YouSaid · the spoken record

Erdan

lines on the record: 378
first: 2021-07-28
most recent: 2023-12-29
sittings or episodes: 26
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for organizing today’s important and timely debate and to congratulate you on your presidency. Sixteen years ago today, Iran’s terror proxy, Hizbullah, launched an attack on an Israeli border patrol, murdering five soldiers, kidnapping two and wounding three others. That heinous act of terror ignited the Second Lebanon War, a war in which Hezbollah targeted Israel’s civilian population, raining thousands of rockets down on Israeli towns and cities. The war concluded with the adoption of resolution 1701 (2006), which strengthened the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and enhanced its mandate. Nevertheless, here we are, 16 years later, and Hizbullah’s death grip on southern Lebanon has not decreased. It has increased exponentially, while barring UNIFIL from fulfilling its mandate.”
2022-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9090Resumption1 (2022) · source
“When the democratic State of Israel is put on an equal footing with terror organizations, the false narrative of extremists becomes legitimized, and the terrorist violence only intensifies. That cycle must end. While these debates remain focused entirely on Israel, the Middle East is becoming a tinderbox. That is a wake-up call, and, unfortunately, there may not be many more before the region erupts. The time has come to repair the Middle East. The time has come for the Security Council to take real action. The time has come for us all to work together to ensure a brighter future. The State of Israel implores all those present to work towards a stable Middle East and a stable world.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Will UNIFIL have any freedom of operation once Hizbullah gets its hands on tactical radiological weapons or has the protection of Iran? How much bolder will the Houthi attacks on international trade routes and civilian infrastructure be once they have nuclear backing? While the world continues to take a passive approach to that very real and terrifying threat, Israel will not stand idly on the sidelines. Israel has full freedom to act anywhere, at any time and with no constraints in order to defend its security and its existence. We are living in an area of distressing instability. Nevertheless, we still sit here today discussing the false narrative that radical Palestinians wanted us to focus on.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“And Iran, as the world’s number-one State sponsor of terror, uses those armies to spread death and chaos across the region. As we speak, advanced Iranian centrifuges continue to spin. The Ayatollah’s regime is now mere weeks away from enriching enough uranium from a nuclear bomb. Iran, the Member State openly threatening Israel with annihilation, will have enough uranium for a nuclear bomb in weeks. How is it possible that the body tasked with global security does not dedicate a majority of this debate on the Middle East to the Iranian nuclear threat? Should not preventing radical Islamists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction be a top priority of the Security Council? We should try to imagine what the Middle East will look like when Iran’s terror proxies can operate under a nuclear umbrella.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“While the villages of southern Lebanon have become terror bases and every tenth home is a Hizbullah arms depot, it is now only a matter of time before that critical strategic threat to Israel — second only to a nuclear Iran — will force Israel’s hand. Israel will have to defend its citizens. If action is not taken today, not tomorrow but today, the next conflict with Hizbullah will come at a very heavy cost. The price of today’s neglect will be tomorrow’s destruction. Tragically, the priorities of this debate, which prevent the true regional threats from being discussed thoroughly, extend far beyond ignoring Hizbullah’s military build-up. Hizbullah represents only one tentacle of terror belonging to an even more menacing threat — Iran. Hizbullah is one of six terrorist proxy armies that Iran funds and arms.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Hizbullah knows that it cannot defeat Israel on the battlefield, so it builds up its arsenal of rockets and precision-guided missiles for the sole purpose of attacking Israel’s home front, civilians and critical infrastructure. Those rockets, their launch pads and other munitions are sprinkled all across southern Lebanon — UNIFIL’s very area of operations — and they are concealed within and under homes and civilian infrastructure. Hizbullah uses the citizens of Lebanon as human shields for its missiles and rockets. I invite any ambassadors interested in seeing with their own eyes Hizbullah’s use of Lebanese civilian infrastructure as cover for its rocket arsenal to ask the Israeli Mission to send over our detailed intelligence briefing on the matter.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Nevertheless, despite its numbers and clear mandate, it has very limited freedom of movement within its area of operations. When the peacekeeping force dares to stray into areas where there is terror infrastructure — primarily in and around private homes — its entry is restricted, and its members often violently attacked by Hizbullah operatives. That is not a marginalized phenomenon. It is a blatant, organized effort to keep UNIFIL away from Hizbullah’s growing terror capabilities, especially in civilian areas. Sadly, the alarming and unhindered military build-up that the Council is committed to preventing will have far-reaching ramifications for Lebanon.