Mr. President,
For just a moment I want to take you from this chamber into the towns and cities of Southern Israel. It is the middle of the night there right now. Parents and their children should be sleeping in their beds. Instead, they are huddled in bomb shelters. They won’t go to school or to work tomorrow. Their life is paralyzed by Hamas rockets.
This has been the situation not for weeks, not for months, but for years. More than 800 rockets have been fired just this year. More than 80 were fired just today.
Some in this hall have tried to present an alternate reality about what has happened over the past week. Let me make it perfectly clear.
This is the third time this month that Hamas and its terrorist allies have escalated their rocket fire on Israeli civilians.
The most recent escalation began on Saturday night, when an anti-tank missile was fired at an IDF army jeep in Israel – unprovoked. Four IDF soldiers were injured, two critically. We showed maximum restraint.
Since then, hundreds of rockets have been fired into our cities, our homes, and our schools.
Hamas hides behind its civilians as it targets our civilians. Each attack is a double war crime. It uses Palestinian civilian neighborhoods to target our civilian neighborhoods. It uses Palestinian hospitals to launch attacks on our hospitals. It uses Palestinian schools to launch rockets at Israeli schools.
Mr. President,
All of you in this Chamber know that is not the first time that I have spoken to this Council about the frightening reality facing the people of Southern Israel. It is not the first time that I have warned about the explosive potential of the situation in Gaza.
I have raised the issue in speech after speech, in letter after letter, in meeting after meeting. I have spoken about the danger of Hamas in every way possible. I said clearly that Israel would take all necessary measures to protect its citizens. These were not empty words.
The Council did nothing. It said nothing. Not one word.
How interesting that today after more than a decade and 12,000 rockets the Security Council finally found it appropriate to focus on this issue. At this late hour, the Council deems this an urgent issue worthy of discussion.
Mr. President,
No nation, no people, and no government should be expected to accept the daily targeting of its civilians. We have demonstrated maximum restraint for years, but the Israeli Government has a right and a duty to respond to these attacks. Israel will not play Russian Roulette with the lives of our citizens.
Let me be clear. The goal of Israel’s operation is clearly defined – to remove a strategic threat to Israeli citizens. Israel is not interested in a deterioration of the situation.
Let me also remind this Council that Israel completely disengaged out of Gaza in 2005. We uprooted 12,000 people from their homes. The Palestinians had the opportunity to turn Gaza into an oasis of prosperity. We have only received rockets on our cities in response.
After Hamas took control of Gaza in a bloody coup and threw their Fatah rivals from rooftops, they turned the area into an Iranian outpost for terror, a launching pad for thousands of rockets, and a giant ammunition dump for weapons coming in from Iran, Libya, and Sudan.
All these weapons flow into Gaza, they fly out into Israeli communities.
Hamas has turned Gaza into a haven and a breeding ground for global terrorist organizations. It has welcomed them with open arms into the area – and set up a joint military command with groups like Islamic Jihad.
The [late] Mr. Ahmed Jabari – whose death some have lamented in this hall – would have been overseeing this command tonight. He was an arch-terrorist responsible for all of Hamas’ terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip in the past decade. He was also directly involved in the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.
Mr. President,
Let me remind everyone in this hall exactly what Hamas stands for. This is an internationally recognized terrorist organization whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the genocide of Jews.
Let me also remind you that Ismail Haniyeh – the Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza – recently praised Osama Bin Laden as a (quote) “Arab and Muslim Holy Warrior”.
For those in this chamber who are defending Hamas this evening, let me repeat what I just said: Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
Mr. President,
As we gather here tonight, the Palestinian Observer delegation continues on a march of folly to unilaterally obtain state status. The state that they envision includes Gaza – that means it includes Hamas.
So tonight I’ll ask my Palestinian colleagues a question that I’ve asked them before.
On behalf of whom will you seek upgraded status in the General Assembly? President Abbas or Hamas? Will it be on behalf of both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terrorist organization?
The Palestinian leadership is marching down a road that can only lead to more conflict, instability, and violence. The false idol of virtual statehood will change nothing on the ground, raising expectations that cannot be met. This is a dangerous bubble that will eventually burst.
Mr. President,
I ask each and every person in this hall to imagine what you would do if it was your cities, your families, your children under attack.
Tonight this Council has an opportunity to finally do the right thing – to finally live up to its guiding mission.
Condemn Hamas. Condemn terrorism. Condemn the rocket fire that is paralyzing the lives of so many Israeli civilians.
It may be uncomfortable for some of you, but this is the only road to peace and stability for our region. And I hope that this Council will make the right choice.
Thank you, Mr. President.