Subscribe to our e-mail alerts

E-mail:

Israel News Feed Or subscribe to our RSS feed | What is RSS?
Israel News from Jerusalem Newswire
Nations United Against Israel

Annan: Israel deliberately targeted UN personnel

Israel: No one in his right mind could make such a charge


By Stan Goodenough
July 26, 2006

The man who heads up the United Nations exposed ? not for the first time ? a nasty bias against Israel when he expressed his belief Wednesday that the Jewish state would deliberately aim at and kill UN personnel.

Four Blue-Helmeted observers ? a Finn, a Chinese, an Austrian and a Canadian ? were killed Tuesday night by a missile or bomb reportedly fired at the Khiyam Post by an Israeli warplane.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed his deep regret at the incident and promised Israel would undertake a "thorough and open" investigation.

Reacting in Rome, however, an outraged Kofi Annan made the following remarkable statement:

?I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a United Nations observer post in southern Lebanon that has killed two United Nations military observers, with two more feared dead.?

Sounding somewhat flabbergasted, Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman said in response:

"I seriously do not believe that Kofi Annan believes that this was deliberate and targeted. No one in his right mind would believe that Israel is targeting UN personnel.

"I am surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions made by the secretary general, who while demanding an investigation has already issued its conclusions.?

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, after again expressing her country?s regret and condolences to the families of the four killed men, stated emphatically:

?Israel never targeted and will never target United Nations people. It is not part of our policy; it is not part of our values.?

This is not the first time a secretary-general of the world body, which has a long record of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism*, has accused Israel of killing innocent people on purpose.

In 1976, Annan?s predecessor, the former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, charged that Israel had deliberately targeted a UN post in Qana, killing 106 Lebanese civilians taking shelter in the base.

Meanwhile CNS NEWS reported Wednesday that Annan could have ordered UN observers to leave when hostilities erupted between Israel and the Hizb?allah.

?The four United Nations peacekeepers ? were required to stay at that post ?until they were ordered by the [U.N.] secretary general to withdraw,? said a member of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization on Wednesday.

?But the peacekeepers apparently never received such an order, despite the fierce cross-border fighting that erupted in southern Lebanon two weeks ago.?

Expressing its inclination to support Annan?s accusation, CNN quoted ?unnamed UN officials? as saying that Israel fired missiles between 100 and 400 meters from the UN base Tuesday afternoon, and that with each firing UN headquarters in Beirut had telephoned Jerusalem asking Israel to be careful so as not to bomb the post.

What CNN apparently did not think worth ascertaining is what was actually taking place in such close proximity to the UN post that Israel had to keep firing missiles into that area.

  • The UN?s consistent prejudice is a matter of historic record. This organization, over which Annan presides, has since its establishment in 1945 passed more resolutions condemning Israel than against any other country ? including the Soviet Union, North Korea, Red China and the Sudan.
Like the article?
Help spread the word:
Jnewswire updates
Never miss another story
  • Inbox already too full?
    Subscribe to our
    RSS feed instead!