Much has been made over the years of the United Nation's bias against the State of Israel. This one-sided view that routinely condemns all actions of the Jewish state has led many supporters of Israel to disregard any statement or policy put forward by the UN and question the very relevance of this once great body. This is a mistake. The UN remains the most stabilizing international entity and still retains the potential to make the world a safer and more peaceful place.
This is why the latest declarations by General Secretary Ban Ki-moon are so infuriating. In a statement to the Security Council, the Secretary General had the audacity to qualify his condemnation of Palestinian terror by attempting to justify this ugly violence and explaining that it is due to "the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process."
When innocent civilians were murdered last year in France and California by Islamic extremists the Secretary General did not try to excuse these heinous acts. He simply condemned the "despicable terrorist" without attempting to justify their crimes by incorrectly attributing their actions to outside factors.
It seems that the Secretary General only looks to justify terror when Israelis like Dafna Meir are killed. Meir, a nurse dedicated to saving human lives and a loving foster mom, was stabbed to death in her home by a Palestinian terrorist while protecting her young children just a few weeks ago. In the days before Mr. Ban-moon's statements an Islamic fundamentalists stabbed a pregnant peace activist, while yet another killed a young woman on the cusp of her adult life who was shopping for groceries. Only when it comes to Israelis does the Secretary General dare to justify these acts of terror by repeating false propaganda of the Palestinians.
Unfortunately, these statement are part of a disturbing pattern. This past December a report issued to the Secretary General's office described a heinous terrorist attack in which two Palestinians butchered five Israelis at prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue as an "incident" in which "five Israeli men and two Palestinian men were also killed." That same report went on to differentiate between Jews killed in pre-1967 Israel from those who were murdered in Judea and Samaria.
In addition to these statements justifying and probably even encouraging more terrorism, they are also completely divorced from reality, and just plain wrong. How does the Secretary General explain the hundreds of Jews massacred in the Holy Land before Israel was declared a state in 1948? What excuse does he make for the thousands of terror attacks that took place before the 1967 Six Day War and the so-called occupation? What about the thousands of Israelis murdered in the streets at the same time that successive Israeli governments offered unprecedented concessions to the Palestinians with the hope of achieving peace?
If the Secretary General is looking for the root causes of terrorism, he should start by listening to the terrorists themselves. Just last week one apprehended terrorist openly admitted that it was the hate-filled the anti-Semitic programming on President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority official TV channel that inspired him to set out and stab a young woman. What is worse is that the hateful propaganda broadcast on official radio and television pales in comparison to the calls for murder and human butchery on Palestinian social media.
Statements like the ones made by the Secretary General serve only to fan the flames and further justify the sick and twisted logic presented to youngsters that freedom and self-determination will come to the Palestinians by murdering woman and children.
As the first nation-state to gain our freedom from colonialism and receive recognition from the General Assembly, we in Israel want more than anyone else for the UN to reclaim its mantel of promoting international peace and security. This can only be achieved by stopping the lies and making the Palestinians face the truth.
The Secretary General, and all UN institutions, must unequivocally condemn any acts of terrorism and insist that the Palestinian Authority completely end all incitement and support for terror. Now is the time for President Abbas to join this call and finally accept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated invitation to begin direct negotiations without preconditions. This is the only way end the violence and provide real hope, not by spreading lies and providing false hope to young Palestinians.