Title
Secretary-General, Greatly Concerned Over Yesterday’s Rocket Attacks Against Israel, Retaliatory Strikes, Urges Maximum Restraint (Press Release), SG/SM/15234
Note
At the United Nations, self-defense for Israel has long been a theoretical right. Every time it is actually used, it's a problem. Last Thursday, four rockets from Lebanese territory targeted northern Israel, one of them falling close to a home occupied by Holocaust survivors. Israel responded the following day by specifically targeting and bombing a terrorist base in Lebanon. So what did the UN do? Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement in which he said, on the one hand, "the firing of rockets" - no name, no perpetrator, no use of the word terrorist - was a violation of Security Council resolution 1701. And, on the other hand, Israel's "retaliatory strikes" drew this: "The Secretary-General...condemns any and all violations of resolution 1701... He urges all concerned to exercise maximum restraint and cooperate with UNIFIL, in order to prevent an escalation. The parties must fully adhere to resolution 1701 (2006) and respect the cessation of hostilities agreement."
There should have been no other hand. There should have been "thank you Israel for responding quickly to the attempt by terrorists to broaden the Syrian conflict, divert attention from recent horrors there, and for demonstrating to real enemies that democracies are not all feckless weaklings cowering from the responsibility of defending freedom."