UN condemns Israel, ignores Hamas

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution Wednesday blaming Israel for violence in Gaza and rejecting a U.S. demand to condemn the Palestinian militant group Hamas for its role in the conflict. In response to near-weekly protests since March 30 along the Israel-Gaza border, Israeli gunfire has killed more than 120 Palestinians and wounded more than 3,800. Israel insists it is protecting its border. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told the UN assembly that Hamas was conducting “a violent assault on Israel” and aimed to seize its main cities of Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.

The United States introduced an amendment to point out that Hamas, which has fired more than 100 rockets at Israel, has blood on its hands, too, but the effort failed to get a two-thirds majority vote. “Today the UN made the morally bankrupt judgment that the recent Gaza violence is all Israel’s fault,” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said. “But the common practice of turning a blind eye to the UN’s anti-Israel bias is changing,” she added, noting that a plurality of 62 countries voted for the U.S. amendment to address Hamas’ responsibility for the conditions in Gaza.