The UN chief castigates the Middle East’s only democracy as it acts in self-defense against the blood-thirsty Hamas death-cult.
By SHMULEY BOTEACHPresident Peres and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon(photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
The Middle East is on fire, its flames threatening the continuity of civilization itself. Around the world people looked aghast at the revolting beheading of American journalist James Foley by the terrorists of Islamic State. It was followed by the public execution of 18 Palestinians, including two women, by Hamas on charges of collaboration. Executed, without trial, in cold blood.These acts of barbarism are only the latest examples of the monstrous enemy, radical Islam.In Iraq and Syria, Islamic State is beheading children and crucifying youths in its genocidal war against Christians, Yazidis and whoever else is standing in the way of its caliphate.In Iran, the gay-hating, women-stoning, free-speech-suppressing mullahs continue to fund murderous attacks against Americans and Jews worldwide, threatening Israel with nuclear annihilation.And in Gaza, bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists fire rockets at Israelis from homes, schools and mosques while sacrificing Palestinian babies as human shields, and using Palestinian children as slave labor to build terror tunnels in their never-ending genocidal war against the Jews.Lucky for us that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon knows who the real enemy is: Israel.Ban has developed something of an addiction when it comes to Israel-condemnation, castigating the Middle East’s only democracy as it acts in self-defense against the blood-thirsty Hamas death-cult.His repeated statements of moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel are an affront to decency. A recent bipartisan letter from US senators to Ban scolded his comparison of the “deliberate terrorist attack on civilians” by Hamas to the “measured response of a nation-state trying to defend its citizens.”As Israel waged a fierce war against Hamas to stop the thousands of murderous rockets raining down on its cities, Ban called Israel’s actions, “unjustifiable” and held Israel accountable for the deaths of Palestinian civilians even when it is clear that Hamas routinely fires rockets from hospitals, mosques, private homes and schools.UN schools.
As The Washington Post reported on July 31, the UN has found troves of rockets hidden in three of its [Hamas’s] schools since the conflict began.The Washington Post also reported in July that “during one shortlived lull in rocket fire, William Booth, the Post’s Washington Bureau chief, saw a ‘group of men’ at a mosque in northern Gaza.They said they had returned to clean up glass from shattered windows. But they could be seen moving small rockets into the mosque.” He also reported that Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had “become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.”What was Ban’s response? Repeated condemnation of Israel’s defensive measures as “a moral outrage,” a “criminal act,” “reprehensible” and a “gross violation of international law.”Surely Ban is not picking on Israel. Surely he has used even harsher language against the bloodthirsty tyrants who today make up the landscape of the Middle East.But a year ago, Ban was not nearly as harsh in condemning Syrian President Bashar Assad for carrying out a chemical attack against his own people, gassing upwards of 1,700. Instead, he appealed for unity among world powers and sought more time for the inspectors to complete their work. This, after the US and its European and Middle East allies declared that Assad must face retribution with “international consequences” for wielding banned weapons against his people.Ban’s response to North Korea’s three nuclear tests and threats of a preemptive nuclear strike against the United State in March 2013 was similarly tepid, saying merely it was “a challenge for the international community.”A challenge.You can see that Ban really lost it with Kim Jong Un. And this when his own country is faced with possible nuclear annihilation from the North.Which just goes to show that Ban seems more interested in condemning the Jewish state than in self-preservation.While a rogue nation brazenly tests nuclear missiles and intentionally starves its population in a self-inflicted famine, Ban refers to these actions as nothing more than “a serious humanitarian crisis.”Harsh and condemnatory language is reserved, it seems, solely for Israel.Then there is the new UN chief Israel-investigator, the fair, objective and factual Canadian Prof. William Schabas, the man who, when asked who most should be tried at the International Criminal Court for war crimes, said that Binyamin Netanyahu would be his “favorite” to indict. Not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Bashar Assad of Syria, or Khaled Mashaal of Hamas.He even compared Nobel Peace laureate Shimon Peres to the president of Sudan who is responsible for the genocide in Darfur.Schabas pulls no punches on Israel, but remains a steadfast friend of Iran and its genocidal former president Ahmadinejad.He sponsors conferences in Tehran with organizations tied to the fundamentalist, anti-Semitic regime in Iran that demands the annihilation of Israel. He has not said whether he has taken money from the mullahs. But Schabas frequently defends Ahmadinejad, calling him nothing more than “a provocative politician” and telling the world to stop “exaggerating” his statements.How can this apologist for radical anti-Semites and America-haters, who call for the extermination of the Jewish state, be trusted to lead an investigation into the war in Gaza? The UN’s appointment of Schabas is just a symptom of the organization’s self-evident anti-Israel bias and of Ban Ki-moon’s desire to castigate the Jewish state.Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird came out against the appointment of Schabas, calling the new inquiry a “sham.”American taxpayers must ask themselves why they are funding “human rights” commissions led by friends of Ahmadinejad. If the secretary-general continues to misuse the UN, Americans – who pay one-fifth of the UN budget – should ask themselves why they fund an organization whose chief cannot distinguish right from wrong.Ban Ki-moon should focus on real genocides in the Middle East, stop persecuting Israel, the region’s only democracy, and stop making suckers of the American taxpayer.The author is the founder of This World: The Values Network and recently published Kosher Lust: Love is Not the Answer. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
