Just days after the Hamas-led invasion and mega-atrocity on October 7, 2023, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had an explanation, or at least an excuse. The assault in which the invading terrorists murdered 1,200 people; abducted 251; and perpetrated a campaign of rape, mutilation, looting, and arson “did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres declared.
It was typical UN talk: When Palestinians attack Israel, there’s an underlying sympathy; when Israel hits back, it’s a crime against humanity.
The “vacuum” that contributed to the conflict was created by the lack of UN support for Israel and its one-sided backing for the Palestinians and the terrorist regime in Gaza. It’s a tale of double standards and hypocrisy.
For example, the UN Watch monitoring group last week noted the absurdity of Saudi Arabia’s chairing the UN Women’s Rights Commission during its annual session that ends on March 21.
“One of the world’s most patriarchal and misogynistic regimes now chairs the Commission on the Status of Women, which is touted on the UN website as the ‘principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women,’” said UN Watch head Hillel Neuer.
Neuer pointed out that the commission had failed to adopt a single resolution against Saudi Arabia, which maintains its male guardianship laws; or Yemen, where child marriage is prevalent and which ranks at the bottom of the Gender Equality Index; or the Democratic Republic of Congo, which earned the harsh moniker “the rape capital of the world”; or Pakistan, with high rates of violence against women and domestic abuse but low rates of conviction; and, of course, against Iran, where women suffer not only from misogynistic discrimination but are subject to the harshly enforced “modesty laws.”
Also, last week, UN judge Lydia Mugambe was convicted in the UK of forcing a young woman to work as a slave. Mugambe, from Uganda, initially claimed she had diplomatic immunity due to her UN position.
In another story of modern slavery that was mostly overlooked last week, Israeli soldiers rescued 10 Indian laborers lured into a village in the Palestinian-controlled area of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), where their passports were seized. The passports were being used to enter Israel illegally, possibly for terror-related purposes.
UN's concern over the treatment of women is evident, however, when it can falsely accuse Israel of being the perpetrator. A 49-page report issued on March 13 by the “UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel” went as far as accusing Israel of “genocidal acts.”
The commission’s name literally says a lot. Ditto the name of the report: “More Than a Human Can Bear: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023.”
When a report is based on the information provided by the Hamas regime in Gaza, it’s no surprise that the result is a perversion. But they get full points for creativity: Among the allegations is the targeting of reproductive healthcare facilities, including maternity wards and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic, according to a statement by commission head Navi Pillay. This, “combined with the use of starvation as a method of war, has impacted all aspects of reproduction,” she claimed.
No mention of Hamas terror
There is no mention of Hamas’s deliberate use of medical centers as terror bases. Images of detained [Palestinian] men stripped to their underwear are presented as sexual abuse, with no mention that it’s to check that they aren’t wearing suicide belts. Charges of abuse from the Sde Teiman detention facility were based on falsified video footage rather than the results of an ongoing official Israeli investigation.
And as for the use of starvation – the canard that has starred during the 17 months of the Israel-Hamas war – it is the emaciated Israeli hostages who have been clearly denied food and medical care, not their captors.
Even Pillay’s commission was forced to admit that there was evidence that Hamas and other terrorist groups had carried out acts of rape and genital mutilation on October 7. Brave former hostage Amit Soussana and others have openly spoken of the sexual abuse they underwent and witnessed in captivity in Gaza. But it was not enough for the UN to issue a resolution of condemnation.
Pillay and her partners should also note that Israeli women – particularly the thousands who were under intense rocket fire, displaced from their homes, with their husbands called up in the military reserves – were also impacted. Those undergoing fertility treatments faced almost impossible challenges.
Hamas’s disregard for human life, including that of its own people, can be seen in another shocking incident last week. Israeli soldiers spotted a four-year-old boy moving toward an army post in the Gaza security zone. The boy told the soldiers that he’d been sent by Hamas. He was later returned to Gaza in coordination with international organizations.
It is not clear whether the four-year-old was sent to check the alertness of the troops or in a deliberate attempt to get the soldiers to open fire on the approaching child, thus launching another blood libel against the Israelis. Either way, I fear he’ll likely face more jihadi-style child abuse and possible martyrdom.
IDF operations in Gaza
OVERNIGHT ON Monday, Israel launched Operation Strength and Sword on Gaza, eliminating several top Hamas officials in airstrikes. The move is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, half of whom are believed to be alive. Some called it a “surprise attack.” The surprise was that Israel was initiating action rather than waiting to be attacked and then hit back.
As Khaled Abu Toameh wrote for the Gatestone Institute earlier this month: “For Hamas, a hudna is a temporary break from war – it does not indicate a desire to end it and achieve peace. While Hamas was talking, for 10 years before October 7, 2023, about its desire to reach a long-term truce, it was busy preparing for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
“It is plainly uninformed to believe that Hamas would ever lay down its weapons and agree to end its jihad (holy war) against Israel."
“The Trump administration is advised to listen to what Hamas leaders say in Arabic to their own people, and not what they tell US officials during secret meetings in Qatar.”
He cited senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri who had declared in Arabic: “The right to resistance is non-negotiable. The weapons of the resistance are a red line, and we won’t exchange it for reconstruction [of the Gaza Strip] and humanitarian aid.”
I HAD originally intended to write this week about “monkey business.” In recent weeks, the Israel Police working together with the Nature and Parks Authority have found multiple cases of smuggled animals – including 16 monkeys and four lion cubs.
Most of the rescued animals were being held in Arab communities in inappropriate conditions – wild animals should be in the wild, after all, not chained up in someone’s backyard. One of the young monkeys died of tetanus, the result of wounds from its chains. The lion cubs were suffering from malnutrition.
It’s easy to frame animal smuggling as a “light story,” appropriate for a slow news day (not that we’re blessed with many of those). But it is deadly serious. Globally, the trade in smuggled wildlife is linked to arms and drug trading. It’s lucrative, and the money can be spent on weapons and narcotics.
Israel should see this latest spate of smuggling as a red flag for another reason. Some of the animals reportedly were dropped over the border with Egypt or Jordan by drones capable of carrying up to 70 kg. Not only is the money inextricably linked with illegal arms, so are the smuggling methods. Obviously, arms can be delivered in the same way. Before the war, there were known cases of lion cubs being smuggled across the Egyptian border into Gaza via tunnels.
The pictures of the rescued animals brought to mind the famous statues of three monkeys: one covering its eyes, one its ears, and one its mouth.
It reminds me of the UN policy regarding Israel. These are not the three wise monkeys but a parody, like the international body that turns a blind eye, a deaf ear, and refuses to speak out when Israel is the victim. “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” – unless Israel can be blamed.