Posted on 05/02/2002 1:55:36 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
''Fact-finding'' sounds so appealing when you are in the right and want the credibility that a process of fact-finding can do for you, or so conventional wisdom dictates. This is especially true where all sorts of untruths are being spread around and you badly need someone on your side. So it is logical to ask why Israel is at best reticent to have the UN act as the fact-finder about what happened at the Jenin refugee camp during, and as a result, of the Israeli incursion there where we know that 25 Israeli soldiers were killed.
The answer is chillingly simple; the UN is not impartial in so many respects that one can make a case that they are the last group Israel would want to ''fact-find'' no matter what the truth may be. The reasons are voluminous. Most people are unaware of the fact that Israel is the only member, of the United Nations General Assembly who is barred from being a member of the Security Council.
She has been barred because she has been refused membership in any of the regional groups in whom membership is required as a condition of being able to sit on the Security Council. While it is perhaps explainable why the other nations in the Middle East have refused her membership in their group, what is less known is that the European Union has also refused entry into the European group although the United States an Australia are members.
Since its inception, Security Council Resolutions aimed against Israel have far outnumbered those directed at any other state. Indeed prior to 1990, of the total of 175 Security Council resolutions, 97 were directed against Israel. In the same period, of the 690 General Assembly resolutions, 429 were directed against Israel. This during a time while the UN was silent, while under Jordanian rule Jewish Holy sites were desecrated and destroyed. They were silent when Jews were denied access even to the Western Wall and stayed silent as 58 synagogues in Jerusalem alone were destroyed by the Jordanians.
The UN stayed silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. They are silent even today about the takeover of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestinian terrorists and the holding of hostages there, including Christian children, in clear violation of international law. They were also silent about the fact that they were present on the Lebanese border when three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and did not even disclose that they had a videotape of the incident which has yet to be made available to Israel. Those Israeli soldiers have not been seen or heard from since. This is the same UN that has not condemned the Syrian occupation of Lebanon or the use of Lebanon by Hezbollah as a launch pad for missile attacks against Israel.
This is the same UN that failed to condemn the resort to violence after the last Camp David meeting between Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat, when Israel offered the Palestinians much of what they claimed to want. The resort to terrorism, was a clear violation of the Oslo Accords not to mention international law, and yet the UN said and did nothing directed at the Palestinians. The UN has not even condemned the use of children as weapons or the attempted importation of 50 million dollars of offensive weapons by the Palestinian Authority, also in violation of the Oslo Accords.
Under these circumstances it is not hard to understand why Israel is concerned about this ''fact-finding'' UN mission. It should first find the fact that its record on fairness and unbiased action is so woefully lacking when it comes to Israel that were it asked to ''judge'' the case, it would have no option but to disqualify itself.
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