New York Times & UPI – 2006-11-12 09:26:13
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6139968.stm
US Vetoes Motion on Gaza Attack
The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning an Israeli attack in Gaza that killed 18 civilians, including women and children.
The draft, which also condemned Israeli military operations in Gaza, followed Wednesday’s attack in Beit Hanoun.
The US ambassador at the UN, John Bolton, described the text as unbalanced and politically motivated.
Ten of 15 Security Council members backed the resolution. Four abstained — Denmark, Japan, Slovakia and the UK.
This was the second time this year the US used its veto on a draft resolution on Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The US has a history of vetoing resolutions condemning Israel which it feels are biased against the country, says the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan at the UN in New York.
‘Not Even-handed’
The draft resolution — backed by Arab, Islamic and non-aligned states and formally proposed by Qatar — called for a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
It also asked the UN secretary general to set up a fact-finding mission into the deaths in Beit Hanoun.
The draft urged the Palestinian Authority to act to end violence — including rockets fired at southern Israel.
The US ambassador said he regretted the Palestinian loss of life, but disagreed with the language used in the resolution.
“This resolution does not display an even-handed characterisation of the recent events in Gaza, nor does it advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace to which we aspire and for which we are working assiduously,” he said.
‘Green light’
An Israeli government spokesman described the veto as “very satisfactory”.
“The draft resolution did not stipulate that what happened at Beit Hanun was a tragic error,” Avi Pazner told AFP news agency.
But Palestinian cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad of Hamas told Reuters the veto was “a signal that the US had given legitimacy to the massacres and a green light to [Israel] to … carry out more massacres”.
Qatar’s ambassador said the credibility of the Security Council had been called into question by the vote and the cycle of violence in the Middle East would continue.
Israel launched its operation in and around Beit Hanoun last month in an effort to root out militants firing rockets. The deaths were caused when what witnesses described as a volley of tank shells hit a built-up civilian area. Many of the dead were from one extended family, and included several women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologised for the attack, describing it as a “technical failure”.
Arab Ministers Discuss Gaza Veto
BBC World News
Arab foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to discuss the recent Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
They will try to agree on the next step after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Saturday which condemned Israel’s military operations.
The resolution, which the US said was unbalanced, followed an Israeli attack on Wednesday which killed 19 civilians. The Arab League warned the veto would ‘increase anger’ towards Israel.
Correspondents say Sunday’s meeting of Arab ministers is likely to discuss whether to seek the support of the United Nations General Assembly, where the US does not have the power of veto.
‘Politically motivated’
This was the second time this year the US used its veto on a draft resolution on Israeli military operations in Gaza. Ten of the Security Council’s 15 members voted in favour of the resolution, while the other four abstained.
The draft resolution — backed by Arab, Islamic and non-aligned states and formally proposed by Qatar — called for a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. It also asked the UN secretary general to set up a fact-finding mission into the deaths in Beit Hanoun.
The draft urged the Palestinian Authority to act to end violence — including rockets fired at southern Israel. The US ambassador at the UN, John Bolton, described the text as unbalanced and politically motivated.
‘Green light’
An Israeli government spokesman described the veto as “very satisfactory”.
“The draft resolution did not stipulate that what happened at Beit Hanoun was a tragic error,” Avi Pazner told AFP news agency. But Palestinian cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad of Hamas told Reuters the veto was “a signal that the US had given legitimacy to the massacres and a green light to [Israel] to … carry out more massacres”
Arab League secretary-general, Amr Moussa, said the veto would “only increase the anger” towards Israel.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, accused the Security Council of “turning a blind eye to Israeli acts in Gaza.”
Qatar’s ambassador said the credibility of the Security Council had been called into question by the vote and the cycle of violence in the Middle East would continue.
France Demands Independent
Probe of Beit Hanoun Incident
Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON (Novembr 11, 2006) — France’s Ambassador to the UN Jean Marc La Sabliere said during a Security Council meeting Thursday that his country demanded an independent investigation of the circumstances of Wednesday’s incident in Beit Hanoun in which 18 Palestinians were killed by IDF fire.
“France wants an investigation of this attack, an independent investigation,” La Sabliere said.
A Palestinian proposal to establish an international investigation committee and the stationing of UN observers in the Strip was expected to come up in the meeting. Due to US objections, it wasn’t clear whether there would be a vote at the end of the meeting.
The demand to convene the Security Council was raised on Monday by Qatar, the only Arab Council representative. The demand was initially rejected, but the Beit Hanoun incident changed matters.
US Ambassador John Bolton said Qatar’s request was discussed by the council on Tuesday “and there was no support for it.”
