United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ seems to think that it is all right to blame the victim, but only when the victims are innocent Israelis – including babies – who were murdered and the attacker was a Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas. He made that quite clear on Tuesday at a special session of the UN Security Council held to discuss the current “Iron Swords” war in Gaza. And Israeli leaders are justifiably angry about this.
Yes, Guterres did condemn all violence, like so many people do. And he did call for an end to all suffering, on both sides of course. He did acknowledge, however, that family members of the more than 200 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were in attendance and called for the release of all of the hostages.
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Unfortunately, the Secretary General also made comments that sounded more like something coming out of the mouth of a Hamas spokesman and not the leader of the UN.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” he said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Guterres obviously knows that his words “did not happen in a vacuum” were a tacit justification for the barbaric murder of more than 1,000 people, some of whom were burned alive.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wasted no time in criticizing the Guterres’ words. While the UN Secretary General was still speaking he tweeted, “The shocking speech by the UN Secretary-General at the Security Council meeting, while rockets are being fired at all of Israel, proved conclusively, beyond any doubt, that the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner.”
The Secretary General’s statement that, “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” added Ambassador Erdan, “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder. It’s really unfathomable. It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views. A tragedy!”
And then Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who is in New York to represent Israel at the session, canceled a private meeting he was supposed to have later on with Guterres.
“I will not meet with the UN Secretary-General,” said Cohen. “After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!”
Ambassador Erdan then called on the Secretary General to resign saying, “The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately.”
“There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people,” he added. “There are simply no words.”
