Israel in the United Nations' Crosshairs … Again

There are few certainties in life, but one that you can reliably count on is that the United Nations will condemn Israel every chance it gets.

Between 2006 when the UN’s so-called Human Right Council was established until 2013, the “humanitarians” on the council condemned Israel 45 times. In fact, it passed almost as many resolutions condemning Israel as it did for the rest of the world – combined.

And just the other day the Human Rights Council voted to set up a war crimes inquiry regarding the fighting in Gaza. Technically, the Council will look into crimes on both sides, but who are we kidding?

According to the BBC: “The UN's top human rights official has condemned Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip, saying that war crimes may have been committed.

“Navi Pillay told an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Israel's military offensive had not done enough to protect civilians.

“She also condemned Hamas for 'indiscriminate attacks' on Israel.”

That last line notwithstanding, we know which side will come in for the UN’s condemnation.

Civilian casualties are a tragedy, whether they’re Palestinian or Israeli. But it’s Hamas that hides its weapons among its civilians. Twice in recent days the UN found rockets at UN schools. It’s Hamas that uses civilians as human shields. Fact is, while Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, Hamas is rooting for more Palestinian deaths, knowing that the world will turn on Israel – as much of it already has – when they see those pictures of dead Palestinian children, killed by stray Israeli rockets.  Israel condemns its murderers.  Hamas turns them into heroes and names public squares after them.

And if you watch enough stories about Gaza on TV, you’ll notice a thread weaving through the coverage, a thread about “disproportionate” deaths in the fighting.

Listen and you’ll hear the reporter saying that 500 (or whatever the number is today) Palestinian civilians have been killed, and then after a short pause, the reporter will give the number of Israeli deaths – zero at first, then a slightly higher number after that.

You know they’re aching to scream, “How unfair is that?” but instead they merely imply it. As if decency demands proportional deaths.

There’s an explanation for this journalistic angst. One of the fundamental tenets of liberalism is concern for the underdog. Another is unease with power. What doesn’t occur to these people is that sometimes the underdog is the bad guy. And power, in the right hands, is a plus. After all, the Israelis didn’t invade Gaza until they had had enough of Hamas’ rockets fired at Israeli civilians.

In a column on this website, Dennis Prager made an intelligent argument against Israel’s enemies, and the loss of their moral compass. Here are a few of the points he made:

Hamas openly admits that its reason for being is to annihilate Israel. It “sends missiles to explode in the most populated parts of [Israel] in order to kill as many civilians as possible.” Hamas uses families and individual civilians as human shields to protect its own leaders from attack. Hamas has tortured and killed domestic political opponents. And Israel has many human rights groups dedicated to the welfare of the Palestinian people.

So where is much of the world’s sympathy directed? Not at Israel.  Perhaps the most vile observation on the fighting in Gaza came from Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogen, who told CNN International that what's going on in Gaza is "genocide by Israel," adding, "What Israel does to Palestine, to Gaza right now, has surpassed what Hitler did to them."  This from a supposed sophisticated leader of a civilized country.

As for the UN, what countries are represented on its Human Rights Council?  Well there are sensitive souls  from Algeria and China and Cuba and Russia and Saudi Arabia to name just a few of the countries that, as we all know, that are bright, shining beacons of human rights.  Unless you offend the people in power.

Now that there’s a good chance the UN Human Rights Commission will find Israel guilty of war crimes, maybe it’s time to implement an old idea I’ve been floating for years: Kick the UN out of New York. Turn that iconic structure into a high-rise, high-end luxury apartment building. And tell the folks who run the UN to move their headquarters someplace else – like Somalia, or Syria or maybe even Gaza, where they can pass all the anti-Israeli resolutions they want.