'It's a Farce': U.N. Security Council, Under Pressure From Islamic States, Schedules Meeting on Gaza During Rosh Hashanah

"The United Nations Security Council has scheduled a critical meeting on the Gaza war for Tuesday afternoon—as the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah is in full swing. The move is meant to sideline Israeli officials who will be observing the holiday, sources familiar with the meeting told the Washington Free Beacon...

[I]t was scheduled during Rosh Hashanah thanks to pressure from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the self-described ‘collective voice of the Muslim world’ that maintains a permanent delegation to the U.N. and counts the likes of Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan as members. Another member, Algeria, was especially aggressive in pushing for the Gaza meeting to fall within Rosh Hashanah, the Free Beacon has learned.

The Jewish holiday begins at sundown on Monday and concludes at nightfall on Wednesday. UNGA high-level debate does not end until five days later, leaving plenty of time for the Security Council to hold the Gaza meeting after Rosh Hashanah. South Korea, which holds the Security Council presidency, ultimately decided on the date and time, suggesting the country capitulated to the OIC’s demands...

One source familiar with the meeting said its schedule is ‘yet another example of how the U.N. is a fundamentally unserious institution.’

‘It’s a farce for the Security Council to schedule this meeting on Rosh Hashanah, knowing Israel can’t participate or respond to the anti-Semitic dogpile that will take place,’ the source told the Free Beacon...

One former U.S. diplomat who worked on U.N. matters said the Security Council’s Rosh Hashanah meeting on Gaza amounts to ‘outright anti-Semitism.’

‘The United Nations has long had an anti-Israel problem—if not actual outright anti-Semitism—but purposely hosting such a meeting on one of the holiest days for the Jewish community is them going out of their way to exclude Jews who observe Rosh Hashanah and serves as a statement against the world’s only Jewish state,’ the former diplomat said. ‘When leaders go out of their way to exclude or single out one religious minority, that’s discrimination—and when it’s the Jewish faith that’s anti-Semitism.’..."