United Nations Increasingly Marginalized as Post-War Gaza Begins To Take Shape

While countries vie for roles in post-war Gaza, the United Nations is increasingly being marginalized, as Secretary Marco Rubio calls its flagship organ for Palestine a Hamas “subsidiary.” Mr. Rubio vowed Friday that the UN Relief and Works Agency will have no role in Gaza. His comment, on the same day that the world body marks the 80th anniversary of its founding, follows a ruling of the UN’s principle judiciary organ that Israel must cooperate with UNRWA. President Trump lauded Arab and other world leaders supporting the Gaza ceasefire during a summit at Sharm el-Sheikh last week. One omitted name was that of the UN secretary-general, Atonio Guterres, who was seated in the last row of the summit leaders, almost as an afterthought. Early on in the Gaza war, as the Israel Defense Force distributed evidence of the tight cooperation between UNRWA and Hamas, top aides urged Mr. Guterres to meet Israeli officials to cooperate in investigations. “He refused to listen to us, and said he would defend UNRWA against Israeli attacks,” a senior UN official told the Sun.Mr. Guterres instead proceeded to issue public attacks, claiming that the IDF merely found a few “bad apples” to besmirch UNRWA. Now he is urging Israel to abide by an advisory opinion issued this week by the UN’s International Court of Justice, which claims that Jerusalem provided no “sufficient evidence to establish UNRWA’s lack of neutrality” and called on Israel to cooperate with the agency. Speaking to reporters at the American facility to monitor the Gaza cease-fire at Kiryat Gat, Israel, Mr. Rubio said America welcomes the participation of UN bodies in Gaza humanitarian efforts. “We’re willing to work with them if they can make it work,” he said, “but not UNRWA. UNRWA became a subsidiary of Hamas.”It might even be the other way around, the co-author of “The War of Return,” Einat Wilf, tells the Sun. “If Hamas disappeared tomorrow and UNRWA remains, a new Hamas will crop up,” she says, citing the UN agency’s role in encouraging Palestinian negation of Israel, which serves as a breeding ground for extremism. “UNRWA is a fueling depot for Palestinianism. It’s how the UN opposes Jewish statehood,” she says. Reconstruction efforts at Gaza will include only organizations and countries that Israel is “comfortable with,” Mr. Rubio said Friday. Earlier, Mr. Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, told reporters that “no reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls.”One widely reported plan promoted by Mr. Kushner would involve a major rebuilding of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which has been razed during the war. Currently under Israeli control, Rafah could emerge as a haven for Hamas-opposing Gazans.Israel now controls more than half of Gaza’s territory, as an international stabilization force is being gathered from an array of Mideast and other countries. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu vowed that Turkey will have no role in that force. Yet, Turkey and other Hamas supporters are deepening their involvement in Gaza City and other areas from which the IDF withdrew last Friday.Ankara named a confidante of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mehmet Güllüoğlu, as ambassador to Palestine, and he is coordinating reconstruction in Gaza, where Turkish NGOs like the pro-Hamas IHH are increasing activities, the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon reports. On his way to Israel, Mr. Rubio told reporters that America could seek a UN Security Council authorization for the proposed force’s operation. Jerusalem has long been leery of UN involvement.“You are dealing with virtual reality,” Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, told the Council Thursday. “There will be no future in Gaza until Hamas disarms,” he said. “Many of you are already picturing Gaza’s future. Hotels rising on the coast, parks, and schools filled with children.” Yet, “Hamas still exists, is armed and continues to murder, including its own people.”In a page distributed to UN members, Israel writes that “the UN leadership chose to dismiss Israel’s claim that Hamas had systematically infiltrated and abused Unrwa without even launching an investigation into it.”Yet, even America’s staunchest allies are urging Jerusalem to cooperate with Unrwa and obey the International Court of Justice’s opinion, which said Israel is obliged to “ensure the provision of aid in Gaza and that UNRWA has a critical role in delivering the humanitarian response,” Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, James Kariuki, told the Council Thursday.America’s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, was alone in opposition. Washington “rejects the ICJ’s baseless and politicized ‘advisory opinion,’ which wrongly targets Israel,” he said Thursday, adding that the UN court “ignores that Unrwa has been irredeemably compromised by its support for and involvement in Hamas’ terrorism.”

United Nations Increasingly Marginalized as Post-War Gaza Begins To Take Shape

United Nations Increasingly Marginalized as Post-War Gaza Begins To Take Shape

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