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Hizbullah now has military drones and factories, and the brazenness to launch drones into Israel from the area of operations of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Hizbullah, with the help of Iran, can now convert its rockets into precision-guided missiles. Even the Secretary- General, in a report released on Friday (S/2022/214), said that Hizbullah is the most heavily armed militia in the country and is operating in direct violation of resolution 1559 (2004). Hizbullah has become a State within a State, all under the watch of UNIFIL and the Security Council. In order to prevent disaster, surely the time has come for the Council and its resolutions and forces to take action and demand accountability from the Lebanese Government. UNIFIL has an annual budget of half a billion dollars and 10,000 troops.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“In fact, it is a threat that the Council has committed to addressing numerous times. Yet while resolutions have been adopted and bold declarations made, the United Nations and its bodies have not only allowed the threat to stagnate, but through inaction have enabled it to grow exponentially. Hizbullah, the Iranian terror proxy, was once a terror organization, but today, as a result of global carelessness, it has grown into a terror army. Sixteen years ago, the Security Council adopted resolution 1701 (2006), which, in paragraph 8, calls for “the establishment ... of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL”. Since then, Hizbullah has multiplied its arsenal in Lebanon tenfold, with more than 150,000 rockets and missiles.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Considering that the focus of these debates never changes, they should honestly be called “The Palestinian question, rarely including the Middle East”, which would be a better reflection of this debate’s top priority than “The Middle East, including the Palestinian question”, the agenda item’s official title. But seeing that title has still not been officially changed, I want to address a topic of real, critical urgency regarding regional stability that constantly falls by the wayside, despite its importance. While the Security Council spends the precious time dedicated to the Middle East discussing the lies of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, a true threat to regional security is growing and may soon cause profound devastation. But that threat is not news to the Security Council.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“It is the result of a culture of hate that has existed for many years under the Palestinian Authority. The incitement that drives Palestinians to become shahids and celebrate the death of innocent Israelis is the main obstacle to peace. Nevertheless, despite the riots, violence, incitement and terror, Israel is making every possible effort to ensure that life continues for both Israelis and Palestinians. Israel has permitted and continues to allow the entry of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians worshippers to the Temple Mount, while providing work permits to more than 100,000 Palestinians working in Israel.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“The narrative of lies and the unwillingness to accept any Jewish presence in Jerusalem — not to mention at our holy sites — did not begin just a week ago on the Temple Mount. It began before Israel was even founded, and it remains the main and only obstacle to peace. Israel is in the midst of a terror wave that has so far claimed 14 lives in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Hadera and Beersheba over the course of a few weeks. While the horrific attacks were perpetrated by various different radical Islamic groups, such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Islamic Jihad, there is one thing that all of the terrorists share — the desire to murder Jews purely because they are Jews. That deep-seated hatred is not born overnight.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Once that narrative of lies is spread, the spotlight is given to Palestinian terrorists and their violent actions are only intensified. Sympathy for those false narratives has emboldened Hamas and Islamic Jihad to inflame the situation outside Jerusalem, as well. Throughout the past few days rockets were fired indiscriminately from Gaza at Israeli cities and civilians, and a rocket was fired at Israel from Lebanon just last night. Where is the United Nations and the Council’s condemnation of such actions? The escalation is the direct result of Member States spreading terrorist lies when the truth is so clear, and that is why the absurd calls that morally equate both sides must end. But let me be clear.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“The Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations has sent Council members videos depicting the truth that Israel protects the right to worship, while Palestinian terrorists are the ones who endanger it. No one can make distorted moral comparisons between such terrorists and Israel. The narrative of lies carries not a grain of truth in the face of the sources of such overwhelming proof. The only people violating the status quo on the Temple Mount are the Palestinian terror groups inflaming things at the holy sites. When people blindly accept the narrative that Israel is preventing Muslims from exercising their right to pray, is changing the status quo or is using excessive force, they are embracing the narrative of Palestinian radicals.