Steven J. Rosen: Will Obama Use His UN Veto?
[Steven J. Rosen served for 23 years as a senior official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He is now the director of the Washington Project of the Middle East Forum.]
Just before dawn on May 31, 2010, a team of Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship to enforce a blockade against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza. As they came aboard, the Israelis were assaulted by a violent faction of Islamic militants. A melee followed in which several of the commandos were seriously injured and nine of the Turkish militants were killed. The clash was over before the sun came up.
It was still daylight when, 5,600 miles away, the Israeli delegation to the United Nations was summoned to appear before an emergency session of the Security Council to be chastised for the actions of the commandos. Convened just hours after the violence, the council spent the night of May 31, into the wee hours of the morning, absorbed in “a highly emotional emergency session...[to express] international anger over the Israeli attack,” as the Washington Post described it.
The scene was a familiar one. In 1983, Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, described it thus: “What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.... Israel is cast as villain...in [a] melodrama...that features... many attackers and a great deal of verbal violence. ... The goal is isolation and humiliation of the victim. ... The attackers, encountering no obstacles, grow bolder, while other nations become progressively more reluctant to associate themselves with the accused, out of fear that they themselves will become a target of bloc hostility.”
The reenactment of this familiar drama on May 31 opened with a presentation by Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, the assistant secretary-general of the United Nations for political affairs. His job was to speak for the institution as a whole and to frame the issue objectively for the debate, on behalf of his boss, Ban Ki-moon. Fernandez-Taranco explained that the bloodshed had occurred because Israel had refused to end “its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza,” which was exacerbating “the unmet needs of Gaza’s civilian population.” For balance, Fernandez-Taranco took note of Israel’s claim that the demonstrators on board the Mari Marmara had used knives and clubs against Israeli naval personnel.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, followed in lockstep. This was, he said, “murder conducted by a state” with “no justification whatsoever” against a flotilla whose “sole aim had been to provide much-needed relief.” The doctrine of self-defense “did not in any way justify the actions taken by the Israeli forces.” It was an “unlawful ambush...an act of barbarism...aggression on the high seas.”
One speaker after another repeated the themes of an unjustified blockade using excessive force with no legal basis. None made any distinction between a blockade of arms and one against civilian goods. Each called for an end to the blockade, without explaining how Israel is to protect itself from terrorist contraband.
Finally, the Israeli representative, Daniel Carmon, got his chance to respond. He was the only speaker to point out that a state of armed conflict exists between Israel and Hamas; that Gaza is dominated by terrorists who seized it in a violent coup; and that arms were being smuggled into the territory, including by sea. He pointed out that a maritime blockade, even in international waters, is a legitimate and recognized measure in an armed conflict. Any responsible government would act accordingly in similar circumstances to protect its civilians. Israel regretted the loss of innocent life, but could not compromise its security. The soldiers boarding one of the ships were violently attacked and threatened with kidnap and lynching. They acted in self-defense.
I have saved the American delegation’s response for last, because it is the one we want to examine closely. This emergency session of the Security Council was a moment of truth for the Obama administration, the kind of agonizing decision that reveals character and intent and priorities. Had George W. Bush still been in the White House, the action of the U.S. delegation could have been predicted with some confidence...
Read entire article at Commentary
Just before dawn on May 31, 2010, a team of Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship to enforce a blockade against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza. As they came aboard, the Israelis were assaulted by a violent faction of Islamic militants. A melee followed in which several of the commandos were seriously injured and nine of the Turkish militants were killed. The clash was over before the sun came up.
It was still daylight when, 5,600 miles away, the Israeli delegation to the United Nations was summoned to appear before an emergency session of the Security Council to be chastised for the actions of the commandos. Convened just hours after the violence, the council spent the night of May 31, into the wee hours of the morning, absorbed in “a highly emotional emergency session...[to express] international anger over the Israeli attack,” as the Washington Post described it.
The scene was a familiar one. In 1983, Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, described it thus: “What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.... Israel is cast as villain...in [a] melodrama...that features... many attackers and a great deal of verbal violence. ... The goal is isolation and humiliation of the victim. ... The attackers, encountering no obstacles, grow bolder, while other nations become progressively more reluctant to associate themselves with the accused, out of fear that they themselves will become a target of bloc hostility.”
The reenactment of this familiar drama on May 31 opened with a presentation by Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, the assistant secretary-general of the United Nations for political affairs. His job was to speak for the institution as a whole and to frame the issue objectively for the debate, on behalf of his boss, Ban Ki-moon. Fernandez-Taranco explained that the bloodshed had occurred because Israel had refused to end “its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza,” which was exacerbating “the unmet needs of Gaza’s civilian population.” For balance, Fernandez-Taranco took note of Israel’s claim that the demonstrators on board the Mari Marmara had used knives and clubs against Israeli naval personnel.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, followed in lockstep. This was, he said, “murder conducted by a state” with “no justification whatsoever” against a flotilla whose “sole aim had been to provide much-needed relief.” The doctrine of self-defense “did not in any way justify the actions taken by the Israeli forces.” It was an “unlawful ambush...an act of barbarism...aggression on the high seas.”
One speaker after another repeated the themes of an unjustified blockade using excessive force with no legal basis. None made any distinction between a blockade of arms and one against civilian goods. Each called for an end to the blockade, without explaining how Israel is to protect itself from terrorist contraband.
Finally, the Israeli representative, Daniel Carmon, got his chance to respond. He was the only speaker to point out that a state of armed conflict exists between Israel and Hamas; that Gaza is dominated by terrorists who seized it in a violent coup; and that arms were being smuggled into the territory, including by sea. He pointed out that a maritime blockade, even in international waters, is a legitimate and recognized measure in an armed conflict. Any responsible government would act accordingly in similar circumstances to protect its civilians. Israel regretted the loss of innocent life, but could not compromise its security. The soldiers boarding one of the ships were violently attacked and threatened with kidnap and lynching. They acted in self-defense.
I have saved the American delegation’s response for last, because it is the one we want to examine closely. This emergency session of the Security Council was a moment of truth for the Obama administration, the kind of agonizing decision that reveals character and intent and priorities. Had George W. Bush still been in the White House, the action of the U.S. delegation could have been predicted with some confidence...