Egeland: Mideast anger worst in 20 years

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/11/06 | Alexander G. Higgins - ap

[NormsRevenge]

GENEVA - U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Friday the anger on all sides in the Middle East is the greatest he has seen in two decades of trying to help the troubled region make peace.

"I've never seen nations as polarized as during this recent visit," said Egeland, who was in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip at the end of July.

"People were enraged collectively in Lebanon, everybody against the Israeli indiscriminate onslaught," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "In Israel, they were a united front to support the strong military measures. In the Palestinian areas, I've never seen them as full of hatred collectively as now. It has to be defused."

Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said he was counting on the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution that will stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and serve as a first step to finally concluding a peace settlement in the Middle East.

"Everybody wants now to find a permanent political solution," he said in his office in the world body's European headquarters. "This has now become a powder keg. You have really to defuse it. You cannot just delay further conflict."

Egeland said the tensions were the worst he had seen in the more than 20 years he has been working to promote peace and human rights in the Middle East, including a stint as a soldier in the U.N. force in Lebanon in 1978 and involvement in securing the Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO in the 1990s.

Egeland said the Israel-Hezbollah fighting could be stopped immediately if there is the will because it isn't protracted and there are only two parties, not 20 as in the Sudanese region of Darfur, which has been wracked by conflict since 2003.

The Security Council has to come up with a resolution that will be respected, Egeland said.

"We've seen resolutions that are effective and we've seen resolutions that are ineffective, and an ineffective one doesn't help us at all," he said. "There has to be some teeth in it and there has to be pressure on the parties to respect it.

"Every day of non-decision in the Security Council costs lives," Egeland said.

Hundreds of Lebanese have already died and the numbers are likely to start going up sharply soon, he said.

"Imagine the predicament of the civilian population. On the one side they've been asked by Israel to leave because it's too dangerous to stay. At the same time, now the Israelis say that they will fire at any truck moving that has not been cleared as a humanitarian convoy by the U.N. or the Red Cross," Egeland said. "The people are really in a desperate situation."

He said it was impossible to predict how many people will die.

"People do not start to starve immediately in a place like Lebanon if they are cut off. For weeks they can eat from whatever reserves they have. Disease does not start to spread immediately. But after a few weeks, there are no more coping mechanisms. Sick people die. Hospitals stop to function, and that has already started because they do not have fuel. Wounded people die because they cannot get medical attention.

"It's not going slowly to the worst, it's going dramatically down after a few weeks in this kind of a situation, and that's why it's so urgent to stop it all with a U.N. resolution and get a cease-fire."

He said that by some measures, the situation for civilians in Congo, Sudan's Darfur region and Iraq is worse than it is in Lebanon, but that the number of Lebanese who have fled their homes was very high.

He said the tensions in the region have made it very difficult to avoid offending parties to the conflict.

"It's part of our lives as humanitarian workers to try to be impartial and neutral in political minefields," Egeland said. "But this one has been particularly difficult to tread. I feel that they are weighing my every word."

"Israel was outraged when I said that it was clearly excessive, clearly disproportionate, and I said a war where you kill more children than armed men — there is something wrong with the way of waging hostilities. Hezbollah was outraged when I said that they are blending in to the civilian population, and it's cowardly to blend in among women and children. It's tough."

[NormsRevenge]

Norway's Jan Egeland, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator speaks during an interview in his office at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Aug. 11, 2006. (AP Photo/Nicholas Ratzenboeck)

[NormsRevenge]

uhhh, when you have Hezzies who built schools on top of rocket launching facilities, uhh, what do you propose to do, Egeland?

[claudiustg]

---U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Friday the anger on all sides in the Middle East is the greatest he has seen in two decades of trying to help the troubled region make peace.---

How do you spell relief? 7.62 FMJ.

[Right Wing Assault]

everybody against the Israeli indiscriminate onslaught

As opposed to the pinpoint Hezballah rockets attacks, designed to cause no civilian casualties?

This guy is such a leftie loonie.

[NormsRevenge]

He's been involved in UN operations since 1978..


