Thursday, May 27, 2004
UNWRA demands Israel retract false accusations (Via LGF)
Hansen said a letter requesting proof from the Israeli government had so far met with no reply.
Accordingly, Mofaz has no reason to believe there is any truth at all to the extremely unfortunate accusation being made against UNRWA, said Hansen.
From the IDF web site:
Israel Channel 10: Armed Palestinians Use UN Ambulances in War against IDF
Photographs taken at the Gaza Zeintun neighborhood about two weeks ago, on the same night the first APC was exploded, clearly show armed Palestinians boarding a UN-marked ambulance with a UN flag, and flee the scene.
The reporter stressed that this was not a Palestinian Red Cross ambulance, known to have transported armored Palestinians since the outbreak of events, but rather a supposedly neutral ambulance of the UN.
How does this happen? Why do local UN officials always seem to be against Israel? Why would they be so sure Israel had no proof to back up their statement? A variety of reasons. First of all the UN is naturally aligned with the Palestinians. Even leaving aside larger UN political reasons, they operate in the refugee camps and it's their mandate to care for Palestinian Arab needs, not Israeli. Any measure of impartiality must quickly go out the window. Further, they need to work with the Arabs, who's help they need, who's labor they employ and who can make life difficult. For all we know, the guy in the mask is on the UN payroll. Imagine you're Peter Hansen. Even assuming he doesn't begin with any evil intent, he's got a job to do - help "refugees." What good would taking the Israeli side in anything do for that mandate? Even telling a lie here or there, covering for terrorists...it's all part of a game he must see as necessary to get his job done. So the UN facilitates the terrorists by backing their stories, taking their side, giving them legitimate employ and making Israel's job - indeed, their entire international standing - more difficult. The UN's perpetual involvement is just part of the poison of the region, making a solution more distant.
And why would Hansen be so sure that the IDF wouldn't be able to come up with proof? Because it's obviously difficult for the Israeli press to operate in the territories. The big wire services hire locals (read: Palestinian Arabs) who simply help spread their propaganda, and the international press knows that if they want to keep their access, or more specifically their skins (seriously), they won't report anything the terrorists don't like. As an example, take a look at this Italian reporter obsequiously assuring Arafat that their network would never do anything to betray the PA's "journalistic rules" - in this case assuring him that it was not they who had shown the footage of a Palestinian Arab mob brutally murdering two IDF soldiers who took a wrong turn and got lost in Ramallah. (In fact, read the entire link. It's very instructive on this phenomenon.)
So the IDF is on its own and managed to get lucky this time. It's no wonder that the UN has no credibility in Israel, nor should it here, either.
