Who remembers the UN report?

Who remembers the UN independent commission report on the 2014 war in Gaza?

I am always amazed by our ability to move from one issue to another. Only two weeks ago the only issue on the agenda was the United Nations independent commission report on Operation “Protective Edge”. Israel was then enraged; politicians and everyone who had an opinion about it called it outrages and anti-Israel, claiming that the UN once again proved to us that it is a biased organization against Israel.

Now we have a new issue to be enraged about — the agreement with Iran, once again we claim that the world is against us, that no country in the world care about Israel’s security.

Let’s talk about the combination of the two issues, it might not seem connected but it is in my view. Both issues concern the security of the State of Israel. In the first one: the UN special commission report refers to the war Israel conducted in the last summer against Hamas, due to the threat to the security of Israel from the Gaza strip. The agreement with Iran refers to the security of Israel from a state that supports terror organizations that operates against Israel. A state that openly calls for the destruction of Israel, calling us the little Satan. So the first issue is about the legitimacy of Israel to act against a threat to the population of the country and the other issue is a possible future threat by a country who aspires to have nuclear power.

When the report was published a bit more than two weeks ago, Israeli officials slammed the report by calling it biased. Arguing that the UN and mainly the UNHRC is known for its biased resolutions against Israel, that UNHRC council has issued more resolutions condemning Israel than any other state in the world.

Although the report was received with raged, no one in Israel can truly claim to be surprised by the conclusions. It was clear even before the commission started its inquiry that the results will not reflect the feelings in Israel, perhaps Israel has only itself to blame, as it refused to cooperate with the commission, blocking them from entering Gaza, forcing the commission to conduct its inquiries via the phone.

One of the major issues in the report that Israel found hard to accept was the comparison between Israel and Hamas. It was impossible in the eyes of Israelis that a democratic state would be compared to a terror organization. The members of the commission seem to try to create a balanced report that will not appeared too much against Israel. A balanced report may have been better than one which describes Israel as an aggressor, describing it as a strong military state attacking a harmless population, but on the surface it seems to be just like this. We may not like it, we may object to such reference to a state that for years suffers terror attacks, we may say we only defend ourselves against a terror organization which calls for the destruction of Israel, but the reality is that Israel is a strong military state with an alliance with the strongest power in the word, which also provides us with weapons, and we all saw the power of this weapons. So yes we might not like it, but this is what it appears in the eyes of the world. I do not justify in any way the report or the world’s opinion just saying how it is.

I have read the report and to be honest it is not as bad as it was portrayed in Israel. Right it is not in our favor, not like we would like it to be, and yes in a way it does compare between Israel and Hamas. Yes this makes people in Israel mad, but over and over again in the report is it mentioned that Israel refuse to cooperate with the commission, more so it did as much as it could to obstruct the investigation by the commission. Many in Israel supported the decision to do so, but maybe it was a mistake. We tried not cooperating before with UN commission and the results were against Israel. Maybe this time we should have acted differently.

I cannot say that cooperating would have made the commission to write a report in favor of Israel, not because they are anti-Israel, but duo to the fact that the devastation to Gaza is tremendous. Maybe they would have been more understanding towards the Israeli motives and acknowledge the efforts made by Israel to avoid harming innocent civilians.

The images that we saw on the Israeli screens are not the same one in the world media. Its seems that politicians try only to win the Israeli public opinion, maybe duo to political reasons, or maybe they think that there is no point in even trying to show to the world what is broadcast in the Israeli media. We seemed to have lost faith in the world’s opinion; we no longer believe that we can regain the love and admiration we used to have.

The perception in Israel that no matter what, the all world is against us, and we will always be the wrong side, the aggressive side. The notion that we should ignore the rest of the world because they will always be pro Palestinians. This idea creeps its way to the opinions against the agreement with Iran. Yes once again, the world turned against Israel, leaving Israel alone to worry about its security.

Much was said in the last few days about the agreement with Iran, and the last word was not yet written. The issue of nuclear Iran has hunted us for years. We all remember the red line drawn by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, scarring us about the Iranian bomb.

The negotiation lasted for years, when again and again it seems the world surrenders to the Iranian demands and stubbornness, until it was not sure who the strong power in the negotiation was. In the end we have an agreement that everyone claims to be bad, that it was not Iran who compromised but the world. Iran got what it wanted, and Israel got compensation like a kid that is being bribed with candies so he will stop crying.

According to the media the US is offering Israel military technology that we don’t have, one that will make the IDF even more advanced and strong. I am not sure if we should be worried about the fact that the US just signed a nuclear deal with Iran and now it is giving us more weapons. I find this more worrying then the actual agreement. If the US is so sure that the agreement is protecting Israel, why are they giving us more advanced weapons?