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“The United Nations must change with the times and update its anachronistic regulations to permit the presentation of photos and video footage. Today a picture or video, especially one from a reliable source, is worth a million words. That is one of the reasons why this institution is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Even when the truth is so abundantly clear, Israel is always faulted, and false moral comparisons are made. It is frustrating that just as an ostrich buries its head in the sand and refuses to recognize reality, so international bodies can see the truth with their own eyes but choose not to. The time has come to stop being an ostrich. The facts are clearer than ever.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“They defile their Mosque with rocks and firebombs; they desecrate it with barricades made of trash; and they sully it with riots and violence, all for the sake of hijacking the holy site and inflaming Jerusalem in order to gain political favour within Palestinian society. The lies of that false narrative can be easily disproved. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the truth on the Temple Mount has been captured by countless camera lenses. An abundance of photos and videos have clearly demonstrated that Palestinian terrorists and extremists are the only ones to blame for the violence on the Temple Mount, while Israel’s police should be praised for respectfully restoring the peace. In fact, I asked to share those videos here today but was banned from doing so, sadly.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Secondly, Israel is committed to the protection of holy sites and to the status quo according to which Muslims can pray on the Temple Mount while Jews and Christians may only visit. There is not and never has been any intention to change the status quo. Thirdly, when violence endangers innocent people and prevents others from exercising their rights, Israel will not remain idle. For that very reason, when terror groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine decide to create chaos at holy sites, the Israeli police take action. Israel will not allow any extremist group to violate the status quo or incite violence. Yet while the Israeli police go to great lengths to preserve the sanctity of the Temple Mount, the Palestinian terrorists are the polar opposite.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Not only did Israel use restraint when dealing with the mob of Palestinian thugs, we also took far-reaching and substantial steps to de-escalate the situation, implementing lessons learned from the past — including by forbidding Jews from visiting the Temple Mount for the last 10 days of Ramadan and, following recommendations from Israel’s security apparatus, prohibiting a march of Israeli flags in the Old City of Jerusalem. Sadly, seeing that some have decided to adopt the narrative of terrorists instead of the truth, I am forced to state the obvious. First, Israel has always ensured freedom of worship for all religions and always will ensure it. By the way, the Palestinian representative lied with regard to the Christian ceremony.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“The very notion that mobs of violent rioters motivated by radical Islamic terror groups could be placed on the same moral scale as a law-abiding democracy making every effort to keep the peace is ludicrous. In fact, such comparisons play directly into the web of lies spun by the terror groups. These fabrications were woven to exploit international condemnation of Israel for acting precisely as a democracy should, with restraint, respect and minimal force only when necessary, in order to ensure security and freedom of worship.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Unsurprisingly, some on the Security Council and within the United Nations were quick to once again embrace the lies and falsehoods. Here is the truth — hundreds of Palestinian terrorists rioting on the Temple Mount posed a threat to both Muslims and Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall, and the Israeli police therefore had to intervene, acting with exemplary restraint, while protecting the people and restoring law and order. Nevertheless, many in the international community called for calm on both sides, a request that is completely detached from reality. It serves only to fan the flame of violence, promote radicalization and reward the thugs inciting the chaos.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Last week, for the first time in 30 years, the holy holidays of the three monotheistic religions of the world converged on the same day, with Passover, Easter and Ramadan celebrated simultaneously by worshippers around the globe. While the holidays were recognized by billions, there was one place where that day held extra-special significance — Jerusalem, Israel’s capital and the holy city of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. That special day presented an opportunity for Muslims, Jews and Christians to exercise their fundamental right to peaceful worship in the democratic State of Israel. It was an opportunity to demonstrate how adherents of the three monotheistic faiths could pray side by side in peace. Yet that opportunity for coexistence was instead used by Palestinian extremists to incite violence.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“The focus of this debate must no longer be the State of Israel, especially not at a time when a regime that openly called for Israel’s annihilation is on the brink of becoming nuclear. The time has come to brush away all the lies and distortions that consume so much of the Council’s time and to focus on the pressing issues at hand. That is the only way to ensure a future of peace and stability for the Middle East and for the world. The meeting rose at noon.