Amb. Alan Baker: How the Russia-Ukraine War and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Differ
Attempts to compare or equate the Russian mode of operation and massive violations of international law in Ukraine with Israel’s actions to defend its population from Palestinian terror attacks are patently lacking bona fides and the most basic sense of fairness and proportion.Lahav Harkov: Ukraine Learns the Israel Lesson
The motivation behind such attempts is insincere, superficial, false, and deceitful. Those who attempt to manipulate international awareness by equating Russian aggression and war crimes with Israel’s actions to defend its population are driven by an overriding and irresponsible penchant to vilify, defame, and delegitimize Israel.
Russia is conducting an open, high-level war of aggression, with an indiscriminate and massive bombardment of civilian population centers, schools, hospitals, and railway stations, as well as religious and cultural centers and monuments, in violation of the basic and widely accepted norms and principles of international humanitarian law.
The Palestinian mode of operation includes using civilian facilities – schools, hospitals, clinics, mosques, and private homes – as weapons storage facilities and rocket emplacements. The Palestinian terror organizations have constructed a vast web of tactical tunnels underneath Palestinian towns, civilian roads, and significant facilities.
Israel does not conduct any high-level war of aggression against its Palestinian and other neighbors, nor does it employ prohibited and inhumane weaponry. Furthermore, Israel does not willfully and deliberately target civilians or civilian concentrations or attack religious, cultural, educational, and medical sites.
Self-respecting national parliamentary institutions and leaders and responsible media organizations are urged to reject out of hand such fake attempts to delegitimize Israel.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky declared Tuesday that, when the war is finally over, Ukraine would emerge from the rubble a “big Israel.”David Singer: UN General Assembly majority greenlights Russia’s rape of Ukraine
He meant that the war would never really be over, that Ukraine would be on a permanent war footing, just as the Jewish state is. He meant that it would view its neighbors the way Israel has long viewed its own: As enemies waiting to pounce. Most importantly, he meant that Ukraine would never again rely on anyone else for its security: not the West, not the international community, not the so-called liberal order. It would be, like Israel, a nation apart, answering to no one but its people, in control of its own destiny.
It said something heroic about Ukraine, which has gone from pleading with NATO to save it from imminent destruction to fighting—forcing—the Russians into peace talks in a matter of weeks.
It said something not so heroic about the West, which had failed to admit Ukraine to NATO and, more recently, to wean itself off Russian oil and gas.
But mostly it said something profound about Israel—a country whose behavior over the past seven weeks has confused and confounded. How did the Israelis—scrappy, abrasive—become the convener of presidents and nations?
Zelensky has repeatedly suggested that the Russians and Ukrainians could meet in Jerusalem to hash out a peace agreement. It’s an amazing suggestion, even if he’s just floated it. Not Washington, not London, not Brussels or Paris. Jerusalem. The Israeli capital, which, until just a few years ago, the United States did not even recognize as the Israeli capital.
It wasn’t Joe Biden who was shuttling to meet with Putin, but Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, an observant Jew who jetted to Moscow on Shabbat to meet with Vladimir Putin in the early days of the war. (He is the only Western leader to have done so.) Since then, Bennett has had countless separate phone calls with Putin and Zelensky, who repeatedly asked Bennett to mediate in the first place, and he has sought to remain as diplomatic as possible—the better to keep the Russians and Ukrainians talking to the Israelis.
All this has raised the increasingly burning question: whose side was Israel on?
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his bloated massive bureaucracy attempted to cover up this shameful day of infamy in the UN’s history.
The UN Meetings Coverage and Press Releases deceptively reported:
“The Assembly adopted the draft resolution by a recorded vote of 93 in favour to 24 against, with 58 abstentions, signaling [sic] the international community’s strong censure of Moscow’s aggressive actions towards a neighbouring State.”
“Strong censure of Moscow’s aggressive actions?”- When only 93 of the 193 member states voted to do so?
UN News published an even more misleading report:
“The resolution received a two-thirds majority of those voting, minus abstentions, in the 193-member Assembly, with 93 nations voting in favour and 24 against.
Fifty-eight abstained from the process.
Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Vietnam, were among those who voted against.
Those abstaining, included India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia.”
Who in the UN Secretariat decided to:
Name and shame just 7 nations that voted against Russia’s removal – but failed to name the other 17?
Out 17 nations that abstained – but not the other 41 nations that joined them?
Not name any of the 18 nations that failed to vote or abstain: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Rwanda, San-Tomé-Principe, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Zambia?
Not point out that 6 of the 15-member UN Human Rights Council – Bolivia, China, Cuba, Malawi, Russia, and Uzbekistan - voted against Russia’s suspension – whilst another 4 – Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan and Senegal – abstained?
No amount of window dressing by Guterres and his Secretariat can alter the fact that 100 of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly have depressingly voted to greenlight Russia’s continuing invasion and rape of Ukraine.
The General Assembly is disunited, fractured and irrelevant - having totally capitulated on trying to end the murder, suffering and dispersion of Ukraine’s civilian population.
This is stupid. If this is adopted, it will screw Israel further at the UN, b/c even if the US vetoes biased UNSC resolutions, Israel will then be thrown to the dogs in the UNGA where anti-Israel forces have a built-in majority. It will also screw the US more often than not. https://t.co/zSquZeQC1F
— Mike (@Doranimated) April 12, 2022
Good news: Russia was just defeated in both elections. Putin is humiliated on the world stage. Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign. https://t.co/Ye2013Pyvb
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 13, 2022