very narrow simple majority margin of 75 in favour, 72 against, with 26 abstentions.
The representative of the United States said a simple majority is required for adoption of the resolution. She called for fairness in the United Nations and said action on the draft was about “doing what is right”. “The General Assembly has never uttered a word in any resolution about Hamas,” she said. The decision to adopt the text by a two‑thirds majority is based on a desire to have the resolution fail. She urged all States to vote against the motion.
Those favouring a two-thirds majority vote included 44 out of 56 Islamic States – whilst one (Albania) voted against, 5 abstained and 6 did not vote.
Non-Islamic States supporting the Islamic States bloc included: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Japan, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
All 21 member States of the European Union supported America’s simple majority stance.
Others backing America included: Australia, Bosnia, Canada, Colombia, Estonia, Ghana, Honduras, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Singapore, Slovakia, Ukraine and Uruguay.
L 42 was then passed by the UNGA by 87 votes for, 57 against and 33 abstentions – but was declared lost because it had not secured the two-thirds majority required.
The Islamic States had secured a three-vote procedural victory – setting a precedent that is bound to be attempted again.
Hamas and other militant groups remain free to engage in heinous conduct found worthy of UN condemnation by a majority of UN member states.
The foundational basis of the UN – maintaining international peace and security – has been flagrantly circumvented by the UNGA failing to agree on how to run its own meetings.
Such is the depth of total irrelevance to which the UN has sunk.
(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
ReplyDelete“It is virtually impossible to get the United Nations
to condemn any Arab terrorist group or state for
any attack on Israel or Jewish institutions.
Yet there is an eagerness to condemn Israel,
whether Israel is right or wrong.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 225), year 1991, by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Daniel Byman said:
“…for years, the United Nations (UN) refused to
condemn terrorism, due to sympathy for national
liberation movements that used terrorism as a tactic,
auch as the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).”
SOURCE: Al Qaeda, the Islamic State,
and the Global Jihadist Movement:What Everyone
Needs to Know (chapter 9, page 187)
by Daniel Byman, Oxford University Press, year 2015,
ISBN: 019021726X (paperback) ISBN: 9780190217266
(paperback) ISBN: 0190217251 ISBN: 9780190217259
===================================
“…UNRWA’s definition of refugee is not
dependent on need, and even applies to
citizens of recognized states, such as Jordan.”
SOURCE: The Media’s Unredeemable ‘Reporting’
on UNRWA by Sean Durns / JNS.org * 2018/9/22 www.algemeiner.com/2018/11/22/the-medias-unredeemable-reporting-on-unrwa/
===================================
“Instead, UNRWA schools and facilities have been
used to promote hatred and murder of Israelis.
For example, a March 7, 2016 ceremony at an
UNRWA school in Gaza City celebrated stabbing Jews.
UNRWA officials have also posed with maps
erasing Israel and have been caught
disseminating anti-Semitic materials.”
SOURCE: The Media’s Unredeemable ‘Reporting’
on UNRWA by Sean Durns / JNS.org * 2018/9/22 www.algemeiner.com/2018/11/22/the-medias-unredeemable-reporting-on-unrwa/
===================================
“Yet according to a 2011 report by the
Center for Near East Policy Research,
UNRWA has four times as many staff members
as UNHCR does — despite the fact that UNRWA
deals with six times fewer refugees than UNHCR.
In fact, instead of working to resettle
refugees, UNRWA employees have been caught
working for Hamas and praising Hitler.”
SOURCE: The Media’s Unredeemable ‘Reporting’
on UNRWA by Sean Durns / JNS.org * 2018/9/22 www.algemeiner.com/2018/11/22/the-medias-unredeemable-reporting-on-unrwa/
===================================
“UNRWA employees have been caught praising
anti-Jewish violence, and, per a 2015 UN
investigation, [that] the organization’s
facilities were used by terrorist groups
to launch and store rockets during the
2014 Israel-Hamas War.”
SOURCE: The Media’s Unredeemable ‘Reporting’
on UNRWA by Sean Durns / JNS.org * 2018/9/22 www.algemeiner.com/2018/11/22/the-medias-unredeemable-reporting-on-unrwa/
Daniel Tragerman, 4 years old, who was killed in his home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz by a mortar shell fired from Gaza on 2014 August 22:
www.timesofisrael.com/daniel-tragerman-was-killed-by-mortar-fired-from-un-facility-ex-idf-chief/
UN Admits Palestinians Fired Rockets from UNRWA Schools:
http://matzav.com/un-admits-palestinians-fired-rockets-from-unrwa-schools
===================================
www.UNwatch.org
Speech Exposes United Nations’s Hatred of Israel & Jews:
ReplyDeletespeaker: Anne Bayefsky * date: 2014 September 8
www.aish.com/jw/me/UNs-Anti-Semitism.html
===================================
The United Nations vs. Israel by Anne Bayefsky
The United Nations is obsessed with one country’s human
rights record, and it’s not North Korea, Iran or Syria.
www.aish.com/jw/me/The-UN-vs-Israel.html
www.algemeiner.com/2018/06/18/top-british-diplomat-calls-out-un-human-rights-council-for-disproportionate-focus-on-israel/
===================================
“The United Nations does not want to deal with
anti-Semitism because the organization would
be exposed as the global platform for anti-Semitism.”
