TEL AVIV – UN Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Security Council members Monday for drawing a moral equivalence between the Hamas terror group and the State of Israel.
Haley, who spoke during the Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is also expected to push a new resolution condemning the use of terror tactics by Hamas, including the firing of rockets into civilian populations, the launch of incendiary devices across the border into Israel and the construction of subterranean attack tunnels into Israeli territory.
Her remarks came in response to UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov’s statement that “all parties” should use “maximum restraint” over the recent two-day flareup between Israel and Hamas.
“Fact: There is only one side that attacks indiscriminately [Hamas]. One side that targets civilians. One side that terrorizes to achieve its objectives,” Haley said, pointing to the fact that Hamas launched close to 500 rockets in a 24-hour period.
“Even if you accept Hamas’s excuse that it launched its missiles in response to an Israeli covert operation, you cannot escape the fact that the Gaza terrorists targeted civilians in response. Their actions were not actions of a nation exercising self-defense, but of a terrorist group seizing a pretext to kill civilians,” Haley said.
“The PIJ is yet another terrorist proxy that Iran calls on to stoke violence and instability in the region,” Haley added, referencing Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest terror group.
By omitting any mention of Iran, Haley said, Mladenov failed to place the narrative in its proper context.
However, she said she agreed with Mladenov on his assessment that both parties must work towards finding a just solution.
“Both sides must work to resolve the conflict in the Middle East. Neither side can get everything it wants. Both sides must compromise. And compromise can only begin with a clear, honest and complete appraisal of the facts on the ground,” Haley said.
Haley, who is set to leave her post in the new year, has been coordinating with her Israeli counterpart Danny Danon to garner support from other envoys for a resolution condemning Hamas, Israel’s Hebrew-language Ynet news site reported.
“The efforts and diplomatic activity to promote the draft resolution condemning Hamas stresses Haley’s steadfast support of Israel. Through joint efforts we have managed to change the hostile approach against Israel at the UN. Now the time has come to recruit the world to join us in our fight against terror,” Danon stated.
“Hamas is a deadly terror organization, which must be dealt with on all fronts, and especially in the diplomatic arena,” he said.
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