December 16, 2008

The UN General Assembly President bashes Israel in annual ritual

Dear Friend of FLAME:

The United Nations is back at it again, doing what it does best: Trashing Israel.

This time it was General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann at the helm. In his eyes, Israel is guilty of running an apartheid state, with the solution being "boycott, divestment, and sanctions" by the international community. A few days after these remarks were made, the UN's annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people took place on November 29th. Where is the UN's annual day of solidarity with the people of Sudan, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Tibet or Kurdistan?

Let us overlook d'Escoto's warm embrace of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his vile, hate-filled speech to the UN General Assembly earlier this year. And let us overlook d'Escoto's clear distaste for Israel's strongest ally, the United States (for one, he called President Ronald Reagan ‘the butcher of my people'). Instead, let us focus on his false cry of apartheid.

Apartheid is a system for ensuring the rule of the minority over the majority. This is clearly not the situation in Israel. Jews are not in the minority and Israel is a democracy in which Arabs, Jews, and Christians all have the same rights. In calling Israel an apartheid state, d'Escoto essentially expresses his preference for a single state in which all the region's Jews and Arabs should be living side by side, a notion that inherently delegitimizes the Jewish state's existence.

Israel and most of the world have continually embraced a two-state solution. The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to create their own state---largely because that has meant Israel would also exist as an independent Jewish nation. D'Escoto completely ignores the fact that if the Palestinians were capable of finally renouncing and eliminating terror, there would be no need for checkpoints, blockades, and Israeli forces in the West Bank. Then, if they could stop their own bloody internecine battles, they could probably even form a state.

We recently experienced Islamic terrorism again in the despicable terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The Chabbad house was attacked specifically because there were Jews there. It is far past due for the UN to call an emergency session on the scourge of global Islamic terror. There have been ten emergency special sessions called by the UN. Six have been on Israel. None on the violence in Rwanda or Darfur. In the current 62nd session of the UN General Assembly there have been nineteen one-sided resolutions against Israel. Are we truly to believe that Israel represents one of the worst threats in the world? That Israel is among the greatest purveyors of human rights atrocities? We simply should not tolerate such blatant and biased attacks on Israel in the UN.

Please read the summary of d'Escoto's accusations against Israel below. Does it truly sound like he "loves" Israel and the Jewish people as he claims?

Best regards,

Dave Nogradi
FLAME Hotline Contributor

P.S.

The UN's unfair treatment of Israel is certainly not new---indeed, it's been going on for years. No wonder FLAME published a revealing position paper on the subject: "The UN and Israel: Is the Jewish state getting a fair shake from the world body? "This explanation illuminates the reason behind the many anti-Israel resolutions passed in the U.N. and has run nationwide in dozens of publications, which have reached tens of millions of Americans. Please review this position paper and pass it along to others. Most of all, if you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able---with $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html. Thanks for continuing to help us keep the flame alive!

UNGA head accuses Israel of apartheid
by Allison Hoffman, Jerusalem Post, November 25, 2008

A top UN official has called for "concrete action" against Israel over the country's treatment of Palestinians.

General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann said the international community should consider sanctions against Israel including "boycott, divestment and sanctions" similar to those enacted against South Africa two decades ago.

D'Escoto, who told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview last month that he "loved" Israel but disagreed with its policies, reiterated in his speech Tuesday that he had "great love for the Jewish people."

But he went on to say that the Holocaust and other historical crimes against the Jews didn't give Israel "the right to abuse others, especially those who historically have such deep and exemplary relations with the Jewish people."

He pointedly added that he wanted to remind Israelis that despite "the protective shield of the United States and the Security Council," nothing could excuse the failure to establish a Palestinian state.

"This central fact makes a mockery of the United Nations and greatly hurts its image and prestige," d'Escoto said.

D'Escoto made no mention of rocket attacks into the western Negev.

"Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society who are calling for a similar nonviolent campaign," said D'Escoto, a Nicaraguan diplomat who currently holds the one-year presidency.

"Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away, and I believe it is very important we in the United Nations use this term," he said. "We must not be afraid to call something for what it is."

D'Escoto's remarks kicked off a two-day plenary session on the Palestinian issue ahead of the UN's annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, slated for November 29. On that day in 1947, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 on the partition of Mandatory Palestine.

The session, in which envoys from Arab countries and around the world condemned the failure of the Israelis and Palestinians to reach a peace agreement that would establish a Palestinian state, comes two weeks after a gathering in which heads of state from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Arab countries publicly expressed optimism about the current bilateral negotiations.

Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told the Post she planned to send a letter complaining about d'Escoto's comments to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"To equate, to make a similarity between apartheid and the Israeli action in the territories is something we cannot accept," she told the Post on Tuesday.

"Just two weeks ago there was talk of peace, with the moderates leading the way, and now it is the same old narrative."

Shalev addressed the General Assembly earlier in the day and called on the body to reject the "yearly ritual" of "bashing Israel."

"Will you continue adopting resolutions that are irrelevant at best, and damaging at worst?" she challenged her colleagues.

In his remarks, d'Escoto called on Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Earlier Tuesday, checkpoints had been opened to allow humanitarian supplies to reach UN facilities.

Later in the day, Ban called for an immediate end to the blanket closure on Gaza, but also "unreservedly" condemned rocket attacks on the western Negev.

Their comments followed a morning of debate before the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, at which the envoy of the Palestinian Authority read a speech from President Mahmoud Abbas accusing Israel of intentionally obstructing the peace process.

In the statement, Abbas called for a guarantee of "the return of our land and the rights of our refugees, and the possibility of establishing a contiguous and viable state."

"What we mean by a just and lasting solution, which will end the violence in this region once and for all, is not a partial solution that will create the fertile environment for a continuation of the conflict that is more intense and deadly and could spread in the region," Abbas wrote in the statement, delivered on his behalf by PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki.

A South African envoy speaking at the session also raised the specter of apartheid, comparing conditions in the West Bank and Gaza to those of two decades ago in his own country.

On Tuesday, Cape Town's Cape Argus newspaper reported that South African President Kgalema Motlanthe's name, signed as president of the republic, had appeared on a published petition protesting Israel's "colonial oppression" of the Palestinian people.