OPINION

Ode to the United Nations, and Its Gazan Staff

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

I don’t celebrate the death of any civilian non-combatant anywhere, whether in a drive-by shooting, a war, or an act of terror.  Unfortunately, war is hell and there are civilian casualties. That’s truly sad.  But I am proud to live in a country that not only does everything possible to protect us through a powerful standing army, a dedicated reserve army, and the investment of billions in technologies to prevent loss of life.  I am also proud to live in a country that has among the most if not the most moral armies in the world, always seeking to limit if not prevent civilian non-combatant loss of life.

Operating by these standards often puts Israeli soldiers in harm’s way, risking their lives, to preserve the lives of civilian non-combatants in Gaza.  It sometimes means not striking terrorists who are a clear and present danger, even en route to carry out a terrorist attack. There are videos of air force pilots calling off an air strike because of the terrorists’ proximity to children.  

I am also grateful to live in a country where we don’t do what our enemies in Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and others do: using their own civilians as human shields.  Other than being evil, and a war crime, this makes clear that these ISIS-like Islamic terrorists are not fighting FOR their own people, but just to kill us.

In that context, I was dismayed but not surprised to read recently that the UN has criticized Israel because of the death of 88 UN staff in Gaza.  Again, I do not celebrate the death of any civilian non-combatant.  However, rather than criticizing Israel for the death of its staff members, the United Nations should be looking in the mirror, and asking itself difficult questions as to how it is culpable for, and has enabled this situation, for decades.  The UN has enabled the Islamic terrorists to threaten and slaughter Israelis by allowing their staff and facilities, including civilians, to be out in harm’s way. Deliberately. 

With 57 percent of Gazans actually supporting Hamas in a recent Arab-based poll, they should ask how many of its “staff members” are in fact Hamas terrorists? Do they vet out their staff to prevent this possibility? 

The United Nations should reflect on how it has allowed Hamas and other terrorist organizations to use their schools and other facilities in and around which to hide weapons and their terrorists.

How have United Nations agencies spent decades conferring refugee status among Palestinian Arabs as something one inherits from generation to generation, the only people in the world with this status, rather than resettling them, and resolving a demographic problem rather than perpetuating it?  How in doing so can the UN act in good faith that the Palestinian Arabs’ leaders have the stated goal to destroy Israel, a UN member state?   

How is it that United Nations funded and run schools deliberately allow the instigating and inciting of hatred and terror toward Israel and Jews, inciting violence and genocide against an entire people?  Should this really be part of the curriculum of raising good citizens of the world? 

How did the United Nations allow Hamas to steal hundreds of thousands of liters of diesel fuel from a United Nations facility without saying a word? Was this an inside job? 

How is it humanly possible that the Secretary General of the United Nations had the obscene hubris to rationalize the massacre of 1400 people in Israel on October 7 by saying that the world needs to understand the context, effectively justifying a crime against humanity.  Really? 

How is it possible that the United Nations peacekeepers have allowed Hezbollah in Lebanon to acquire more than 150,000 long range precision missiles under its watch, in violation of direct United Nations resolutions?  If Hezbollah opens a front with Israel, now or any time in the future, and Israel strikes its bunkers, weapons storages, terror leaders where they are hiding, and more, the blood will be on the hands of the UN for allowing southern Lebanon to become infested with terrorists, nestled among the civilian population. 

Rather than playing the victim, the United Nations is directly culpable for enabling the evil of the Islamic Palestinian Arab terrorists we are witnessing in Israel, and the consequence in Gaza of Israel’s invasion to destroy Hamas and release the hostages.  And yes, that includes the death of 88 UN staff. 

Blame for the massacre on October 7 starts with Hamas, and with the assist to Iran, and with no less culpability to the UN for passing resolution after resolution against Israel, elevating Iran’s Islamist regime, barely ever mentioning human rights violations, atrocities and war crimes that are committed by actual terrorist entities, all of which directly play into the terrorists’ hands.

It is indeed sad that so many UN staff members were killed. After they bury their colleagues, the UN must look in the mirror because of their decades of institutional guilt for strengthening the terrorists and bringing us to this day.