It is against the backdrop of a Palestinian civil war in which the terrorist group Hamas has driven its rival Fatah from Gaza, that the United Nations Human Rights Council has decided to announce its "reforms". It should be noted that the battle for Gaza came about nearly two years after Israel began its evacuation from Gaza and the West Bank with the aim of turning it over to Palestinian control. Land for peace.
As in the past, land for peace is a fantasy. In the late 1990s Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak negotiated a just such a compromise with Yasser Arafat -- Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, establishment and recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in return for the end of bombings and rockets into Israel. No dice. As in the past, Hamas clings to its position that the state of Israel must be eliminated. Rival Fatah has entertained notions of a negotiated settlement, and so the internal battle between the two factions began.
For its refusal to be eliminated Israel, has earned special recognition from the UNHRC. It's a "reform" package.
The first of two measures adopted places Israel automatically on the council's agenda for debate while all other countries in the world are dealt with under an overall global subject heading. The second move calls for Israel's activities in the Palestinian territories to be permanently reviewed until it withdraws from the West Bank.
"The Council focused almost exclusively on a single country - Israel - failing to address serious human rights violations in other countries such as Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Belarus, and Cuba," said US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack in a statement released to the press following the decision.
Israel's guilt is beyond question. Israel continually and blatantly violates the preferences of those who yearn for its destruction.
