United Nations – The United States, Britain, France and other members walked out of a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council late Wednesday after Libya compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps in World War II, council diplomats said.
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The walkout was a rare protest by diplomats on the U.N.’s most powerful body against one of their own members. Libya is the only Arab representative on the council.
Council members were meeting privately late in the afternoon to discuss the possibility of issuing a press statement following a briefing on the situation in the Middle East. Assistant Secretary-General Angela Kane had reported on the escalation in violence and growing humanitarian plight in Gaza as well as rocket attacks against Israel.
According to several diplomats, Libya’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi ended a long speech about the plight of the Palestinians by comparing the situation in Gaza to the concentration camps set up by Nazi Germany to exterminate Jews. Some 6 million Jews and between 220,000 and 500,000 Gypsies were killed during the Nazi Holocaust.
Immediately after Dabbashi mentioned the concentration camps, diplomats said, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Britain’s deputy ambassador Karen Pierce, Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke and Costa Rica’s deputy ambassador walked out of the council’s consultation room.
South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, then ended the meeting. [AP]
Whatever one’s opinion on Israel is, Gaza (and, really nothing) can compare to the nazi concentration camps.
To state the obvious, no one makes them live in Gaza, nor are they not allowed out of Gaza. They can move to Egypt or the “West Bank”, or anywhere else their Arab “government” lets them, if they wish, and some actually work in Israel every day. There is also a border with Egypt that they can legally cross and head out into the world.
Not to mention the special UN agencies that spend billions of dollars on these Arabs when their own brethren are more than capable of bringing their fellow Arabs to their feet, financially.
The Jews had none of those options or resources; their only option to remain alive was to survive under unimaginably harsh conditions imposed on them by the vicious murderous and inhuman nazis.
The comparison is, therefore, far beyond the pale.
It is interesting to note, though, that Arabs view things differently than Western Civilization does, and so, in light of their viewpoint, the comparison is understandable. Arabs view truth as a subjective matter, not an objective matter.
For example, when Arabs say that the Temple Mount never had a temple (or two) on it, what they mean is, because we don’t want it to have had a temple on it, the truth, then, is that there was no temple on it. Whereas, when we debate the temple mount, we bring historical references and other evidence to prove that there was indeed a temple on that mount.
Consequently, saying Gaza is like the concentration camps, or even saying that the moon is brighter than the sun, while clearly objectively false and, therefore, untrue, works well, however, within the Arab concept of truth: I want it to have been that way, therefore that is the way it has been.