Friday, January 16, 2009

Hitting the UN

Israel has received strenuous complaints about hitting UN compounds and buildings in Gaza. I and the State are sorry if people were sheltering there, thinking that it was a safe place and then they became casualties of the war. But, as far as the UN buildings are concerned I am not that unhappy that they were hit and/or destroyed. The UN is no friend to Israel, and their calls for an "immediate ceasefire" are certainly aimed at stopping the IDF's progress rather than impacting on Hamas. When Ban Ki-Moon, the Secty. Gen. of the UN was in Tel Aviv and heard that the UN headquarters in Gaza, a huge complex, was hit, he was extremely angry and lambasted the IDF for its actions. Defense Minister Barak apologized in response, but pointed out that our forces said that Hamas gunmen were firing at them from those locations and they are trained to fire back.
It is not true that the IDF declared any buildings, whether UN or otherwise, as "safe houses." Only the UN themselves decided that, and even though they may have contacted the IDF, they were never told that it was safe to house many people there. Also, Hamas knows this and so they deliberately shoot from the UN and other buildings, thus inviting an IDF response and then claim that the IDF causes civilian casualties. Of course, I would rather that the IDF soldiers did not target these building, but I am no soldier and I am not in the heat of battle and I don't know how a soldier can distinguish one target from another.
The Director of UNRWA in Gaza was also white with rage when he reported that the UNRWA compound in central Gaza City was going up in flames. I was quite pleased by this, since I have been against UNRWA for many years. Not only is UNRWA institutionally a Palestinian organization (most of its workers are Palestinians and many are members of Hamas) and is definitely anti-Israel, but they are unfair to all other refugees in the world. According to regulations of the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) that deals with all refugees in the world except the Palestinians, a refugee is one who left a country, either voluntarily or by force. But his/her offspring born in another country are not refugees. Only the Palestinians, under UNRWA rules, remain refugees forever, unto the third and fourth generations. Not only is this unfair to all other refugees, but the Palestinians receive infinitely more money per person than any other refugees. This is because the Arabs have politicized the fate of the Palestinians, and UNRWA exists to keep the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere as permanent UN dependents. Why 60 years after the Israel War of Independence is the UN still "feeding" and responsible for 750,000 "refugees" in Gaza? But, don't think that the Arab States foot the bill for UNRWA, far from it, no it's the West that does, for example the US pays one third of the UNRWA bill, but separately from other UN obligations. In order to resolve the Israel-Palestine dispute one of the first things that needs to be done is to close down UNRWA and transfer the original refugees (a few thousand left) to the UNHCR. By the way, all "Palestinians" living in Jordan are Jordanian citizens, so they are not "refugees" anyway! Its a real scam!
So I am not unhappy that the UNRWA compound in Gaza is burning down, and I hope they never rebuild it. But, don't worry, this does not affect the delivery of humanitarian goods to the Gaza people, since the warehouses are separate and they are full! Since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead the IDF has allowed 1,136 trucks into Gaza carrying 2,600 tons of supplies. They have also repaired the electricity and water mains that supply those essentials throughout Gaza. Even though the continuation of the fighting prevents the ready distribution of goods the IDF today allowed a 4 hour humanitarian ceasefire for this purpose.
Meanwhile Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel. Yesterday 17 rockets were fired, two Grads hitting Beersheva causing 7 casualties, including a 7 year old boy who was sheltering with his mother by the roadside when her car was hit and they were shredded by shrapnel, including ball bearings, deliberately inserted to cause human casualties. Also, yesterday one of the rockets that fell on Ashkelon was a white phosphorous bomb, which is illegal in international law. Israel uses white phosphorous only for illumination, since it burns with a very bright light, and this use is legal. But, Israel got all the criticism and you know where from, the UN Commission for Human Rights. Where else?

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