Prosor calls to UN: Separate myth, truth on Mideast

In address to Security Council, ambassador to UN refutes various "myths" in int'l community's discussion of the Mideast.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Ron Prosor addressed UNSC 370 (photo credit: Screenshot)
Ron Prosor addressed UNSC 370
(photo credit: 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.”


Related Tags
Ron Prosor