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“We will do whatever is necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear drive and counter the threat from its armies of terror proxies. Today Ido Avigal, a sweet and innocent boy, was supposed to celebrate his sixth birthday. However, as we all know, he never will. None of us want to see one more child fall victim to such violence. Yet, shamefully, when Israeli children fall victim to terror, the silence of the Council is deafening. It is the duty of the Council and of this institution to ensure that no more children like Ido are killed by such deplorable acts of terror. While the world teeters on the edge of a dark abyss, shifting the blame and focus to places where it most surely does not belong only further endangers our precarious balance.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“As a result of the quickly approaching sunset clauses included in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a renewed Iran deal will permit the ayatollahs to develop and operate the most advanced centrifuges, while shrinking the breakout time for a nuclear Iran to almost zero. While the world, including the Security Council, continues to turn a blind eye to Iran’s destructive and dangerous aspirations, the State of Israel will not hesitate to act as required. A nuclear threshold Iran is an existential threat to Israel. While the Council repeatedly refuses to address it, Israel will act to ensure the safety of its citizens. Israel will not be bound by the outcome in Vienna and will continue to maintain full freedom to act anywhere, at any time and with no constraints in order to defend its security.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“If that is how Iran acts now, it is frightening to imagine what the region will look like when Iran becomes a nuclear threshold State. Just last week, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, proudly declared his ability to manufacture, with the help of Iran, precision missiles and attack drones in Lebanon. What will the situation be like when they are protected by an Iranian nuclear umbrella? If the Houthis now launch unmanned aerial vehicles and rockets against civilians, how much worse will those attacks become once their Iranian sponsors have a nuclear arsenal and cash flow? The predicted outcome of the current negotiations in Vienna will, unfortunately, lead to an agreement that will create a far more volatile and violent Middle East.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“One might wonder what the urgency was to turn a closed monthly debate into an open one, while such critical matters to global security are being discussed in the General Assembly as we speak. If we are here today to discuss the situation in the Middle East, the real threat to the region must be the focus of this meeting. Iran, the world’s number one State sponsor of terror, spreads chaos and death across the region. It funds an army of six terrorist proxies, dedicated to establishing a Shi’ite hegemony throughout the region. With Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hizbullah in Lebanon and Syria and the Houthis in Yemen, the Iranian regime is hell-bent on leaving a wake of destruction in every place that it touches.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“Even in this debate, as in every debate on the Middle East, the Council spends the vast majority of its time hearing regurgitated claims against Israel from the Palestinian observer, who represents the very body that, itself, promotes hate, incitement, violence and terror. Over the past two months, there have been nearly 500 terror attacks against Israelis, that is, 500 attacks — nearly 500 incidents of rock throwing, firebombs, shootings and stabbings carried out against Israelis, all within less than two months. Despite those attacks being the main obstacle to peace, they are not the focus of this debate. They never are. As we sit here debating legal disputes and false allegations, the clouds of unrest, violence and war cast long shadows across the world.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“While 2 million Arabs live as free citizens in the State of Israel, when Israeli drivers mistakenly drive into Ramallah, Nablus or Jenin, they are immediately lynched by bloodthirsty Palestinian mobs. That is what generations of incitement and institutionalized anti-Semitism look like. If one asks why such forms of discrimination and violence are not worthy of a human rights investigation, at this point the answer should be very clear. All these reports and commissions have one, and only one, goal. Their goal is not to help resolve the conflict or to defend human rights. Their only goal is to delegitimize Israel’s very existence.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“All they have to do is look at how the Palestinian Authority and Hamas treat political dissidents, minorities, women and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community. Where are the reports condemning the Palestinian law threatening life imprisonment for selling land to someone only because they were born a Jew? Where are the humanitarian organizations decrying the Palestinian Authority’s pay-for-slay policy? Just last week, President Abbas continued to incite the murder of Jews: “If we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and prisoners.” Rather than bettering the lives of his people, President Abbas prefers to incentivize acts of terror. Where is the outcry?”