The Hamas connection: U.N. workers aiding terrorism?

Ed Feulner, in an article on this page, describes what were thought to be the very depths of the chicanery at the United Nations. It seems now, however, that the corruption may go even deeper.

In addition to skimming billions in cahoots with Saddam Hussein in the Oil for Food program, U.N. employees may actually have killed innocent people.

The U.N. has about 24,000 Palestinians working for its Relief and Works Agency, which is supposed to help Palestinian refugees. The head of the agency, Peter Hansen, told the Associated Press that some of those workers are members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

“I don’t see it as a crime,” Hansen said.

The government of Israel does, and for good reason. Hamas has been killing Israelis for years. It is considered a terrorist organization not just by the United States and Israel, but also by the European Union.

The Israeli government has arrested at least 25 U.N. employees on charges of participating or aiding in terrorist attacks. U.N. vehicles have been used to move weapons for attacks on Israelis, according to the Israeli army.

The relationship between Israel and the United Nations has been a strange one.

It started about the time the United Nations was formed after World War II. Jews scattered by the Holocaust settled in a part of what had been their historic land of Caanan. Within three years, the U.N. declared the land to be the Jewish state of Israel.

Some of the new nation’s Muslim-controlled neighboring countries have never accepted Israel’s right to exist, nor have some of the Palestinians who have occupied the land. Israel’s history is one of various wars, isolated battles and terrorist attacks against innocent Israeli men, women and children.

Despite the efforts of every U.S. presidential administration and, sometimes, the U.N., a solution to the violence has never been found. As the U.N.’s membership and leadership have changed over the years, it has gradually grown more hostile toward Israel. In 1975, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution stating that: “Zionism is racism.” That, in the minds of many, makes Israel an illegitimate country.

If the United Nations could undo its 1948 resolution establishing Israel, a majority of its members might vote to do so. But never before have there been credible charges of actual combat against Israeli citizens by employees of the U.N. — a body that was formed with the noble purpose of maintaining peace in the world.

Published in Editorials on October 13, 2004 10:44 AM