This morning it’s time for a comparison. How does the UN handle the crises in Gaza and Sudan? The Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has been making daily statements calling on Israel to stop the war, and to grant Palestinian statehood. He hasn’t mentioned Hamas as being responsible for initiating the hostilities. He has also barely mentioned Sudan.
Sudan, for those who have not been following what is happening there, is still in the midst of a de facto civil war. There are nearly 7 million Sudanese refugees (nearly 3 times the number in Gaza) and there are over 9,000 actual reported cases of cholera there (versus NONE confirmed in Gaza). The UN World Food Program provides aid via the office of the UNHCR. UN operations in Sudan were halted in December 2023 (without any public complaint by the Secretary General that I know of, and certainly not daily complaints). A new request for funding aid only got 3% of the commitment needed. People really are starving in Sudan, and not in Gaza, regardless of whatever the Secretary General says.
In Gaza, “humanitarian” aid is delivered from Egypt AND Israel by truck. The trucks coming from Egypt are commandeered by Hamas after they cross the border. Hamas steals whatever it needs or wants and also then sells much of the remainder to Gazan stores for resale to the people in the camps. The UN is fully aware this is happening. UNRWA employees, who are supposed to distribute aid, are present while this goes on and has been photographed. UNRWA is an agency of MR Guterres’s UN. I don’t see how he could pretend to not know what actually happens on the ground.
As for Palestinian statehood, well, three of the five Security Council members with veto power (US, UK, FR) oppose it. Why? Because neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority are ready to accept the conditions for statehood spelled out in UN Security Council Resolution 1397 of 2002 requiring the sides to live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.
My conclusion: Antonio Guterres is a hypocrite and is biased against Israel.
Wetherhorn 