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“These delusional reports have the audacity to ignore the facts, focus on the fabrications and echo a narrative of lies promoted by terror organizations and the corrupt Palestinian Authority just to single out and delegitimize Israel as a Jewish State. Fortunately, this time moral and like-minded democratic countries have condemned these egregious reports, while the only ones who commended them are terror groups and the Palestinian observer, who referenced them today. Scrutiny is a crucial tool for any democracy, but such inciting lies and deplorable accusations should be reserved for the real perpetrators of such crimes. While these organizations, in addition to United Nations bodies, spend countless hours and resources demonizing Israel, in order to find true discrimination and human rights violations they do not have to look far.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“But a quick glance at the diverse State of Israel is more than enough to show how unfounded those accusations are. Can anyone honestly look me in the eye and tell me that Israel, a country that protects the social and political equality of all its citizens, is guilty of systematic injustice? A country in which Arab doctors, Arab members of Parliament and Arab ministers serve alongside their Jewish counterparts? Can any decent person justify associating Israel with this most horrific form of discrimination? Just this week, Khaled Kabub, a Muslim judge, was elected in Israel to the Israeli Supreme Court, while an Israeli-Arab member of our Parliament was appointed as Israel’s Counsel General to Shanghai.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other so-called human rights organizations have chosen to launch a jihad war against the only vibrant democracy in the Middle East. Some of the very same organizations that could not find the time to write up reports on Syria, Myanmar, Iran or other horrific human rights abusers managed to find the time to write up hundreds of pages delegitimizing the existence of Israel. Those recent reports have attempted to brand Israel with absurd claims and heinous accusations. One can see the campaign that started here today on the mask of my counterpart. But make no mistake: this is a joint campaign between those organizations and the Palestinians, with the mission of delegitimizing Israel as a Jewish democratic State.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“That commission of inquiry has been given an unprecedented open-ended scope, in terms of both its time frame and its geographic coverage. Can any fair-minded person justify such an overbudgeted commission? The budget of the commission is nearly double the budget of those investigating Syria and Venezuela, some of the worst human rights violators around the globe. But, most importantly, can the findings of that commission possible be unbiased when all its members hold anti-Israel views? For that reason, Israel refuses to cooperate with a biased investigation whose conclusions against Israel were determined and written before its work even began. That distorted investigation is only the latest in a long line of toxic anti-Israel actions by the Human Rights Council. But it is not only open season on Israel for biased United Nations bodies.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“But here is the truth: that commission of inquiry is the furthest thing from being impartial and neutral. In fact, establishing a truly impartial and neutral commission of inquiry would completely defeat its true purpose: the delegitimization of the State of Israel. After all, the Human Rights Council was merely adhering to the tradition of singling out and demonizing Israel in every way possible that is so prevalent among United Nations bodies. Sometimes they do so in order to whitewash and ignore the inhumane crimes that members of the Human Rights Council are committing against their own people every single day. Can anyone honestly look me in the eye and tell me that Israel is not the most discriminated-against State Member of the United Nations?”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“Ido, like many other Israeli civilians, was the target of those attacks, because Hamas, the radical terror organization, fires rockets that deliberately target civilian populations, all in the name of advancing the destruction of the State of Israel. Countries all around the world have recognized Hamas as the terror organization that it is, but, sadly, the Security Council has failed to do so. What is shocking is that despite Hamas’s clear intention of murdering Israeli civilians while using its own population as human shields, the United Nations continued to do what it does best. It proceeded to demonize the only vibrant democracy in the Middle East, the State of Israel. In response to Hamas’s rocket fire, the Human Rights Council voted to establish a supposedly impartial and neutral commission of inquiry.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“While Asaf Avigal spent the last two years working from home, one person was delighted that Asaf spent so much time in the house. Ido, Asaf’s 5-year-old son, would constantly come to his desk and say, “Daddy, enough with the screens, come play with me”. Although Asaf did not always have the time then, today he would give anything for even one more minute with his sweet child. But, tragically, Asaf will never play with Ido again. Ido was supposed to turn 6 exactly today, but he will forever remain 5 years old. That innocent child spent his final moments huddled in a sheltered room trying to protect himself from another barrage of Hamas rocket attacks. Despite the fact that he was hiding in a concrete shelter, a stray piece of shrapnel pierced the window and killed him.