Statement by the World Jewish Congress on the UN General Assembly vote

06 November 2009

The World Jewish Congress condemns Thursday’s vote by the United Nations General Assembly as being flawed from the start. The vote calls upon both Israel and the Palestinians to conduct “independent and credible” investigations of the alleged war crimes during the Gaza conflict of December 2008 within a period of three months, or the UN will then send the matter to the Security Council.

At the same time the resolution already prejudges the outcome by endorsing the Goldstone Commission’s Report, and calls upon the Secretary General to send it to the Security Council. The United Nations has once again undermined its credibility and its waning effectiveness to uphold the lofty goals established at its creation.

Is there any point in responding to this ultimatum? That is a decision for the Israel Government to make and we will stand by Israel either way. It is questionable that it will make one scrap of difference to the final outcome. The World Jewish Congress hopes that, if and when this issue comes up for a vote at the Security Council, it will be dispatched in short order through a veto by some of its permanent members.

It is ironic that this vote at the General Assembly took place just one day after the Israel Defense Forces intercepted an Iranian weapons ship headed for Syria containing 3,000 rockets, a number equal to 75 percent of all rockets the terrorist group Hezbollah fired on Israel during the Second Lebanon War. These weapons were almost certainly destined to reach Iran’s proxies, as was the case when the Santorini was intercepted from Beirut in 2001, the Karine A in 2002 from Iran to Gaza, and now the Francop to Syria.

In the meantime, the international community is negotiating in good faith with the perfidious Iranian Government on its nuclear file, and Israel is accused of war crimes for defending itself against the very same weapons captured only this week.

Read more about the Goldstone Report and related issues