UNRWA commissioner decries Egyptian wall

You know how people like to say that their problem with Israel building a security fence is because it is a "land grab" and that if that wall would be built on the Green Line, they would have no objections? Do you also notice how those same people seem to criticize every single other action that Israel does to defend itself?

Well, Egypt is building a wall now on its border with Hamastan, and Karen Abu-Zayd, the outgoing Commissioner General of UNRWA, is apparently not happy.

According to Palestine Today, she confirmed that the wall is being built (Egypt is still denying it.) She is claiming that the idea for the wall actually came from the despised George Bush administration.

She broadly implied that the purpose of the wall is for Israel to be able to attack Gaza. I'm not quite sure how that helps Israel except for making it more difficult for Hamas to bring in rockets and bombs. She specifically called the wall "notorious" and said that it "serves only Israel," which is an interesting thing for a UN leader to say.

Evidently, if Egypt wants to build a wall on its own territory, it can and is going to be castigated by the UN. And the reason is because it is perceived as helping Israel, which is automatically bad in the eyes of some UN agencies.

Yesterday, I met a fascinating woman who works for the UN, who is Jewish and was born in the Ivory Coast. She had some very interesting stories about anti-semitism at the UN that she sees up close because her coworkers do not know that she is an observant Jew. (One story even involves an attempt on her life in an area far away from Israel.) One thing she mentioned was that when Karen Abu Zayd became head of UNRWA, she asked her for a job. Abu Zayd answered that she was only going to hire Palestinians.

This explains a lot.