Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib managed to get through his 17-minute address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday without mentioning Hezbollah or Hamas even once.
He railed against Israel for the “war crime” of allegedly bombing civilian populations without mentioning that Lebanese Hezbollah has been shelling Israeli civilian targets for months.
Like other terrorism apologists speaking before the United Nations, Bouhabib studiously avoided mentioning the October 7 atrocities as the reason for the conflict in Gaza, which recently expanded into Lebanon because Lebanese Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Hamas.
In the most staggering bit of his speech, Bouhabib actually complained about the security situation in the region degrading from October 8th onward, without mentioning if anything bad might have happened on the previous day that caused the region to become less secure.
The only atrocity the Lebanese foreign minister could be troubled to complain about was the detonation of Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie talkies, an action he called “detestable and repugnant.”
“Civilian devices were transformed into ticking time bombs that were deliberately and simultaneously blown up, thereby claiming the lives of dozens, including children, including women,” he declared, without reminding his listeners that those devices were held by the operatives of a terrorist organization.
Likewise, Bouhabib raged against Israel for bombing civilian structures in Lebanon without mentioning that Hezbollah keeps its rocket launchers and ammo dumps in such buildings.
Bouhabib’s entire speech boiled down to the familiar refrain of Palestinian terrorism apologists: all of the violence is entirely Israel’s fault because it refuses to capitulate to Palestinian demands.
Bouhabib repeatedly referenced U.N. resolutions without a word about Hezbollah or its activities, or the malevolent destabilizing agenda of Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran. He demanded “international intervention on an urgent basis before the situation spirals out of control,” without pausing to consider whether Lebanon’s terrorists might be the ones who caused that spiral.
“What we are currently experiencing in Lebanon is a consequence of the absence of a lasting sustainable solution. The cause is occupation … so long as the occupation persists, there will be instability and there will be war,” he said.
“Despite the inability of the United Nations to protect us from Israeli aggression up until now, we remain committed to the role of this organization as a front line of defense in the face of occupation, violence, devastation, and oppression,” he added.
“The return of Israeli displaced persons to their cities and their settlements cannot be achieved through war, cannot be achieved through bombardment, fighting, hostilities, or the displacement of Lebanese people,” he intoned, without mentioning who displaced those Israelis.
“Has Israel not had enough of the endless war since 1948? When will it be time for Israel to give a real opportunity for peace? There can be no peace without the two-state solution,” he said,