Posted on 06/25/2002 5:54:51 PM PDT by McGruff
NEW YORK United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan rejected US President George W. Bush's call for new Palestinian leadership, saying the Palestinians must elect their own leaders, and that the timing for new elections is "not optimal."
"They elected Chairman Arafat, they are planning new elections, let them elect their own leaders," Annan told reporters yesterday at UN headquarters. He admitted, though, that a major drawback is the popularity of extremist groups opposed to peace with Israel.
"You could find yourself in a situation that the radicals are the ones who get elected. And it will be the result of a democratic process, and we have to accept that," he said. Annan also rejected Bush's call for government reforms to be implemented as a precursor to peace talks, saying, "We had hoped that the reforms would not be a condition for the peace process and moving forward."
But the secretary-general also had words of praise for the speech, and said the leaders of the "Quartet," made up of the United States, UN, Russia, and the European Union, will need to discuss implementing Bush's call for Palestinian statehood within a three-year timeframe. "I hope the Israelis and the Palestinians will have the courage, the wisdom, and the strength to seize this moment for us to work on the establishment of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with an Israeli state in security," he said.
"I think it is important that it is done in a reasonable timeframe, or else people will lose hope." But Annan's criticism of democratic reform in the West Bank and Gaza Strip stood in sharp contrast to the position of a group of Jewish leaders who met with him on Monday to press for equal treatment of the Jewish state at the international body.
The hour-long meeting included six UN representatives and officials from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, B'nai B'rith International, Hadassah, the Anti-Defamation League, WIZO, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
While Bush's speech on the Middle East was hours away at the time of the meeting, many of the groups praised precisely the aspects of the speech that Annan rejected namely, a new Palestinian leadership to replace those linked to terrorism, and democratic reforms to halt rampant corruption and despair among the general population.
In the meeting with Annan, issues raised by the Jewish leaders included Hizbullah attacks across the UN-delineated border between Israel and Lebanon, to which Israel withdrew in July 2000, in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 425.
Also discussed was an upcoming General Assembly report on IDF actions in Jenin where Arab leaders continue to allege a "massacre" took place despite press and humanitarian groups' accounts to the contrary.
To that, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Presidents Conference, and Dan Mariaschin, executive vice president of B'nai B'rith, added the charge that UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency), which funds services in Palestinian refugee camps, is turning a blind eye to terrorist activity inside its camps.
Mariaschin also brought with him a study by his group detailing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment in Syrian school textbooks. Syria currently occupies the rotating presidency of the Security Council and co-chairs the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission.
Both Hoenlein and Mariaschin described the meeting as positive, and said that Annan appeared genuinely concerned with the treatment accorded to Israel at the UN.
They said Annan acknowledged receipt of a 150-page report compiled by the Presidents Conference on false allegations and eyewitness accounts of the battle in Jenin, and he pledged to take it into account in his report.
Within hours of the meeting, however, Annan's office broke from a week of silence of criticism on Israel and released two statements condemning Israeli actions in the region.
The first statement, issued an hour after the meeting ended, condemned Israel's "re-occupation" of six West Bank towns.
Hoenlein, meanwhile, shrugged off the new criticism directed at Israel from Annan's office. "Listen, the speech [given by Bush] yesterday is what counts," he said.
And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.
Yes, we will have to accept that they have made their choice. If the Palestinians choose a bunch of terrorist thugs as leaders, then they will have clearly chosen the path of war, and they can no longer masquerade as victims. And they will suffer the consequneses. Which is why the Israel haters hate the idea. The status quo allows them to maintain the fiction that it is only a small number of extremists who support terrorism. Bush is not "choosing the Palestinians leaders" as the leftists are claiming; he is simply laying out the truth, that who they choose will determine their own future.
But of course. One terrorist propping up the other.
Just a thought :-)
Ain't that sweeeeet? Terrafat and and friends humming a few bars of "I Want to Teach the World to Sing".
There's all the proof we need - Kofi Annan is in support of Arafat and the homicide bombers.
WHY IS THIS MAN PERMITTED TO REMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES!?!? We truly need to do away with this man. Jesse Jackson glommed onto him this past weekend in Chicago (Operation PUSH's Saturday services are carried on The Word Network - on satellite and on AT&T and Comcast cable nationally). That should be further indication of his completely anti-American bias. The remainder of the UN can go right along with him. I'm sure we can get someone to rent out that prime real-estate on the East River (does Cantor-Fitzgerald still need office space?), can't we?
Who are you with again ? US or them ?
Is that your final answer ?
I think coughie annan should take inventory and remember who he's talking to. After all, wasn't everyone just SCREAMING about Dubya not being "involved" enough in the mideast?
Well, now that he's capitulated and reluctantly involved himself he's embarassed his Secretary of State and he's getting poo-poohed by the same people whining that he wasn't "involved" enough.
Koffi is an authority of course.. Why, after all he DID win the Nobel Peace prize for his "efforts" at peace..
(screw the lot of them, I would like to see us just tell the EU, the UN and the Palestinians where to get off, in plain language just one time. They definately deserve it and their arrogance is just staggering.. If there ever was a time to give them a reality check it's now..)
"You're either with us or against us."
I guess we can put Kofi down in the 'against us' column.
With ignorant bastards like Koffi Annan in charge --- we should expell the whole damned lot of them, and force their return to the turd world - where they belong.
Semper Fi
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