Deadly silence
While the call for a ceasefire may sound like a humanitarian gesture, ‘it is a guaranteed recipe for more Hamas violence.’
Daily TribuneWhile the call for a ceasefire may sound like a humanitarian gesture, ‘it is a guaranteed recipe for more Hamas violence.’
Israeli forces are combing hospitals in their offensive against the Hamas terror group, which exploits health facilities in the Gaza Strip, using them as hideouts and command centers, as cover against detection and shields against air operations.
Several terror kits consisting of uniforms, bullet-proof vests, ammunition, and Kalashnikov rifles have been found in the hospitals, along with tell-tale evidence of hostages once held there.
Despite all the proof of Hamas' violations of the war convention on the use of hospitals as bases for military operations, the United Nations, or UN, has not been heard from.
Earlier, some UN officials and pro-Arab groups cast doubts on the claim that Hamas was using hospitals for their terror activities and demanded instead a ceasefire in the Israel Defense Forces' actions against Gaza hospitals.
Had Israel acceded, the terrorists would have likely removed the many pieces of evidence found in the hospitals that Israel needs to prosecute those responsible for the 7 October massacre.
The UN's silence amid the overwhelming evidence that the IDF has gathered only points to its being complicit with the terror group.
Ironically, the UN was founded nearly 80 years ago as a response to the Holocaust, in part to ensure that such horrors, in which 6 million Jews were murdered, would never be repeated.
Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that rather than preventing atrocities against the Jews, the UN has enabled them.
Anti-Israel bias and policies have spun out of control, undermining the UN's very mission. "At the UN today, the world's leading human rights abusers emerge as leaders on human rights," Schanzer indicated.
"Multiple agencies have succumbed to endemic corruption. And the prevention or cessation of conflict only seems to matter when Israel tries to defend itself from terrorist attacks. This, in many ways, is the buckling of the US-led world order," he said.
The analyst said that while "some officials and entities from the UN condemned the 7 October attack, none described the perpetrators of the massacre as a terrorist group."
While the call for a ceasefire may sound like a humanitarian gesture, "it is a guaranteed recipe for more Hamas violence," Schanzer told a US House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing.
Forcing a truce would allow Hamas the time and space to rearm and regroup, and Schanzer said the group "would be positioned to carry out future massacres, something Hamas leaders have pledged to do."
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller expressed surprise at the turn of events.
"I am surprised… that people have ignored the weight of public evidence over years and years of Hamas using civilian infrastructure as human shields. Israel has a right to conduct those military actions to hold those terrorists accountable," Miller said.
Based on what has transpired, Hamas has shown that it would resort to the worst depravity and cunning towards its ultimate objective that it stated in its "covenant," which is to erase Israel as a nation.
"Either the UN begins to reform itself, or it should be dismantled," Schanzer said.
The domination of the multilateral body by avowed anti-Israel nations has resulted in resolutions that are largely skewed against the welfare of the sole Jewish nation.
Tragically, the UN has not provided the leadership that is badly required in this geopolitical crisis.
The international body has failed to be relevant as a result of its heavy anti-Israel bias that does not give justice to its name.