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The UN Endorsed Hamas’ Terror Tactics; Its Slippery Slope Is Now a Chasm
Delegates react to the results during the United Nations General Assembly vote on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinians as qualified to become a full UN member, in New York City, US, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Less than two miles away from the glitz and glamor of Broadway, there is another show taking place — theatre of the absurd.
When the United Nations General Assembly passed yet another “Palestine” resolution on May 10, 2024, it demonstrated that the immoral slippery slope that the UN has been on for years, is now a cliff. Common sense, logic, decency, and morality have fallen into the abyss.
Although the UN is nominally the global body in charge of peacemaking and conflict resolution, this anti-Israel resolution actually makes peace and reconciliation less likely than ever before.
Practically, the resolution itself was meaningless. It is designed to promote the recognition of a Palestinian state by upgrading the rights of the non-member observer “State of Palestine” in the United Nations — with an eventual goal of achieving full membership and statehood, something that can only be granted through a UN Security Council resolution.
However, that stunt was already tried on April 18, and was vetoed by the United States. In a dig at the US, the May 10 resolution expressed “deep regret and concern” that “one negative vote by a permanent member of the Security Council prevented the adoption of the draft resolution.”
The additional rights granted to the Palestinians are window dressing without any real substance. For example, the Palestinians will now be able to make statements and submit proposals on behalf of a group at the General Assembly, and the “State of Palestine” can now be seated among member states in alphabetical order.
But for all the self-congratulatory backslapping about another lopsided resolution being passed, the Palestinians still remain observers without the right to vote or be appointed to any major UN body, including the Security Council, UNESCO or the Human Rights Council.
Yet, despite the ineffectiveness of this resolution, its intent was clearly to internationalize the conflict and place further pressure on Israel to accept a Palestinian state, bypassing both negotiations and any obligation on the Palestinians to agree to live in peace alongside Israel.
This has long been the goal of the Palestinian leadership, who have rejected every peace deal or offer ever made to them since even before 1947, often resorting to violence and terror in response.
Unfortunately, 143 countries chose to uphold that rejectionist approach, while only 9 countries showed moral fortitude by rejecting it; a further 25 others abstained.
Among the countries supporting this farce were liberal democracies like New Zealand and Australia which, rather than taking a constructive approach to actually encourage peacemaking and negotiations, decided to throw in their lot with dictatorships like China, Russia, and Iran instead.
They naively argued that supporting the resolution will lead to momentum for their desired goal of a two-state-solution. Yet sadly, in doing so, intentionally or not, they endorsed rewarding terror with concessions. If the brutal actions of October 7 were to act as the catalyst leading to the creation of a non-negotiated Palestinian state, this will only encourage more terror and violence — not just in Israel, but around the world.
The message of October 7, apparently, is that terrorism works.
The UN took the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust — and Israel’s war of survival that was launched in defense — and used this as an excuse to call for a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), whose UN ambassador referred to Hamas as his brothers, has not condemned, even once, what happened on October 7 as a terror attack. Yet the PA is now reaping the benefits of the terror war that Hamas unleashed.
Hamas, which utterly rejects any peaceful two-state-solution, also welcomed the resolution, calling it “an affirmation of the international rally around our people.”
Yet this supposed concern for the Palestinian “people” is pretty ironic considering Hamas uses them as human shields, and is responsible for the many thousands of Palestinian civilians killed since it deliberately launched its terror war.
The UN is supposed to promote global peace and security, but in reality, it is frequently a conduit for the interests and ideologies of the worst dictatorships and human rights violators.
Shamefully, but unsurprisingly, the UN has yet to condemn Hamas — and the Security Council only held its first meeting dedicated to Israeli hostages seven long months after they were stolen. More and more, the UN is cementing its position as the world’s useful idiot, providing legitimacy to causes that deserve no legitimacy at all.
Justin Amler is a Policy Analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
The post The UN Endorsed Hamas’ Terror Tactics; Its Slippery Slope Is Now a Chasm first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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