MCViewPoint

Strangely, the Israeli government says Guterres did not condemn the horrendous Hamas violence against Israeli civilians. Israel’s position apparently is that even to remind people that history did not begin on October 7 is to justify murder, kidnapping, and mayhem.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-when-history-didnt-begin/

by Sheldon Richman

I agree with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. I’ve never written those words before. But on Oct 24, Guterres said to the UN Security Council (emphasis added):

The situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour.

The war in Gaza is raging and risks spiralling throughout the region.

Divisions are splintering societies. Tensions threaten to boil over.

At a crucial moment like this, it is vital to be clear on principles — starting with the fundamental principle of respecting and protecting civilians.

I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.

Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.

All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions. I respectfully note the presence among us of members of their families…..

It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.

The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.

But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people….

What was the reaction? Israel’s government demanded that Guterres resign for justifying (sic) Hamas’s crimes. According to statements from Israeli UN ambassador Gilad Erdan and foreign minister Eli Cohen, Guterres therefore is unfit for his job.

According to the officials, Guterres’s offending words were these: “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.” Those words preceded Guterres’s reference to what the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank endured under Israeli occupation since 1967.

See the rest here

Be seeing you