Prosor calls to UN: Separate myth, truth on Mideast
By JPOST.COM STAFF
04/23/2012 22:25
In address to Security Council, ambassador to UN refutes various "myths" in int'l community's discussion of the Mideast.
Ron Prosor addressed UNSC Photo: Screenshot
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor called on the Security Council to
separate myth from truth in the discussion on the Middle East, during an address
to the council on Monday evening.
Prosor began by refuting the claim that
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the central conflict in the Middle East,
referring to strife in Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain and other Middle Eastern
countries that have no connection to Israel.
“Obsessing over Israel has
not stopped Assad’s tanks from flattening entire communities,” he said. “On the
contrary, it has only distracted attention from his crimes.”
Turning to
Iran, he said, “dedicating the majority of this debate to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, month after month, has not stopped the Iranian
regime’s centrifuges from spinning.
Iran’s ambitions for nuclear weapons
are the singlegreatest threat to the Middle East, and the entire
world.”
The ambassador then tackled the claim that there is a
humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that “numerous international organizations
have said clearly that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” He
referred to the 25 percent growth in Gaza’s GDP during the first three quarters
of 2011 to back up his argument, adding that exports are expanding and
international humanitarian projects are rapidly proceeding.
Pointing to
the UN’s silence on rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, Prosor emphasized that
the council has not condemned a single rocket.
Prosor’s “myth number
three” was the labeling of settlements as the primary obstacle to peace. The
true barrier, he said, “is the so-called ‘claim of return’ – and the
Palestinian’s refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state
of the Jewish people.”
The ambassador’s final “myths” included the issues
of refugees in the peace process, before he concluded that, “in the dangerous
uncertainty of a turbulent Middle East, the Security Council has never had a
greater responsibility to separate myth from truth, and fact from fiction.”