Israel launched strikes against Iranian air defense systems and missile production facilities over the weekend in response to Iran’s attacks against Israel earlier in the month.
Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, missiles that were aimed at civilians, not military targets.
The U.N. meeting was requested by Russia, China and Algeria after Iran sent a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General and members of the U.N. Security Council.
“The responsibility for this dangerous escalation lies squarely with the Israeli regime and certainly with those who enabled it, foremost among them the United States, which remain Israeli primary and unwavering supporter in committing these grave atrocities,” the Iranian spokesperson said Monday.
Israeli leaders had their own meeting Monday, when the Knesset passed two bills that basically barred terrorist-infiltrated UNRWA – the United Nations Relief Works Agency – from operating inside of Israel.
UNRWA, created a year and a half after Israel was recognized as a nation in 1948, serves solely to serve the Palestinians, Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor for The Jewish News Syndicate, said on Washington Watch Tuesday.
“The Palestinians are the only group of people on earth to have a U.N. agency just for them,” Glick told show host Tony Perkins.
With such singular focus perhaps it’s not surprising that so many links between UNRWA and the terror organization Hamas, which governed the Palestinians in Gaza before the war, have been exposed.
Hamas’ Octopus-like ties to UNRWA
Israeli intelligence reports in January identified a number of UNRWA employees as direct participants in Hamas’ murderous rampage and kidnapping of Israeli citizens last Oct. 7.
More recently, U.N. food rations distributed through UNRWA were found in the bunker of late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar after he was eliminated by the Israel Defense Forces.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) praised the Israeli Knesset.
“The Biden administration says they stand with Israel, but it seems like at almost every turn they want to undermine Israel's ability to defend itself against an existential threat from the No. 1 one state sponsor of terrorism, Iran and its proxies like Hamas."
Cornyn says Israel has a right to defend itself "and if that means excluding UNRWA from Israeli-controlled territories, because they're infiltrated by Hamas, I think they have a right to do so. I think that's the right call,” he told Perkins.
In its block-by-block destruction of Hamas, IDF troops discovered Hamas’ main communications hub located below UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City.
UNRWA clinics, schools and offices have all been used to hold weapons, launch missiles and hold hostages, Glick said.
“These so-called relief workers actually engaged in the atrocities inside of Israel on Oct. 7. They murdered Israelis, they kidnapped Israelis, they stole the bodies of Israelis who had been murdered by their Hamas colleagues and carried them back to Gaza. UNRWA employees have been shown to have been holding hostages since Oct. 7 in their private residences, and starving them to death and torturing them,” Glick said.
The U.S. has continued to criticize Israel for not doing enough to get aid to Palestinians amid the impossible task of separating Hamas terrorists from the people.
The U.S. around Oct. 13 gave Israel an ultimatum. Improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing the continued supply of U.S. weapons for use in Israel’s continued conflict with Hezbollah and Iran.
“So, it's a very strange situation where you have the United States leading an international posse of states in the U.N. that are trying to undermine Israel's democratic processes in order to protect a terrorist organization that operates under the auspices of the United Nations,” Glick said.
U.S. officials, so focused on aid for Gaza, seem willingly to draw a line in the sand in support of UNRWA while ignoring their own mechanism to assist in any humanitarian crisis.
The United States Agency for International Development is a government agency that exists for the purpose of administering foreign aid and development assistance. Its annual budget, more than $50 billion, makes it one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, accounting for more than half of all U.S. foreign aid.
For now, USAID sits idle in the conflict.
Cornyn sees the role that it could play but can’t answer why the Biden administration won’t engage USAID.
He notes that UNRWA “has been infiltrated by Hamas, and a lot of the aid that’s been sent to the Palestinians, that are collateral damage in this conflict, is being diverted to support these terrorists.”
Joe, Kamala, what about USAID?
Likewise, Glick is at a loss to understand the U.S. position.
“It’s an excellent question that should be posed to the Biden-Harris administration posthaste,” she said.
The U.S. has forced Israel to accept massive quantities of UNRWA aid on an almost daily basis, and because of that “Hamas is completely resupplied,” Glick said.
There were “bags of flour and other foodstuffs right there in (Sinwar’s) luxurious bunker in the tunnels in Gaza. So, yes, (UNRWA has been) maintaining Hamas's regime and power. That's what they've been doing, which isn't surprising because they're inextricably linked to Hamas's terror regime. They're part of it,” she said.