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“That is not just a problem for Israel; that is a problem for the whole world, and that problem should be the focus of the Council in 2022. There are those who say that Iran has the opposite of the Midas touch, that everything it touches turns to terror and destruction rather than gold. Just look at Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. But unlike the Midas touch, that is no myth. Time is not on our side, but with goodwill and a strong desire, that, too, can become a page in history, and we can all go on to build a better future for the peoples of the Middle East. That is the sincere New Year’s wish of the State and the people of Israel.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“The whole region continues to live under the shadow of the Iranian threat. As the talks in Vienna reach a critical stage, the international community faces a crossroads. If the Iranians are allowed to think that the world does not seriously intend to stop them as they race towards the bomb, then they will continue to build a nuclear bomb. If Iran is allowed to think that it can continue to build a corridor of terror from Tehran to the Mediterranean, then that is what it will do. If Iran is allowed to think that it can continue to oppress its own people and leave them in poverty, and even without water, while it spends every penny on its missile programmes, then that is what it will do. Those are not just Israel’s problems. Iran, the biggest State sponsor of terror, strives to impose its radical Shi’ite hegemony on the region and beyond.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“That was the first meeting of its kind since 2014, not because of Israel, of course. Israel’s Minister Zandberg presented numerous collaborative initiatives regarding the environment and waste management, but Israel is still waiting for a response from the Palestinians. Harmony — that is what Israel wants. But hypocrisy and terror — that is what Israel gets. The Palestinians are not alone in the Middle East when it comes to supporting terror and delegitimizing Israel. At the beginning of my statement, I expressed my condolences following the Houthis’ drone terror attack. That was sponsored by Iran, as are most of the acts of terror carried out in the region. What the Houthis have in common with Hizbullah and Hamas is that they are all terror proxies of the same malicious sponsor.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“The water-for-energy deal between Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates shows how collaboration can solve the planet’s greatest problems and bring real cooperation — with the help of the United States, by the way. Israel has proved time after time that it is committed to regional cooperation and to improving the lives of the Palestinians. One of the best ways to do so is indeed through environmental protection and the preservation of natural resources. In fact, as Minister of Environmental Protection, I personally promoted many attempted initiatives to address those exact issues. Sadly, the Palestinian leadership had different priorities. A number of months ago, Israel’s current Minister of Environmental Protection, Tamar Zandberg, met with her Palestinian counterpart.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“We educate our children in coexistence and tolerance while the Palestinians teach their children hatred and violence, while they incite against Israel and the Jewish people and while they promote boycotts and attack Israel in international bodies. On the ground, there are nonetheless positive steps being taken to increase cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. The Council heard from EcoPeace about the importance of environmental cooperation and how we need to work together to promote climate resilience and water security, and that is right. The past years have shown what we can do in our region when there is a will to succeed and build bridges.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“It is not too late for the Security Council to make a New Year’s resolution. Let 2022 be the year in which it no longer allows endless attacks on Israel from its platform. Let 2022 be the year in which it holds the Palestinians accountable for their crimes. Let 2022 be the year in which the United Nations, as an institution, ends the hypocrisy against Israel. When the world and the Security Council in particular applies its moral compass correctly, then we may well find the path to peace. But so long as it allows itself to be led on by the lies of terrorists and their supporters, we will all continue to wander in the wilderness of an ongoing conflict. The real obstacle to peace was and is the Palestinians’ inability to accept Israel’s existence in the region as the Jewish State.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“The Palestinians look for every chance to distort reality in order to inflame the situation on the ground while the international community embraces their libel. What is happening right now in Sheikh Jarrah is a perfect example. We are talking about a family that stole public land for their own private use while those lands had been earmarked for the building of a school for children with special needs. That is a municipal issue that has gone through all the respected channels of the independent Israeli legal system, yet nevertheless the Palestinians used this issue and the Pavlovian anti-Israel response of the United Nations for their own political gain. I hope that the international community will take the time to verify the facts before immediately embracing the Palestinians’ falsehoods.