Israel Tells UN: Get Your Facts Straight

Israel is continuing to wage a brave diplomatic battle, as the accusations leveled against it are based on myths.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. (Photo: Flash90)

Deputy Ambassador David Roet addressed the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday and defended Israel against an onslaught of accusations in the wake of Operation Protective Edge.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated that Israel must end its so-called occupation of “Palestine.” Otherwise, he claimed, there would be no hope for long-lasting stability in the region.

Ban said he would probe Israel and the IDF for alleged war crimes. Relating specifically to the UN schools, which were used as Hamas rocket-launching pads and arms caches.

“I look forward to a thorough investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces of this and other incidents in which UN facilities sustained hits and many innocent people were killed. I am planning to move forward with an independent board of inquiry to look into the most serious of those cases, as well as instances in which weaponry was found on UN premises,” Ban said, as quoted by AP.

‘Poisonous Ideology of Extremism’

Responding to these accusations, Roet attacked members of the international community for blaming Israel as the root cause of all conflict in the Middle East, dubbing these concepts as “old myths.” He told the UNSC:

“Albert Einstein once said: ‘The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it…What many fail to realize is that it [the world] will remain dangerous – and become even more dangerous – unless we address the real root causes of the violence and instability, namely, the poisonous ideology of extremism.”

Violent radical groups are waging a brutal and aggressive war to challenge the existing world order, Roet said.

“It is no accident that the most dangerous extremist groups operate in the Middle East, a region plagued by intolerance and tyranny. They are taking advantage of the area’s instability to advance their narrow interests and return the region to the Dark Ages,” he stated.

“The State of Israel is the only democracy between the Red Sea and the Caspian Sea,” the Israeli diplomat continued. “We have built a society based on democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, the rule of law, and the equal rights of all people.”

Countering Ban’s allegations directly, Roet asserted: “How many times have you heard it said that the ‘root cause’ of the conflict is the ‘occupation’? And how many times have you heard that Hamas fires rockets into Israel to oppose the occupation? This simply isn’t true – because Israel does not occupy Gaza.”

The Real Causes of Instability

Counting the true underlying causes of the instability in the Middle East, Roet listed Hamas first, a terror organization which is “committed to the destruction of the State of Israel.”

The second cause, Roet explained, is the Palestinian Arabs’ unilateral steps in the international arena towards the establishment of a state.

“Supporting Palestinian unilateral steps do not advance the cause of peace,” he stated. “By prematurely recognizing a state of Palestine, European governments are sending a message that Palestinians do not need to make hard choices and they might be undermining efforts to bring about a real and lasting change in our region.”​

Author: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel