Israel Matzav

UN Security Council fails to pass draft condemning Israel's Gaza operations

The United Nations Security Council failed to pass a statement (not a resolution - see below) condemning Israel's operations in Gaza, and from the looks of things the credit all goes to United States Ambassador to the UN John Bolton.

The UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement Thursday on a recent surge in violence between Israel and the Palestinians, after the United States said the proposed draft was unfairly critical of Israel.

The Palestinian UN observer, Riyad Mansour, strongly suggested that the United States was the lone holdout against the statement, though he did not mention the US by name.

He referred to "one member who is shielding and protecting the Israeli actions and aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and in other parts of the occupied territory."

Diplomats said Britain and Denmark also had problems with the draft, and US Ambassador John Bolton would not say if the United States was the only one opposed.

"If I were the only holdout I'd be proud of that fact," Bolton said after the council could not agree on the text.

The draft proposed by Qatar on behalf of the Palestinians would have expressed concern about the "indiscriminate shelling against the Gaza Strip, resulting in extensive human casualties."

It would have called on Israel to halt "military operations and excessive use of force that endangers the Palestinian civilian populations."

The United States had argued for its long-standing belief that any such statement mention both sides' obligations under the road map to Mideast peace and cite Palestinian attacks against Israel as well.

"The balance of the text as it ended up was still not adequate in our view and we weren't prepared to support it," Bolton said afterward. "It was disproportionately critical of Israel, and unfairly so and needlessly so."

It was Bolton who blocked the draft as pointed out in this al-Reuters release linked by Little Green Footballs:

Washington does not have formal veto power when it comes to council statements. But it was nonetheless able to block the draft single-handedly because council rules require that statements be unanimous supported by all 15 of its members. During Thursday’s closed-door negotiations, the United States effectively killed the text by seeking amendment after amendment until Qatar, the council’s sole Arab member, gave up the fight.

No wonder the LLL Moonbats were so upset when Bolton was appointed.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:31 AM