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U.S. Again Vetoes U.N. Security Council Resolution on Israel
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a gesture of continuing support for Israel, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution condemning Middle East violence early Saturday, saying it ignored recent Palestinian attacks against Israelis, news agencies reported.
Exercising its veto power for the second time in more than four years, the U.S. vetoed the resolution, co-sponsored by Tunisia and Egypt, which condemns "all acts of terror, in particular those targeting civilians," and "all acts of extra-judiciary executions, excessive use of force and wide destruction of properties."
The text further called for the immediate cessation of "all acts of violence, provocation and destruction," a resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians and implementation of recommendations made in the Mitchell report, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The resolution also encourages establishment of a "monitoring mechanism" to aid in implementing the Mitchell plan and to "help create a better situation in the occupied Palestinian territories."
Both Israel and the United States have both opposed calls in the past for an international monitoring force.
Twelve members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, with two abstentions by the United Kingdom and Norway.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said that the U.S. veto in Friday's Security Council is incomprehensible.
Vedrine said that he could not understand the American stance concerning the establishment of the independent "monitoring mechanism" despite having agreed to it during the G-8 summit in Genoa in July. "It is needed now more than ever," he said.
"It is with regret that the United States has decided to make use of its veto to block this resolution," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte during the Security Council meeting. "Unfortunately the resolution before us fails to address the dynamic at work in the region. Instead its purpose is to isolate politically one of the parties to the conflict."
Nabil Abu Rudeina, a top advisor to the Palestinian president Yasser Arafat warned that the U.S. veto will encourage Israel to step up its military escalation against the Palestinians.
"We strongly condemn the American veto. This decision will encourage Israel to pursue its aggression and its military escalation against the Palestinian people," Abu Rudeina told AFP. "We condemn this decision particularly because an international consensus emerged in the Security Council [in favor of the resolution], and this decision will not serve peace or stability in the region."
However, Ranaan Gissin, a spokesman for hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said, "It is also a courageous vote of confidence and support to an embattled democracy like Israel while it is defending against terrorism."
Meanwhile, Arafat is expected to make an important political television address to the Palestinian people Sunday, the first time he has spoken to them since being put under virtual house arrest by Israel earlier this month, senior Palestinian officials said.
The speech, to mark Eid el-Fitr, the feast ending the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, will discuss the dangers of the current situation in the Palestinian territories, the officials told AFP.
Israel declared Wednesday that Arafat was "irrelevant" and cut ties with the Palestinian leader, and Defense Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer said Friday that Israel was looking for another partner for the so-called peace process.
The Israeli army has also launched massive air strikes on Arafat's security institutions and a series of raids into Palestinian territories since Wednesday. Arafat has remained bunkered at his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank since December 3, trapped by an Israeli blockade with tanks deployed only 200 meters (yards) from his offices.
In continued violence, Israeli troops early Saturday killed three Palestinians, kidnapped five resistance activists and re-occupied more Palestinian-ruled areas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops also evacuated the Ramallah home of West Bank Fatah chief Marwan Barghouti after occupying it for two days to use as a lookout point because of its "strategic" location, an Israeli military source told AFP.
Barghouti has not stayed in the house for the past few weeks. His wife, their four children, a brother and a sister-in-law were inside the residence when Israeli occupation troops took it over Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said Saturday that it killed an armed Palestinian overnight as he tried to infiltrate the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip. A statement said soldiers came across the man, who had made a breach in the security fence and who was "carrying an ammunition belt and, apparently, a belt of explosives." It said the patrol opened fire and killed him.
An army spokesman said investigators were determining whether the man actually was carrying explosives.
In Beit Hanun, Israeli troops shot and critically injured a Palestinian teenager Saturday amid a massive re-occupation of the West Bank, hospital officials said.
"Haytham Ahmed, 17, was hit by a live bullet in the head and is in very critical condition," officials at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza told AFP.
According to several independent estimates, 1,099 people have been killed in the latest Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation since September 2000. These totals comprise 843 Palestinians (mostly teenagers and children), 13 Israeli Arabs (Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent) and 220 Israelis. More than 15,000 Palestinians have also been injured during the unrest, many of them seriously wounded by Israeli bullets.
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