The U.N. Human Rights Council has decided to investigate alleged violations of international law during the popular protests in the "occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem." In other words, this branch of the U.N. has already decided to investigate Israel rather than the Palestinians who are responsible for the riots on the Gaza-Israel border.
What is really bad is that European countries either voted in favor of the decision (Belgium) or abstained (Germany and Britain). The Hungarian abstention also comes as something of a disappointment. But Hungary is not an enemy of Israel, whereas the important European countries can no longer be considered Israel's "friends" – they are in effect "soft" enemies. The U.S., following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, realized that its European allies were no longer allies and that their interests in the deal always had to do with business profits.
But while the nations of Europe may be trying to torpedo Trump's policy, they aren't really fighting the U.S. On the other hand, the anti-Israel moves by various EU member states are hostile acts in every sense of the word. Israel's Foreign Ministry has been right in its responses to the resolution, but we need to make a countermove that will be more than a condemnation of those who support the UNHRC's decision. A committee should be established to probe the role European countries, the U.N. and international aid organizations play in encouraging Palestinian terrorism, particularly terrorism by Hamas.
The committee should also investigate the conduct of the international media. Hamas knows that all it had to do was press the right buttons and set the scene and the conflagration on the Gaza border would make headlines.
Countries such as Germany and Britain had an obligation to vote against the UNHRC resolution. The fact that they did not shows that media pressure has forced German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May to compromise their positions and make Israel the focus of their countries' diplomatic pressure.
Unlike in the past, it does not seem that the U.N. investigative committee presents any serious danger to Israel, at least not in comparison to the Goldstone Commission established after Operation Cast Lead in 2009. What is more disturbing is the ability of terrorist leaders like Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar to make themselves editors-in-chief of publications like The New York Times and influence political systems throughout the world. They provide the fuel that feeds the regime of the head of Turkish fascism, the anti-Semitic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On the other hand, the fact that U. S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley (not to mention Israeli envoy Danny Danon) is on alert at the U.N. reflects a shift in values. Maybe we'll see better days than these.
