Or is he simply a fool, dutifully reciting excerpts from the UN’s Moral Equivalency Manual and Guide to Validating Tyrants and Terrorists of the Middle East. (Seems like they must have one … Maybe Kofi Annan left his dog-eared copy to Ban?)
Or maybe it all amounts to the same thing. Whatever might be going through the Secretary-General’s head as he pops up to opine about Israel and Gaza, he sounds like he’s either pro-Hamas (which, with Iranian backing, is dedicated to destroying Israel) or living on Pluto.
Ban has by now established himself as a knee-jerk subscriber to the UN formulation of “disproportionate force” — the term which is never applied by the UN to Hamas (or Hezbollah) terrorists launching rockets indiscriminately into Israel, or kidnapping Israeli solders, or gunning down and blowing up Israeli civilians. But “disproportionate force” is habitually howled out by the UN when Israel — having negotiated and conceded and warned — finally strikes back, targeting terrorists in its own defense. In practice, this means that terrorists attacking Israel get a ritual and meaningless tut-tut from the UN, usually while UN aid trucks keep rolling in to keep them resupplied. But when Israel attacks terrorists, that warrants emergency Security Council meetings and special press briefings at the highest levels, and repeated, lengthy statements aimed at generating genuine, massive pressure for Israelis to lay down their arms and let the terrorists carry on. Thus Kofi Annan’s histrionics when Israel struck back after Hezbollah, unprovoked, attacked Israel out of Lebanon in 2006.
And so, since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27th, to stop the attacks out of Gaza, Ban has been preaching full-throated Moral Equivalence from the UN pulpit, demanding an “immediate ceasefire,” calling on “all parties” to “fully uphold humanitarian law,” and insisting that all border crossings into Gaza should be flung open “to ensure the continuous provision of humanitarian supplies.” He got worked up enough about it to make a rare appearance in person at the UN noon press briefing this past Monday.
ABSOLUTELY right Claudia. You’re terrific.
Ban Ki-moon ?the same guy who barely said anything about the russian invasion of georgia?Or who also said there was no internaitonal support for Darfur.What an ass we have for UN secretary general.Terrorism is an enemy of the civilized world and thus humanity.Israel is doing the right thing by finishing off Hamas militants.
I assume your title for this piece is rhetorical?
he’s at the UN…OF COURSE destroying Israel is part of his job! else he’d not have the job in the first place…I’m sure it’s in the fine print of the employment contract somewhere.
Posted at another thread, but maybe more fitting here:
Israel must simply tell the UN, and especially the Europeans/eu, to go to hell.
They must publicly rebuke the Europeans as unrepentant anti-Semites and Nazis, intent on a second Holocaust.
They must accuse the Europeans of Hitler worship.
They must tell the Europeans that a Second Holocaust is not going to happen, no matter how much they want it.
They must be willing to place armed Israeli agents at Jewish institutions throughout Europe, for Europe’s response to Jews who have the gall to tell them off will be a psychotic, uncontrollable rage, culminating in pogroms by local Islamists, with government officials ordering police to stand by and do nothing, while the Jew-hating media places blame on the dead Jews.
Finally, Israel must be ready to use its military, in case Europe opts for a blockade or boycott. For apart from France’s and Britain’s nukes, their militaries are impotent.
Claudia,
Absolutely right, but its so much par for the course that the Secretary-General of the UN should be a Kofi Annan/Ban ki Moon figure that I’m finding it hard even to get surprised by it. But yes, it’s a shame, in the old, strong sense of the word.
Eric R, all points taken, but the Czech Presidency of the EU has issued a statement unconditionally supporting Israel. Much to the horror of Brown and Sarkosy, the cowardly shits.
I would assume that he thinks that’s his job.
What else could he be thinking?
There are only two reasons to deal with the UN at all: 1) to make sure that the U.S. keeps and uses its veto on the security council, 2) to remind Moon that the best thing he can do to insure peace between Israel and Hamas is to STFU.
The (former) Israeli ambassador was interviewed on “the news” as to what he expected from the UN’s emergency Saturday night meeting.
He answered that he spent 6 years at the place and expected something like 0 to nothing.
The Libyans had introduced a resolution calling on Israel to cease & desist, which resolution, reportedly, made no mention of Hamas rocket & mortar attacks on Israel.
The United States insisted on language describing actual facts on the ground.
Everybody went home, sans resolution.
Naturally, the United States is the bad guy for insisting on words that factually describe the entire scenario between Hamas & Israel.
(I’ve seen several South Koreans writing here who are a bit ashamed of Ban Ki Moon)
The End.
Ban Ki-Moon who upon entering the office of the (dis-)UN declared solemnly that he would be fulfilling his function as an honest impartial international brooker is quickly morphing into one of the most despicable, sleazy and biased political figures. And perhaps, it should be not suprising. Right after having been nominated, he announced that one of his priorities would be more bolder approach to the American “unitelarism”; not an act of a particular bravery. So his anti-American and anti-Israeli bias has been detectable from the very beginning. I can only wonder, why the Bush’s administration was so enthusiastic with its support for that dupe of a politician? Perhaps it was the result of a strategic naivity so characteristic to Bush’s view of the world and in particular during his second therm when the State Department began winning over Rumsfeld and Cheney team…
Hamas is a terrorist group, Israel is a State, she should act like one. You don’t go leveling an apartment building just to kill one guy. I hope Obama shuts that crap down over there. Just hold all free money we give to Israel until they stop killing women and children.
Ban Ki-Moon is the Inspector Clouseau of the UN … unfortunately he unlike Clouseau is very real klutz and is definitely not funny.
It is sobering and frightening that the United Nations and most of the World condemn Israel and are seeking to defend Hamas. Most of the news media are spinning their reporting to make Hamas appear to be the victim of the evil aggressions of Israel.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon never called even one special session of the United Nations Security Council to condemn and stop Hamas from firing rockets randomly into the civilian areas of Israel. Hamas was committing war crimes and the Secretary-General of the United Nations was apparently ignoring these war crimes. What would Mr. Ban have done had North Korea lobbed thousands of explosive rockets or artillery shells into Seoul?
Israel’s self defense should not be negotiable. The responsibility of any government is the protection of its citizens.
“Mr. Conservative”
http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2009/20090106140533.aspx
Please excuse the above incorrect URL
The following is the correct URL to my blog posting, “A Time for War and a Time for Peace”
http://blogs.lubbockonline.com/conservative/2009/01/06/a-time-for-war-and-a-time-for-peace/#comments