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“The Palestinian Authority continues to pay the salaries of terrorists in a pay-to-slay policy that means that the more Jewish blood you spill, the more money you and your family get. But the hypocrisy does not end there either. The Security Council also continues to fail at clearly condemning Palestinian terror. Israel, a country with a robust legal system that has zero tolerance for violence and terror regardless of the perpetrator’s identity, is blamed, while the Palestinians’ acts of terror and incitement are whitewashed. That lack of perspective and proportion only serves to send one message to the Palestinians: that Jewish blood is cheap and terror against Jews is acceptable.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“That hypocrisy, that moral bankruptcy is a poison that is spread online, in the media, in the mosques and even in the schools under the Palestinian Authority. Yet despite all that, the Palestinian Minister for Foreign Affairs, who has not once condemned acts of Palestinian terror, has the audacity to accuse Israel of violence. He blames Israelis when he knows very well that Israeli violence against Palestinians is the exception to the rule, not the norm. He knows very well that whenever there are such incidents, Israel and its leadership find it abhorrent. We probe, we investigate and we condemn. But when Palestinians attack Israelis, the Palestinian Authority celebrates, congratulates and rewards.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“But do we hear condemnation from the Palestinian Authority? Did the Palestinian Authority condemn the murder of Eli Kay, an Israeli tour guide who was shot in the back by a Palestinian terrorist as he walked in Jerusalem a few weeks ago? Did the Palestinian Authority condemn and decry the murder of Yehuda Dimentman, who was ambushed in his car and murdered last month? Do they condemn, or do they condone? Where is the voice of the Palestinian leadership against any violence? Israelis do not hear it, the international community does not hear it, and the Palestinian people certainly do not hear any condemnation. Instead, they hear encouragement and incitement. When the Palestinians see the support and honour that their leaders give to terrorists, they see clearly that terror pays.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“Such terror attacks with rocks — not little stones, but rocks like this, which are thrown at Israelis in their cars and on buses. Rocks are thrown at Israeli men and women, at Israeli babies and children, every single day. In 2021 alone, Israelis suffered 1,775 rock attacks by Palestinian terrorists, but the world says nothing. Would members of the Council consider it a terror attack if a rock were thrown at their car while driving with their children? That is exactly the kind of attack that claimed the life of 4-year-old Adele Biton and others. What would the representatives here do? Would they, at the very least, condemn those brutal terror attacks carried out against Israeli civilians by Palestinians? Look at this: rocks kill. A terrorist is not only someone with a gun, not only someone with a bomb. Rocks can and do kill.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“There have been 143 rock-throwing attacks in just one month. There have been 20 grenade and Molotov cocktail attacks, as well as dozens more stabbings, car rammings, shootings and other violent physical attacks, risking and claiming Israeli lives, all in just one month. That ended a year which saw thousands of other violent attacks against Israelis — attacks that are, at best, only marginally mentioned in the Council. Those attacks include rockets fired indiscriminately from Gaza, shootings and stabbings of civilians in Jerusalem and car rammings. But there is another kind of terror attack, a kind of Palestinian terror that endangers the daily lives of innocent civilians throughout Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, that is neither mentioned in United Nations reports nor presented here before the Council.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“There is no doubt that the threat caused by the Iranian regime demands the urgent attention of the entire world, and especially that of the Security Council. Yet despite such urgent and pressing issues, we regrettably find ourselves once again hearing the same false narratives attacking Israel. It is just the same old falsehoods and the same old hypocrisy. If there is one word that stands out above everything else at the United Nations, it is hypocrisy. From the Palestinian Foreign Minister, we heard all of those regurgitated accusations and baseless claims. But as he stands here and points the finger at Israel, what the Minister conveniently ignores is that, in the past month — just one month — more than 200 terror attacks have been carried out by Palestinians against Israeli citizens.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source
“I am pleased to be speaking here today and to have the opportunity, at the outset, to congratulate the new members of the Security Council. I expressed my hope a year ago that the discussions on the Middle East in this forum would be more balanced and finally focus on the true threats that plague the region. Unfortunately, I have to convey that wish again for the year 2022. Indeed, today there are serious actors that threaten regional stability and security, none more so than Iran, whose leaders continue to weave their web of terror across the region. I want to begin, in fact, by expressing my deepest condolences to the Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates following the abhorrent attack by the Iranian-sponsored Houthi terrorist group, as well as to the Permanent Representative of India for the loss of life.”
2022-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8950 (2022) · source