Security Council can't agree on condemnation; State Department blasts Hamas (at what price to Israel?)
Indian Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, president of the 15-nation Security Council this month, told reporters after the 90-minute closed-door meeting that council members had only agreed to issue a communique stating that an emergency meeting took place and other procedural details.
Speaking on behalf of India, not the Security Council, Puri expressed the hope that the fact the council meeting took place would help to ease tensions in the Middle East and prevent an escalation of the conflict.
"The message that must be taken from this meeting is the violence must stop," he said, adding that the council was prepared to meet again on Gaza if necessary.Even more incredible was this statement from the US State Department:
Earlier, the US State Department had issued a strong statement that condemned Hamas rocket attacks against Israel.
Its deputy spokesman Mark Toner said, “We support Israel’s right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties.”
He added that regretted the death and injury of innocent Israeli and Palestinians civilians.
“There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel.
“We call on those responsible to stop these cowardly acts immediately,” Toner said.I guess Obama has more than enough foreign policy issues on his plate right now, so he's not going to defend Hamas. But there will be a price he will expect to be paid for taking our side against a terror organization.
“Hamas claims to have the best interests of the Palestinian people at heart, yet it continues to engage in violence that is counterproductive to the Palestinian cause. Attacking Israel on a near daily basis does nothing to help Palestinians in Gaza or to move the Palestinian people any closer to achieving self determination,” Toner said.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Ban Ki-Moon, Gaza, Hamas, Operation Pillar of Defense, United Nations Security Council
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:10 AM
1 Comments:
I wonder if Obama is going to pull a reversal in the second term. Not facing another election perhaps he'll drift away from his Left - governing more with national interest in mind rather than ideology. He owes them nothing now. We'll see if the self-proclaimed pragmatist from the Illinois senate days was just a scam or whether that may have actually have been the real Obama with the first term giveaways ending with reelection. We're still thoroughly hosed in the US but perhaps our foreign policy won't get much worse.
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