No wonder they are as useless as teets on a boar.

[coconutt2000]

Polarization is good. Once people pick sides it is easier to figure out who to kill.

[GSlob]

""This has now become a powder keg. You have really to defuse it. You cannot just delay further conflict.""
One destroys powder kegs by blowing them up, having taken cover.

[xrp]

He said it was impossible to predict how many people will die.

Millions of Arab Muslims need to die for the Arab Muslim civilians to stop supporting the terrorists and their methods. This surgical strike stuff doesn't cut it. The Germans and Japanese didn't surrender because we only took out their tanks and airplanes. Dresden, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, etc -- is what brought the war to a close.

[Texas_Jarhead]

To hell with Egeland. He's a leftie & muzzie symp.

[Zeppo]

"Israel was outraged when I said that it was clearly excessive, clearly disproportionate, and I said a war where you kill more children than armed men — there is something wrong with the way of waging hostilities. Hezbollah was outraged when I said that they are blending in to the civilian population, and it's cowardly to blend in among women and children. It's tough."

Let's see if I can simplify things for you, Jan. The Israelis are outraged because your charge against them is clearly false. Hezbollah is outraged because your charge against them is clearly true. Do you understand it better now, Jan baby?

[ansel12]

"This has now become a powder keg. You have really to defuse it."



Now is the time to let this thing explode, the west has to be locked into an action before the 2008 elections.

[okie01]

uhhh, when you have Hezzies who built schools on top of rocket launching facilities, uhh, what do you propose to do, Egeland?

Egeland doesn't have the foggiest idea and, whether he realized it or not, admitted as much. Like most diplomats, all he knows how to say is "Stop the violence. Please."

This guy couldn't even deliver an ultimatum. He wouldn't know how.

[ChristianDefender]

Don't worry Egeland it's just an expression... Arabs/Muslims are not that united to join forces and go to war against the Israelites nor the U.S. ... they want to keep their "loosers" legacy!

[technomage]

I've never seen nations as polarized as during this recent visit,"

Obviously he has not had his eyes and ears open during the last 20 years.

[rlmorel]

"...I've never seen nations as polarized as during this recent visit..."

Really?

Really Really?

OMG...this...this...is like NOTHING we have ever seen in the Middle East before!

WHAT on earth is this guy smoking???

[Mo1]

Ummm .. where has this dude been since the 70's ... under a rock??

[woofie]

How about ice cream and the movies for all sides?

[ncountylee]

Jan Egeland almost makes Kofi look reasonable. Both are absolute scum though.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Will these Euro Bobbleheads ever get a clue?

[rlmorel]

Boy...you and I posted that seconds apart!!!! We both picked that same line out!

[familyop]

Good. Keep the Islamo-fascists in a state of perpetual excitement, and they'll be easier to push over.

[NormsRevenge]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seen here with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, called on Iran and Syria to respect the terms of a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council in a bid to end a month of fighting between their ally Hezbollah and Israel.(AFP/HO-UN/Mark Garten)

[paudio]

IIRC, this is the guy who criticized the US for 'not giving enough money' during the Southeast Asia Tsunami in 2004.

[GeronL]

Jan Boy. You is dumb

[familyop]

"Egeland said the tensions were the worst he had seen in the more than 20 years he has been working to promote peace and human rights in the Middle East, including a stint as a soldier..."

LOL!

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

"....in the last 20 years including 1978...."

Got it. I vote for an immediate UN resolution that you go and take some remedial math lessons.

[NicknamedBob]

"Egeland said the tensions were the worst he had seen in the more than 20 years he has been working to promote peace and human rights in the Middle East ..."

... but in all that time it has never occurred to him that he might be using the wrong techniques.

[My2Cents]

No doubt. They all need to convert to Jesus and discover real peace.

[Mike Darancette]

"People were enraged collectively in Lebanon, everybody against the Israeli indiscriminate onslaught," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Glad to see that the UN big wigs do not come with any preordained conclusions.

[My2Cents]

Never noticed the Kofi can look at two cameras at the same time.

[SeaBiscuit]

Just proves how useless the UN is and how Islam is anything but peaceful.

