Israel Matzav

Quit the quartet?

Yesterday, the United Nations' 'Human Rights Council's' 'special rapporteur' on the Middle East, John Dugard, urged the United Nations to resign from the 'quartet' seeking a solution to the Arab-Israel dispute if the quartet "fails to have regard to the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories."

Dugard said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Monday that the Quartet, which also includes Russia, the United States and the European Union, is “heavily influenced” by the U.S., weakening the international group’s effectiveness.

“Every time I visit, the situation seems to have worsened,” he said. “This time, I was very struck by the sense of hopelessness among the Palestinian people.” That hopelessness was also noted in a report by the Economist magazine, albeit attributed to different causes.

Dugard added that the U.N. “does itself little good” by remaining in the Quartet, due to human rights violations by Israel in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

I didn't realize that the UN was a part of the 'quartet' to 'do itself some good.' But the reality is that of the four partners in the 'quartet,' the only one that even comes close to being seen as an honest broker by Israelis is the United States. Russia continues to assist in Iran's quest for nuclear weapons that would be used to destroy Israel, and the European Union daily acts more like a branch of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and less like a confederation of Western countries with Western values. As to the UN itself, and particularly its 'Human Rights Council,' which regularly condemns the defensive measures taken by Israel to prevent suicide bombings while failing to find the time to condemn genocide in the Sudan, murder in Egypt, the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and in nearly all other countries in the Islamic world, it goes without saying that no Israeli would view them as an honest broker.

Let the UN quit the quartet. In fact, let the quartet be disbanded altogether. And then let the United States and any other nation (if there are any) that has an interest in finding a real solution and not just in precipitating Israel's destruction come to the table and try to find a solution. It won't happen overnight. But it won't ever happen with dishonest 'brokers' like John Dugard whose hatred of the Jews and the Jewish state drips from their lips every time they open their mouths.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:15 AM