Posted on 08/06/2002 1:04:28 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said the U.N. General Assembly should be discussing recent terrorist attacks in Israel rather than engaging in rhetoric that "widens the gap" between Palestinians and Israelis.
John Negroponte told a special session of the General Assembly that the Middle East debate is "out of step with the reality of events on the ground."
"For too long, the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Security Council have been silent when Israelis are victims of terrorism," the ambassador said.
He said the General Assembly session should be "explicitly condemning the terrorist organizations, like Hamas, that are clearly out to sabotage any effort to achieve Arab-Israeli peace, and once again, to call on countries of the world to fulfill their obligations to root out all terrorist networks wherever they are, including the Middle East."
The General Assembly was called into special session to act on a resolution condemning "atrocities" committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Jenin refugee camp and other cities during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, which began on March 29 in response to a wave of terrorist attacks against Israel.
The resolution also demands the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian population centers to positions held prior to September 2000.
Negroponte said the United States would vote against the resolution "because we are focused on working directly with parties to bring results and because we believe the condemnatory rhetoric against Israel will not contribute to the efforts of the international community to urge both parties to take the decisions they need to make to end violence and return to negotiations."
"The resolution," Negroponte continued, "makes no effort to provide a fair representation of the context of the current violence in the Middle East."
In a report issued last week, U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized both Israel and the Palestinians for the deaths, injuries and widespread destruction in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Annan said both sides put civilians in harm's way. But he said Palestinian claims that some 500 of their people were killed during the Israeli operation were unsubstantiated. He said 52 Palestinians died, about half of them civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed.
Negroponte said the U.N. resolution appears to be an attempt to write an alternative to Annan's report. He said the resolution does not help the Palestinian people, but undermines their cause and deepens the divide between Palestinians and Israelis.
But Negroponte's criticism was not enough to stop the General Assembly was adopting the resolution. It passed late Monday night on a 114-4 vote. Only the United States, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel and the Marshall Islands voted against it.
And get the UN out of the US!!!
Start with rooting them out of the UN. Plenty of countries there qualify as "terrorist networks".
Get the US out of the immoral UN, and get the immoral UN out of the US.
I was thinking the same thing. This is getting ridiculous. Get the US out of the UN!
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