Moon admits UN Bias against Israel

Well, surprise, surprise, Ban Ki Moon has finally admitted what was in plain sight - The UN is biased against Israel

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with students at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon, and admitted that his organization was biased against Israel. 

Responding to a student who said Israelis felt their country was discriminated against in the international organization, Ban confirmed that there was a biased attitude towards the Israeli people and Israeli government, stressing that it was "an unfortunate situation."

 This is, of course, no surprise and really confirms what everybody knew.

Addressing the attitude towards Israel, Ban said that the Jewish state was a UN member and should therefore be treated equally like all other 192 member states. Unfortunately, he added, Israel has been criticized and sometimes discriminated against because of the Mideast conflict.

A peace process is just a piece of paper, he said, adding that the Oslo Agreement was never implemented and remained a piece of paper. "This time I expect real peace," he said. "The Israeli and Palestinian people are neighbors and have no choice but to live in harmony and peace side by side."

Asked about the split between Fatah and Hamas, the UN chief responded that reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians was highly important. "There can be no solution of three states – the State of Israel and two Palestinian states. The vision is of a two-state solution, and that's the reason we are trying to advance a Palestinian reconciliation process," he said.

This is important - he has acknowledged that there is only a two state solution to peace.  Not a one state or three state solution.  At least they are honest when not playing politics.

UN Envoy's work to end Palestinian Refugee claims

This is interesting - there are UN envoys working to address the real obstacle to peace - Palestinian Refugee Status

NEW YORK – At a small conference at the Harvard Club in Manhattan on Thursday, a host of dignitaries and experts, including Israel’s envoy to the UN Ron Prosor, addressed the UN’s classification of Palestinian refugees as the principal stumbling block to a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO.

The conference was the opening salvo in the direction of drafting of US legislation meant to end the automatic transmission of refugee status to the descendents of Palestinians that has been taking place since 1948, just as Filippo Grandi, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), prepared to hold a press conference on Monday on Palestinian refugees becoming a “forgotten population” in an increasingly turbulent region.

Dr. Daniel Pipes, a leading international expert on the Middle East, opened the conference, declaring that the Palestinian refugee situation is broken, sick, and detrimental to all involved. The current approach by UNRWA “creates a narrative of victimhood and leads to extremism,” said Pipes.

Sadly, true.

The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank where Pipes serves as president, organized the conference, titled Changing US Policy on UNRWA and the “Palestine Refugees.”

“No one will admit it... the real obstacle [to a two-state solution] is the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees,” Prosor said. The “refugees problem is the main obstacle to peace, not settlements.”

The return of Palestinian refugees “would cause Israel’s destruction,” Prosor said.

In 1950, there were some 700,000 Palestinian refugees. The current figure stands at more than 5.1 million, though that depends on who is counting.

Historically, refugees who become citizens of another country lose their status as refugees; a large percentage of Palestinians live in Jordan or Syria, though those in Syria are now experiencing an entirely new refugee crisis.

Many participants at the event asserted that double standards applied to Palestinian refugees, in sharp contrast to this general rule of thumb.

Prosor sees UNRWA policy to allow Palestinians to “transfer their refugee mileage to their children” as misguided. “Israel deeply opposes UNRWA’s political agenda, but supports its humanitarian agenda,” he said, adding that “not one Arab country appears on the top-10 list of UNRWA’s donor,” and that its funding comes mainly from Western countries.

This is absolutely an issue.  The Arab nations want to use (or is that abuse) the Palestinian refugees as a political football.

Although Arab countries are “saturated with petro-dollars,” they are not donating adequately to UNRWA, he charged.

According to Prosor, the ration of staff to refugees at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which covers non-Palestinian refugees, is 1 to 4,400. UNRWA has a ratio of 1 to 172.

This is not just a tragedy, it is a travesty.

Former Labor and Independence MK Einat Wilf said it is important to debunk the widespread image of Palestinian refugees “huddled in tents."

She cited an EU diplomat who told her: “Do not tell anyone – I know middle class families in Ramallah.”

She said the “EU says Palestinians know they won’t return to Israel” but urged to the EU “to start telling them that.”

Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, discussed the “manufactured refugee crisis” among the Palestinians and raised the question of whether UNRWA is a “pro- Palestinian organization,” because the organization is pushing back against reforms in Washington. He asked what a Palestinian state would look like, and whether Palestinians could sustain it.

Unfortunately, we know that their efforts are futile.  There is no way the UN will vote for this agenda.

Top ten worst decisions at UN for 2012

UN Watch has a great article - the Top ten worst decisions for 2012 at the UN


1. Electing genocidal Sudan to ECOSOC, a top U.N. council overseeing human rights bodies.
2. Adopting Cuba’s “Right to Peace” resolution, which endorsed terrorism, at the same time as the Castro regime was backing Assad’s murderous Syrian forces.
3. Keeping Richard Falk as U.N. investigator of “Israel’s violations,” even after he was removed from Human Rights Watch in wake of protests over his support for Hamas, 9/11 conspiracy theories and promotion of antisemitism.
4. Praising the Qaddafi regime's human rights record.
5. Electing the Venezuelan dictatorship of Hugo Chavez to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
6. Adopting 22 resolutions attacking Israel in the U.N. General Assembly -- compared to 4 on the rest of the world combined.
7. Adopting 0 U.N. resolutions for victims of systematic human rights abuse in China, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and many other non-democracies.
8. Appointing a top official to the U.N. Human Rights Council who is a hero to Holocaust deniers and defends Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “right to nuclear energy.”
9. Celebrating a new “State of Palestine” days after Palestinians in Gaza committed armed aggression by attacking Israel with hundreds of rockets, and while the PA fails to exercise effective control over any part of Gaza or in much of the West Bank.
10. Deciding to keep Syria’s Assad regime as a full member on UNESCO’s human rights committee.

Palestinian Statehood at the UN

The vote on upgrading Palestinian statehood at the UN to "Observer" status like The Holy See (Vatican city) has happened.  Full details here.

Ironically on the same day in 1947 there was a similar vote.  It would have given Palestinians full statehood.  They rejected it, because it would have meant living side by side with a Jewish state.

Here is the full transcript of Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the UN.  He appears to be proactively making peace with statements like this:

I am here to say on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization: We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peace-making. I say to them: Let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring States - Palestine and Israel - instead of policies of occupation, settlement, war and eliminating the other.

But there are also references to try and appease Hamas, such as referencing "Apartheid", without stating what he means by that.  Apartheid is a South African term, where Whites and Blacks were separated in Parks, Buses, Workplaces and rights by law.  There can be no comparison to what Abbas is complaining about here (settlements?).
 
The vote doesn't really change anything, as peace cannot be achieved until peace talks are completed.  Hopefully this means that the Palestinians will resume peace talks, elections and eventually responsibility for rehousing people they are keeping stuck in refugee camps.

More news from our region:

New Zealand voted for the motion.

"New Zealand is a long-standing supporter of the two state solution. We believe that Israel and a Palestinian state should exist side by side, each respecting the other's right to peace. And we believe that they should arrive at that conclusion through direct talks.

"As I stated in my address to the UN General Assembly earlier this year, we have never regarded a UN resolution as an adequate substitute for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. That is the only way of achieving a durable solution to this question."

However McCully said the UN resolution was "a poor substitute for direct negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"We remain frustrated that two leaders who live half an hour up the road from each other cannot meet to resolve these matters directly."

Mr McCully said officials have discussed the proposed text of the resolution with Palestinian representatives, who have "delivered a resolution that is moderate, 
constructive, and reflects our commitment to a two-state solution".

"In our explanation of vote to the UN our Permanent Representative Hon Jim McLay will make clear our absolute commitment to Israel's right to safety and security, and condemn the actions of Hamas extremists in recent weeks," Mr McCully said.

"However, we will also assert our support for the moderate leadership of President Abbas, Prime Minister Fayyad and others who are working to make a two-state solution a viable goal.

"The New Zealand Government is under no illusions as to the utility of a UN resolution. It will solve nothing. But in the absence of the direct talks we have called for, we will deal with the UN resolution on its merits."

Australia abstained, although not without controversy.  Julia Gillard wanted to vote against, but was rolled by her own party.

This satirical article is worth a read also.  Palestinian Statehood is granted, but victimhood status is downgraded