Israel’s apparent disdain for the United Nations continues. Despite the gravity of the incident where 4 UNIFIL observers died due to a precision-guided missile from Israeli forces, the U.N.’s initial request for a joint investigation into this tragedy has been completely rejected by both the U.S. & Israel.
Dan Gillermanalso said Israel would not allow the United Nations to join in an investigation of an Israeli air strike that demolished a post belonging to the current UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Four UN observers were killed in the Tuesday strike.
“Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don’t think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation,” Gillerman said.
Well, it so happens the Ambassador has conveniently forgotten that the Palestinian government agreed to a joint investigation after a bombing of American diplomats in 2003…
Back when Yassar Arafat was leading Palestine and Colin Powell was the Secretary of State, a roadside bomb was detonated in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. The explosion killed 3 American security personnel and injured one. As the BBC reported:
US ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer said the convoy had been on their way to interview people for a scholarship in the United States when they were attacked.
The US State department has urged all American citizens in the Gaza Strip to leave the area – and those in the West Bank to be cautious.
The victims were described by the ambassador as contract security staff. Two of the men died outright, the third afterwards and the fourth was in a stable condition.
Yassar Arafat immediately condemned the attack and offered sympathies to George W. Bush:
Meantime, the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the attack and offered his condolences to President George W. Bush. He said in a statement that he ”strongly condemns and denounces targeting the American observers who are carrying out their mission for security and peace.”
He then did — without pressure — what Israeli Prime Minister Omert refused to do with the United Nations.
The statement added that Arafat gave instructions to form a joint investigation committee with the American side and the Quartet to uncover this crime. The statement said that the Palestinian President ”offered his heart- felt condolences to President George Bush and families of the victims.”
Now, granted, these are highly different circumstances and it was not the Palestinian government that was accused of attacking the Americans, but read what President Bush had to say after this strong rebuke and effort at a joint co-operation by Arafat:
In a written statement issued from Air Force One as he flew to California, President Bush blamed the failure of the Palestinian leadership to create a security system that could fight terror and specifically named Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as the one resisting such needed reforms.
”The failure to create effective Palestinian security forces dedicated to fighting terror continues to cost lives. The failure to undertake these reforms and dismantle the terrorist organizations constitutes the greatest obstacle to achieving the Palestinian people’s dream of statehood,” Bush added.
Wow! Such “diplomatic” appreciation for something the Israeli government says is a rarity — that is, joint investigations into international killing incidents.
And what kind of “diplomatic” language does the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. use to describe the name “UNIFIL” after this tragedy?
“Interim in UN jargon is 28 years,” he said.
Here he is mocking an internationally respected group after 4 members die from an attack by his own military.
That’s a whole new kind of Chutzpah!
