The UN anti-Israel bias

The Arab League is currently trying to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution forcing Israel to reopen the Gaza Crossings. I wonder, I thought, whether the UN Security Council ever passed a resolution insisting that the terrorists in Gaza stop firing rockets into Israel. So I looked through the 2007 resolutions. Couldn’t find one. Checked in 2006. Couldn’t find one. Maybe back in 2005, after Israel left Gaza? Nope.

So it seems that the United Nations is silent, always, about rockets being fired into a member state from the territories that are ministered by UNRWA. But the UNSC is going to issue a statement condemning Israel for daring to close the crossings after terrorists fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli homes, farms, and schools.

NEW YORK – The UN Security Council is expected to issue a presidential statement Wednesday denouncing Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip.

The council held an emergency session yesterday on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, at the Arab states’ request, and the debate was expected to continue far into the night.

The initial draft circulated Tuesday demanded an immediate halt to Israel’s “illegal” actions against Gaza’s civilian population, expressed “grave concern” over the deteriorating humanitarian situation there and demanded that Israel honor its obligations under international law. However, Israel has been lobbying Security Council members to soften the language, arguing that the draft is utterly one-sided, and UN sources said that both the United States and Britain back Israel’s objections, while other council members are also uncomfortable with the current language.

Even more strange, Israel has modified the blockade to make sure that Gazans receive fuel from now on. But they’re not going to get luxuries. In fact, the fuel has already been sent. And Gaza’s thank-you note came with explosives attached. Hell, even the AP noticed the rockets and put them in its main Gaza story lede.

Israel sent fuel to Gaza’s power plant on Tuesday, easing its five-day blockade of the Palestinian territory amid growing international concern about a humanitarian crisis.

The U.S. warned Israel not to add to the hardship for ordinary Palestinians but blamed the problem on Gaza’s Islamic Hamas rulers. Israel imposed the siege in response to increasing rocket attacks on its border communities by Gaza militants.

Despite the easing of the closure, Palestinian militants fired 19 rockets toward Israel on Tuesday, the military said, up from just two on Monday.

When even the AP puts the rocket attacks in its lede, you have to wonder why the UNSC won’t put them in its statement. And then, of course, you remember that Libya has been elected to the rotating position on the Security Council. Libya is, in fact, the president of the UNSC. Imagine that. A terrorist state, pushing for a resolution condemning Israel’s actions defending herself from terrorism, and backed, of course, by the Arab League and the OIC. The Muslim bloc is pushing for an anti-Israel statement.

In New York, the UN Security Council adjourned until Wednesday talks on a statement that would urge an end to the Israeli lockdown while also slamming militants firing rockets into the Jewish state.

But a council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity after a heated emergency session, voiced skepticism that the United States, a staunch ally of Israel, would accept a compromise text sought by the 14 other council members.

“Fourteen members indicated (during Tuesday’s debate) they wanted a (compromise) text. One, the United States, expressed reluctance,” the diplomat said. “Therefore, it will be difficult to agree an acceptable compromise.”

Adoption of the non-binding text requires approval by all members.

Libya, the council chair this month, submitted a draft that would call on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza and ensure “unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people,” according to a copy of the text obtained by AFP.

The text would also urge Israel “to abide by its obligation under international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, and immediately to cease all its illegal measures and practices against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”

However, US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters the draft in its current form was “unacceptable” because “it does not talk about the rocket attacks on innocent Israelis.”

At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino expressed understanding for Israel’s dilemma.

“One of the reasons that Israel has taken the action it has is because it was sustaining upwards of 150 rockets falling on its territory a day. And so Israel is defending itself,” she said.

So the big question for tomorrow is: U.S. veto, or U.S. cave? And secondary question: How long before the General Assembly issues its own anti-Israel resolution?