Ynet reported today that Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations made a point today at the Security Council – by playing a recording of a 15 second Israeli air raid siren.
The United Nations Security Council convened Thursday for a special session, at the request of the Arab delegates, to discuss the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip. During the open session, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor and the Palestinian delegate Riyad Mansour addressed the assembled diplomats.
In a moment of drama, Israel’s ambassador suddenly played the piercing 15-second siren that warns Israelis to run to bomb shelters to escape rocket attacks to highlight the threat his country faces. Ron Prosor told the council that the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, is “intentionally and indiscriminately” threatening 3.5 million Israelis and “no nation, no people and no government could tolerate this.”
After the Security Council meeting Prosor held a press conference in which he stated Israel’s case:
Israel is defending itself against terrorists, and the international community cannot continue to support the Palestinian unity government. “It’s time for the international community to right the wrong of the embrace between Hamas and Fatah,” he said after his speech on Thursday. “Unity does not equal impunity.”
The Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon said:
Three rockets were reportedly fired at Jerusalem, with the IDF confirming the impact of one in northern Jerusalem without specifying the exact location. Rockets were also, inter alia,fired at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Hadera, Ashdod and Be’er Sheva — some intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system, others causing material damage and injuries to two Israeli civilians. An attempted infiltration by Palestinian militants by sea from Gaza into Ashkelon on the night of 8 July was reportedly foiled by the IDF, which killed the militants. Attacks on both sides continued today. …
Today, we face the risk of an all-out escalation in Israel and Gaza, with the threat of a ground offensive still palpable — and preventable only if Hamas stops rocket firing.
Though elsewhere Moon called on “both sides to exercise maximum restraint,” here he put the onus on Hamas to stop the terror.
Previously Prosor had asked that the Security Council condemn Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel.
In the September 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine Ben Cohen explained in Why I Sometimes Don’t Fully Hate the UN, “[a]fter half a century of chipping away at Israel’s sovereignty … it has become possible to envision Israel as, at last, a fully equal member state,” but cautions “more is needed.”
[Photo: UN Web TV ]