SOURCE: The UN’s Jewish Problem by Anne Bayefsky
www.aish.com/jw/me/UNs-Jewish-Problem.html
===================================
Eradicating the Right to Self-Defense by Anne Bayefsky
Learn how the International Court of Justice
(the UN's legal branch) has decreed new rules
which redefine the right of self-defense, in a
way which is custom-tailored to make it illegal
for Israel to defend itself against radical Islamic terrorists.
www.aish.com/jw/me/48908817.html
www.algemeiner.com/2018/08/26/according-to-the-un-israel-cant-defend-itself/
UN Leader Ban Ki-moon, in Departing Speech,
ReplyDeleteAdmits Anti-Israel Bias at World Body
posted on 2016 December 16 by JNS.org
www.jns.org/news-briefs/2016/12/16/un-leader-ban-ki-moon-in-departing-speech-admits-anti-israel-bias-at-world-body#
(JNS.org) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is stepping down at the end of the year, acknowledged in a departing speech that there is “disproportionate” bias against Israel at the world body.
"We must never accept bias against Israel within U.N. bodies,” Ban said Friday.
Ban went on to admit that the U.N. has a "disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel,” and that "in many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the U.N. to fulfill its role effectively."
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon commended Ban’s statement and noted the disproportionate number of anti-Israel resolutions passed at the U.N. in recent years.
"The secretary-general admitted the clear truth—the U.N.’s hypocrisy towards Israel has broken records over the past decade. During this time the U.N. passed 223 resolutions condemning Israel while only eight resolutions condemning the Syrian regime as it has massacred its citizens over the past six years. This is absurd," said Danon.
At the same time, Ban urged Israeli lawmakers to reconsider the controversial outpost bill, which would legalize Israeli settlements on private Palestinian land.
"I strongly urge legislators to reconsider advancing this bill, which will have negative legal consequences for Israel and substantially diminish the chances for Arab-Israeli peace," Ban said.
===================================
Does the United Nations (U.N.) discriminate against Israel?
“Israel is the ONLY U.N. state not permitted to be a full member of any of the U.N.’s five regional groups.
Throughout the Human Rights Council sessions, these groups hold key planning meetings in which countries negotiate and share important information behind closed doors.
Even the Palestinian Authority, though not a state, is permitted into the Asian regional group.”
SOURCE: article by Anne Bayefsky 2010/9/24 in The Jewish Voice.
Anne Bayefsky is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.
Israel is ONLY Country Criticized by U.N. for Women’s Rights Violations
ReplyDeletePosted on 2015 March 20 by JNS.org.
www.jns.org/news-briefs/2015/3/20/israel-is-only-country-criticized-by-un-for-womens-rights-violations#.VQyJPGctA5s=
www.algemeiner.com/2015/03/20/un-claims-israel-is-worlds-worst-violator-of-womens-rights/
(JNS.org) In Friday’s annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Israel was the only country the commission criticized for alleged women’s rights violations.
A CSW report titled “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women” criticizes Israel for what it calls “high levels of unemployment and poverty” among Palestinian women due to Israel’s control over territories including the West Bank, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem. (Gaza is governed by the Hamas terrorist group.)
“Palestinian women and girls still face significant obstacles in accessing basic services, health care, psychosocial support, water and sanitation, justice institutions, and economic opportunities,” the report said.
Noting that Israel was the only U.N. member criticized by CSW, Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed the report, saying it was “fighting the decision, which was yet another testimony to the hypocrisy of U.N. members,” Ynet reported.
The report ignores Hamas, which has routinely violated women’s rights in recent years, including a move to ban women from participating in the Gaza marathon, barring women from riding motorbikes, and banning women from smoking water pipes in cafes.
Meanwhile, human rights groups have also demanded that Palestinian leaders pass new laws to protect women from honor killings amid their upsurge in Palestinian society.
Anne Bayefsky, who serves as director at the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, slammed the U.N. commission in an op-ed for targeting Israel while ignoring more egregious violations of women’s rights in the Middle East.
“Not Syria. Where government forces routinely employ rape and other sexual violence and torture against women as a tactic of war. Not Saudi Arabia. Where women are physically punished if not wearing compulsory clothing. Not Sudan. Where domestic violence is not prohibited. There is no minimum age for ‘consensual’ sex. Not Iran. Where every woman who registered as a presidential candidate in the last election was disqualified,” Bayefsky wrote.