Stalemate in Gaza; “Zionism is racism” lives on

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the UN’s infamous Soviet-inspired “Zionism is a form of racism” resolution (3379) adopted by the General Assembly on 10th November 1975.

In his famous speech then-US Ambassador to the UN Patrick Moynihan condemned this resolution as “an obscenity”. According to Moynihan, by condemning Israel as a racist state “a great evil has been loosed upon the world”.

Although resolution 3379 was repealed in 1991, its hostile tone continues to echo through the halls and corridors of the agencies, organs and instrumentalities of the United Nations. The institutions of the UN – which were created after the Shoah, and were intended, amongst other things, to ensure that elimination of the Jews would never happen again – have become corrupted to the core. The UN needs to be radically reformed.

The UN is fuelling hatred of the Jewish people, which remains the core of the conflict in the Middle East. This hatred is the reality that the State of Israel and the Jewish people have to handle – every day, in every country, and on every front.

“The UN is fuelling hatred of the Jewish people, which remains the core of the conflict in the Middle East.”

Hatred of the Jews is the cause of the tragic mess in the Gaza Strip. In 2005 Israel forcibly withdrew all Jewish civilians from the Gaza Strip. It basically handed over the strip to the Palestinians. The result? The Palestinians elected Hamas as their government. Hamas is a militant Islamist organisation akin to ISIS, and was created by the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement founded in Egypt in 1928 that advocates for all of society to be governed by Sharia law. The Muslim Brotherhood seeks the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel, and is deeply antisemitic.

Over the next decades, Hamas built a massive terror network of tunnels and other military infrastructure, all intended to enable it to attack and destroy the Jewish state of Israel.

Hamas still holds the bodies of three captives taken on 7 October 2023: two Israelis—Sgt. Ran Gvili and Dror Or—and a Thai citizen, Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was working in Israel on Oct. 7.

Israel on Thursday night recovered the remains of hostage Meny (Menachem) Godard, who was murdered by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization during the Oct. 7 massacre, and whose body was taken into the Gaza Strip. Meny was 73 at the time of his murder and abduction from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri. His death was officially confirmed on Dec. 8, 2023. He is survived by four children and seven grandchildren. His wife, Ayelet Godard, was also killed during the attack on the kibbutz.

Hamas is growing in popularity in Palestinian society – not only in Gaza. Hamas is on the ascendency in Judea and Samaria. Israeli security forces in recent weeks broke up a major Hamas terror network in the Judean city of Bethlehem, including a cell in the advanced stages of preparing an attack.

“The hard reality is that Hamas refuses to disarm, and denies it ever agreed to do so.”

The Trump administration has submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council requesting a mandate for the United States and its allies to govern the Gaza Strip for the next two years. A statement from the US Mission to the UN said that the Trump administration has been working on the resolution for the past month, with input from Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The resolution seeks to implement the “20-point” agreement reached a month ago with Hamas and supported by Arab countries in the region. This includes: establishment of a “Board of Peace” (chaired by Trump himself) to oversee the transition to a peaceful regime in Gaza; the demilitarization of Hamas; establishment of an International Stabilization Force to help secure postwar Gaza; reform of the Palestinian Authority; and a process for investment and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

But the US proposal is facing opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries, which have expressed unease about a yet-to-be-established board that would temporarily govern the territory, and the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority.

As has been noted by one commentator: “The two biggest, seemingly irresolvable,  problems the Trump’s vision faces are: one, Hamas’s intractable resolve to hold military and political power in Gaza; and two, the absolute refusal of Arab states to participate in any military force charged with disarming Hamas and dismantling its rule in Gaza.”

The hard reality is that Hamas refuses to disarm, and denies it ever agreed to do so. And a number of Arab states including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have already expressed their refusal to contribute unless Hamas is disarmed and a path to Palestinian statehood is agreed on with the Palestinian Authority in charge. Israel strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state under the PA.

Israel currently retains control of some 53% of Gaza, in the north, south and east, splitting the territory into two areas. Israel continues to eliminate Hamas’s remaining fighters and destroy the tunnels in the area under its control.

A fragile cease-fire is in place, but real peace seems as far away as ever.

In fact, peace will only come when Jerusalem has been restored, the Messiah comes, and the word of the Lord will go forth from Zion. Then – and only then – will the nations train for war no more.

This week, pray that the Lord will “destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations” (Isaiah 25:7).

Continue to pray that the bodies of all the remaining three hostages in Gaza will be found and released. 

Pray for the coming of the Prince of Peace, who alone can bring true shalom. 

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Fifty years since “Zionism = Racism”, the International Court of Justice is complicit in antisemitism
Andrew Tucker (thinc.): Exactly fifty years ago – on 10th November 1975 – the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 3379, stating that “Zionism is a form of racism”.
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