Israel's Ambassador to the Philippines, Ilan Fluss, stressed yesterday that his country does not want the United Nations to interfere in its war against the extremist group Hamas, which killed at least 1,400 people, mostly Israeli civilians, in an unprecedented attack last 7 October.

In a roundtable discussion with DAILY TRIBUNE editors and reporters, Fluss accused the UN of having a long-standing anti-Israel bias as he brushed aside a UN Security Council call for a "humanitarian pause" in the conflict.

The UN was founded 78 years ago to the day today, on 24 October 1945.

"We're in a war against Hamas, which is like the war in Afghanistan (following the 11 September 2001 or 9/11 terror attacks against the United States)," said Fluss, describing the attack by Hamas as second only in barbarity to what Israelis faced during the holocaust.

Hitler's Nazi Germany exterminated about six million European Jews from 1941 to 1945 during the Holocaust in World War 2. The genocide would spur the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

"We will make sure that there's no humanitarian crisis as much as possible, and we are trying hard to minimize the casualties there," he said, explaining that the airstrikes in the Gaza Strip are targeting well-known Hamas enclaves.

Israel, with about 300,000 soldiers and armor massed at its border with Gaza, has expressed an intent to launch a ground offensive to rout Hamas, without occupying the territory it left in 2005.

Fluss pointed out that civilians in Gaza are being warned in advance of the attacks, with pleas made for them to relocate to its south, away from the fighting.

War on terror

"Our objective in this war is to ensure that Hamas will no longer be able to attack Israel like it did. We will remove their capability in a war that is solely against Hamas and not the Palestinians," Fluss said.

The envoy stressed that Israel is not against delivering humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza, while stressing Israel's right to protect its citizens against terrorist groups like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Fluss said that nobody, not even the UN, can stop Israel from a war that it did not start, one that was "forced on us" by Hamas with the latter's massacre of innocent Israelis, including women and children.

Enemies of Israel

He explained that while the Philippines enjoys recognition by all countries, Israel has for decades, if not centuries, been trying to be recognized as a state with the right to exist peacefully.

But Fluss lamented that the UN has been passing resolutions — at least 20 every year — "which are anti-Israel, (resolutions) that take the Palestinian narrative."

"There is no recognition of the Israeli narrative. The bias against Israel in the UN is well-known," he said.

He said that the UN and its agencies, like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, otherwise referred to as the UN Relief and Works Agency or UNRWA, have allowed themselves to be used by the enemies of Israel.

Fluss cited as an example the use by Hamas of UNRWA facilities, supplies and even marked vehicles in attacking Israel.

UNRWA had been accused in the past of perpetuating destabilizing events in order to have a perpetual supply of refugees to justify its existence and funding. It has over 18,900 staff working in 138 countries.

Israel, as the lone Jewish state in the UN, is ranged against an automatic majority of countries that support the Palestinian initiatives. The Arab League has 22 members in the UN, while the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has 57 members.

It may be recalled that a number of Arab countries had banded together to wage wars against Israel, including in 1948 during its founding. The UN has also accommodated Palestinians many times in the past.

In October 1974, or 14 years before the Palestine Liberation Organization nominally forswore terrorism, the UN General Assembly voted to invite it to send a spokesperson to take part in its deliberations.

No one who was not a representative of a government — except the Pope, and even he was the head of a quasi-state — had ever before been granted such a privilege.

The vote to extend the invitation was overwhelming, 105 to 4, with only the United States, Israel, and two Latin American governments opposed.

The assembled delegates heard Yasser Arafat proclaim the necessity of getting at the "historical roots" of the issue, namely, "the Jewish invasion of Palestine [that] began in 1881," and addressing it with a "radical antidote," rather than "a slavish obeisance to the present."

Expulsion try

In 1975, the foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference were determined to have Israel expelled from the UN.

The PLO lined up support for this move at a meeting of the African states while training its sights on a ministerial meeting of the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) scheduled a month later, in August 1975, in Lima, Peru.

Washington then objected. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger delivered a major speech on the subject, with a thinly veiled warning that the United States might turn its back on the United Nations.

In addition to Washington's hard line, the drive to expel Israel was also slowed by disarray within the Arab's ranks.

The most decisive factor that disrupted the expulsion move was the surprising position of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who announced his opposition to it because "Israel must be present at the United Nations if it is expected to comply with its resolutions."

Israel's enemies soon came up with an alternative that again targeted Israel through a resolution of the General Assembly, echoing Arafat and Soviet propagandists who declared Zionism to be "a form of racism."

In 1982, the body declared that Israel "is not a peace-loving member state and that it has not carried out its obligations under the Charter."

Likewise, the UN General Assembly has voted each year on 70 to 100 resolutions, including from 15 to 20 resolutions pejorative to Israel.

Of all General Assembly resolutions that criticize a particular country, three-quarters apply to Israel.

The relentless recitation of UN declarations reinforces the conviction in the Arab world that all right lies on the Arab side and that Israel is irredeemably evil.