Israeli UN Envoy: Security Council Has “Selective Perception”

Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor. Photo: Screebshot.Anav Silverman

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor told the UN Security Council last week that the Council “needs a GPS system to find its moral center in this debate on the Middle East.”

Addressing the current Middle East situation and Israel’s latest elections, Prosor admonished the Security Council for its continued silence in the face of terror and oppression that reigns across the Middle East. “Most of the millions in our region who live under oppression, fear, and violence are completely ignored in this debate,” the ambassador stated during UN Security Council’s monthly open debate on the Middle East in New York last Wednesday.

Prosor stated that a “litany of half-truths, myths, and outright lies about Israel,” are the focal points of Security Council sessions. The Israeli ambassador further added that the monthly debate which the Security Council holds on the Middle East falls short of its original mission to advance global peace and security.

The ambassador emphasized that there were other challenges facing the Middle East, highlighting both the regime of Syrian President Bashaar Assad and the Aytollah regime in Iran.  “More than 60,000 were killed in Syria in just the past two years,” stated Prosor.  Among those killed, said Prosor, were hundreds of Palestinians living in refugee camps bombed by Assad’s fighter jets.  Prosor also noted that Assad’s chemical weapons could be confiscated by Al Qaeda or Hezbollah.  He mentioned the oppressive Hezbollah regime in Lebanon that had “transformed the country into an Iranian terror base,” and that Iran’s advanced missile technology with nuclear weapons and extremist ideology “leaves the lives of millions hang[ing] in balance.”

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, took the opportunity to criticize Israel on settlement activity. “We have reiterated our longstanding opposition to Israel’s West Bank settlement activity, as well as construction in East Jerusalem, which run counter to the cause of peace,” declared Rice. She said that construction in E1, connecting Jerusalem to Ma’aleh Adumim “would be especially damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution.”

Prosor addressed Rice’s criticism in his speech, saying that “there are many threats to the security in our region. But the presence of Jewish homes in Jerusalem – the eternal capital of the Jewish people, has never been one of them.”

He further clarified that the possible existence of a Palestinian state was not influenced by E1 construction connecting Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, which are 7 kilometers apart. “Those who make this claim are the same people who stand up and speak about a contiguous state between Gaza and the West Bank, areas divided by more than 70 kilometers…which would cut Israel in two.”

Rice, however also voiced Washington’s disapproval of the Palestinians’ use of ‘State of Palestine’ on their nameplate at the UN Security Council session.  She stated that the United States did not recognize the UN General Assembly vote to upgrade the status of Palestine as a non-member observer state on November 29, 2012. Rice stated that “…any reference to the ‘State of Palestine’…do not reflect acquiescence that ‘Palestine’ is a state.”

While the Middle East peace process and occasionally even Syria, dominated the Security Council session on Wednesday – they were described as the “two major crisis” facing the region by several ambassadors – Israel’s UN envoy offered another perspective on the debate.

“I have a novel idea. Perhaps this discussion could occasionally spend some time examining why the situation in the Middle East remains unstable, undemocratic and violent. I’ll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with Israel,” stated Prosor.