[NormsRevenge]

His crowning achievement was the Oslo Accord.

He should have been dethroned a long time ago for that one, imo.

Instead, the UN rewards incompetence and mediocrity.

[Mo1]

... but in all that time it has never occurred to him that he might be using the wrong techniques.

Naaaaa .. they are dumber then a box of rocks

[ClaireSolt]

It is really a great life those UN humanitarian do-gooders bring. I remember they protested the Afghan invasion because they wanted to deliver food. Later I heard a report that they drop off a sack of flour and a bag of beans for 3 months. Can you imagine hanging out in one of those mud houses in a sandstorm waiting for the UN to come every 3 months? That's life?

They always boogie at the first hint of trouble.

Too bad, Jan. This time we will have a better plan, and if that means that your overpaid humanitarians and peacekeepers have to get real jobs, that's fine by me.

[CWOJackson]

"Israel was outraged when I said that it was clearly excessive, clearly disproportionate, and I said a war where you kill more children than armed men — there is something wrong with the way of waging hostilities. Hezbollah was outraged when I said that they are blending in to the civilian population, and it's cowardly to blend in among women and children. It's tough."

Seems like he pretty much exposes just how freaking silly he is with that one statement alone.

[kingu]

Put some teeth into the resolution by the United Nations to disarm Hezbollah, since it's been more than a half a decade since it's been passed?

Oh, yeah, that's right, that's Israel. Can't disarm her enemies. Lebanon is in the situation it is in by the specific reason of Lebanon not following that UN resolution. The lack of peace and security can almost always be traced to a number of UN resolutions that have been ignored by Israel's enemies.

[rlmorel]

No Kidding.

This guy is an international political drama queen.

[Personal Responsibility]

You are 100% right. Its not about breaking the military, especially in this war. Its about breaking the will. They either have to learn to love us or learn to fear us. We can safely assume love is out of the question.

Surgical strikes do not inspire fear. They do nothing to break the will of the people supporting the terrorists. The smart bomb is horrible invention in that regard. Wars end because of how awful they are. When we try to clean war up, we get exactly what we see now. Wars that do not end.

Love of fear. We currently have neither but either will suffice.

[claudiustg]

---called on Iran and Syria to respect the terms of a resolution---

Yeah, I'm sure they were just waiting to have someone set them straight...

[shield]

Well.......to change something...it must be stirred up first!!! I think anger is a good thing.

[ClaireSolt]

National unity is good too!

[rock_lobsta]

Israel needs to declare war against the un.

Right after we do.

[dodger]

Gee, who'da thunk it ... angry (Arab-Islamofascist) middle easterners. Wow!

[singfreedom]

Isn't this the same nut-job that opined that the people of the U.S. are "stingy" because we don't send enough "aid" to needy countries? This, in spite of the fact that our population contributes more than any other country in the world?

Considering Mr. Egeland's opinions stated above, and in this piece, he is as biased as Kofi Anan or any other of the UN talking heads. I think we need to make a LOT of changes at the UN, beginning with Mr. Egeland----not that it will make any real difference in the UN effectiveness. This sort of bias is just too entrenched in to many of the UN representatives.

[paul51]

The muslims perpetual state is anger and hate. It keeps them from having to think about what pathetic losers they are. What else is new?

[Jameison]

Egeland, Egeland ...
Is he not the rabid sucker that attacked America after the Asian tsunami, and claimed Americans were mean?
Even though we actually give far aid money to poor countries by far than anyone else?
There's "anger" in the Mideast? So what?
There's always great anger in the Mideast.
That's new how?

[grey_whiskers]

Think there's any resemblance?




Then how about this one?

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

The muslims perpetual state is anger and hate. It keeps them from having to think about what pathetic losers they are their extreme need for "natural male enhancement". What else is new?

There, all fixed.

Cheers!

[Jameison]

"Isn't this the same nut-job that opined that the people of the U.S. are "stingy" because we don't send enough "aid" to needy countries? This, in spite of the fact that our population contributes more than any other country in the world?"

Yup
Same moonbat.