The U.N. must do better to condemn terrorism

"On Dec. 6, the United Nations failed to pass a resolution condemning Hamas's terrorist activities. On Dec. 9, Hamas praised a terror attack that critically injured a pregnant woman Shira Ish-Ran and six other Israelis, calling it 'heroic.' On Dec. 12, Shira's baby, Amiad Yisrael, died as a result of the attack.

The UN General Assembly claims to want peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but it seems to think it can achieve it by defending terrorists. Given the choice between peace and terrorism, the General Assembly has chosen to defend terrorism.

The UN has condemned Israel - a UN member state - hundreds of times. But it has never condemned Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza and terrorizes the people of Israel...

On Dec. 6, the United States sponsored a resolution that gave the UN the opportunity to express its condemnation of Hamas for its terrorist activities. The U.S. resolution blames Hamas for firing rockets into Israel - a clear and blatant act of terrorism.

But instead of welcoming the opportunity to denounce terrorism as an indispensable step toward peace, allies of Hamas maneuvered to ensure that the General Assembly maintained its perfect record of silence on Hamas terrorism and chose to side with those who use violence against civilians...

It boggles the mind how blocking a resolution to condemn a terrorist organization is in accordance with the UN's mandate to uphold peace and security. The fact that many countries avoided voting 'no' by cynically voting to raise the threshold required to pass the resolution, by being absent from the vote, or by abstaining, only adds to the hypocrisy and moral failure. There is no avoiding or spinning the fact that, at the end of the day, the UN General Assembly voted to defend terrorism by rejecting the U.S. resolution..."