U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew from Egypt to Israel on Tuesday to babble the mantra that ”Israel has a right to defend itself” but instead should stop fighting and talk peace with Hamas, with the obvious consequence of a much worse war.
Ban did Israel the big favor of wagging the finger at Hamas for the war.
“We condemn strongly the rocket attacks, and these must stop immediately,” he said in a strong statement that will have the same impact as similar condemnations against violence in the Ukraine, Syria, Egypt, Libya, the Central African Republic, and against women around the world.
His solution to the war between Hamas and Israel is very simple and straight forward. Ban, who arrived in Israel as part of his effort and that of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry,to broker a ceasefire, said at a press conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the UN position was clear: “Stop fighting, start talking, and take on the root causes of the conflict so we are not back in the same situation in another six months or a year.”
And what is Ban’s understanding of the “root cause?” According to him, it is “mutual recognition, occupation, despair and denial of dignity.”
Of course, he “fully shares” the view that Israel has the right to defend itself. Is there a member of the United Nations that does not have that right and needs to be reminded of it?
“Yes, Israel, defend yourself, but”, he adds, “make sure you ‘exercise maximum restraint.’”
The war could have been over in one day if Israel had blitzed Gaza like any normal country does to enemies in war. A couple of thousand or so of Gaza civilians would have been killed, approximately 133,000 less than the number killed In Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the United States dropped Atomic bombs on the cities.
The would-be Gaza death toll, even if it were 4,000, still would be about 300,000 less than those killed in the bombing of cities in Nazi Germany in World War II, when approximately 7.5 million people were left homeless. In the Korean War, the U.S. killed 374,000 civilians.
Israel chose restraint, sacrificed the lives of 27 IDF soldiers, and still counting, but Ban is sure that Israel has “such a tremendous capacity for generosity and good” that it could reduce civilian casualties in Gaza if it and Hamas simply would stop shooting and start talking.
The man forgets that several previous “ceasefires” have resulted in more civilian casualties – in Israel, where nearly one million people have been under rocket attacks for a decade. That number now has grown to 4 million, give or take a few, but that only makes it more imperative to talk about the “two-state solution,” according to Ban because it is a “fundamental truth [that] you share one future.”
Hamas has the declared policy of destroying Israel and Ban says Hamas and Israel share “one future”?
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Secretary-General of Hamas, “They don’t want a two state solution. They don’t want any solution.”
But Ban insists, “Military actions will not increase Israel’s stability in the longer term.”
It is lack of military action that has increased Israel’s instability, whether it be against Hezbollah in 2006 or Palestinian Authority terrorists since Yasser Arafat, born in Egypt, made a career out of terror and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Before leaving Egypt, Ban said, “The Palestinian people deserve freedom, a future, peace and justice.” Truer words were never spoken, and if he would return to the moon and let Israel get on with the job, that might happen.