UK ambassdor to UN Lyall Grant
going where US fears to tread
Just in time for Hanukkah and Christmas, Israel delivers the kind of public craziness on a world stage that Obama needs if he is going to politicize the settlements in the American discourse. At the United Nations, European members of the Security Council are working to condemn Israel’s treatment of the out-of-control settlers; and Israel’s Foreign Ministry has responded that this is an “internal affair,” per Haaretz. Our “domestic affairs,” reports the New York Times.
Max Blumenthal’s tweet: Israel tells UN settler terror in West Bank is an “internal affair,” meaning WB is Israel’s under apartheid rule.
Also, the rage at the idea that Israel could ever be dragged into international courts expresses perfectly what the Goldstone Report exposed: a culture of impunity.
Haaretz:
“The whole debate was conducted in a disgusting manner,” a Foreign Ministry official with knowledge of the UNSC proceedings told Haaretz, adding that “Israel was assaulted with every minute detail, mentioning every mosque that was torched and arguing that state authorities weren’t doing anything to stop settler attacks against Palestinians.”
Foreign Ministry officials said that the EU representatives “hijacked” the session, when, following it, they decided to release a joint statement detailing the contents of the sealed meeting.
In the statement the diplomats criticized the council’s failure to take action against escalating violence by Israeli settlers and urged a speedy resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, also speaking for EU members France, Germany and Portugal, said “Israel’s security and the realization of the Palestinians’ right to statehood are not opposing goals.”…
“It’s a blatant interference in Israel’s internal affairs,” one ministry official said, adding that that statement is “a veiled threat that if Israel doesn’t prosecute the perpetrators the EU will drag it into international courts,” he added.
I think the Israelis are genuinely worried that an evaporation of EU/US support will lead to an appearance at the ICC .
From the Times article:
“We felt that the European statement broke all the diplomatic rules,” said Yigal Palmor, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. “You aren’t meant to issue such a harsh statement by surprise, without prior consultation.”
— this really made me laugh out loud.
Thought this was even funnier:
Israeli officials also point to provocative actions by the Palestinians, including a meeting on Tuesday in Turkey between Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and 11 Palestinians who were recently released from Israeli prisons in a prisoner exchange.
—- OH GAWD!!! Abbas went to Turkey to meet with some guys who just got out of jail. Well, then. Abbas has ruined any chance of peace!
It really would be just “funny” if it weren’t so tragic…..
“Israel was assaulted with every minute detail, mentioning every mosque that was torched”
No clue. Turn it around and look at it the other way. “Germany was assaulted with every minute detail, mentioning every synagogue that was torched.”
Imagine the outrage from the Dersh. Note to Israel: Religious persecution does not look good even if you wrap it up in “Jewish self determination”.
“Israel was assaulted with every minute detail, mentioning every mosque that was torched.”
Oh, poor babies! How could the UN be so CRUEL!!
This sounds like Germany’s objections to outside interferemce in its domestic affairs in 1942. Ethnic cleansing and occupation then and now is a strictly domestic matter.