The Palestinian proposal makes no mention of the Quartet’s decision calling on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel, accept past agreements and denounce terror. There is also no mention of the incessant Qassam rocket attacks on Israel, which the IDF’s activity in Gaza was meant to prevent.
The clause calling for the stationing of foreign observers in Gaza is especially problematic for Israel and the US, as it is Israel’s position that the Palestinians must take responsibility for Gaza and put an end to the rocket attacks.
‘Israel Regrets the Death of the Innocent Civilians’
Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said it was time for the UN’s most powerful body to shoulder its responsibilities with regard to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, a view backed by Arab and Islamic nations and the 117-member Nonaligned Movement of developing countries.
“The Israeli occupying forces have committed another massacre this morning in Beit Hanoun,” Mansour said. “The Security Council has to react and to react immediately in order to stop this aggression and these crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Danny Carmon, the deputy head of the Israeli delegation to the UN, said during the meeting that the escalation stems from the Qassam rocket fire on Israel, which is acting Œin self-defense.‚ He stressed that the death of the Palestinian family in Beit Hanoun was an Œunfortunate accident.‚
“Israel regrets the death of the innocent civilians,” Carmon said, adding that Israel treated some of those wounded in the incident and launched an investigation into the IDF’s artillery fire in the north Gaza town.
Carmon said that Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the hope that the Palestinian would manage it responsibly as a first step to the establishment of a Palestinian state that can live side by side in peace with Israel.
But since Israel left the Gaza Strip Palestinians fired 1,000 Qassams. “Israel is asked again and again to show restraint. But the question is until when. After 1,000 rockets? 2,000 rockets?” Carmon asked.
He spoke about the need to release the Israeli soldier, while Karnit Goldwasser, the wife of kidnapped soldier, Ehud Goldwasser, was present. “She is here to remind members of the Council who voted on Resolution 1701 that they are obliged to fulfill what they voted for and act for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers.”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the killing of the Palestinian family in Beit Hanun, and noted that he had warned Israel of the dangers involved in operating in densely populated areas.
He said the Israel had promised to investigate the incident.
“Over the weekend, I had the opportunity of talking to the Israeli Prime Minister requesting that they exercise maximum restraint. I also spoke to President Abbas urging him to do whatever he can to ensure that Katyushas (rockets) going into Israel were also stopped,” Annan told a news conference.
Bolton’s Chances of Confirmation
Are ‘Nil,’ Official Says
Helene Cooper / New York Times
WASHINGTON (November 10, 2006) — President Bush has pledged to be a bipartisan, consensus builder now that Democrats are to control Congress, and since Wednesday he has made conciliatory gestures. The question now is whether Mr. Bush is ready to junk all of his make-nice pledges in order to keep John Bolton at the United Nations.
Officially, administration officials say they plan to make all the necessary calls to Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to try to talk them into confirming Mr. Bolton for a next term as ambassador. “He has been extraordinarily effective up there at the U.N., and now is not the time to have a gap,” said the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, repeating the official line.
But with Senator Lincoln Chafee’s announcement Thursday that he would deny Republicans on the committee the last vote needed to send Mr. Bolton’s nomination to the full Senate, some administration officials privately acknowledge that Mr. Bolton’s chances of getting Senate confirmation are “nil,” one State Department official said. “We know it’s not going to happen.”
In this situation, the usual next step would be for Mr. Bolton to withdraw from consideration and for Mr. Bush to nominate a less polarizing candidate˜perhaps bringing Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad back from Baghdad; or turning to the State Department counselor, Philip D. Zelikow; the under secretary of state for Democracy and Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky, or even Mr. Chafee himself, following his own re-election defeat. All those names have been floated both inside and outside the administration.
But Mr. Bolton is keen to stay at the helm of the American team at the United Nations, administration officials say, and White House officials, including the legal adviser, Harriet Miers, have been looking into whether Mr. Bush can somehow bypass the Senate and save Mr. Bolton. Administration officials said that Vice President Dick Cheney is backing the exploration of such a move.
Mr. Bolton “could be named Œacting permanent representative‚ or Œdeputy U.N. ambassador‚ or something else that doesn’t require confirmation,” one senior administration official said, acknowledging that it might not be worth angering Democrats with such a maneuver.
When senators blocked Mr. Bolton’s confirmation last year, Mr. Bush gave him a recess appointment, which expires when this Congress adjourns. Mr. Bush could give Mr. Bolton a second recess appointment as United Nations ambassador, but under the law he could not be paid for his work. White House officials are looking into whether he could be paid by some other entity and still serve as ambassador, or whether a de-facto ambassador position could be created in which Mr. Bolton served ambassador for all intents and purposes but not in name.
Such a move would almost certainly inflame relations between the White House and ascendant Democrats, and might kill any further talk about bipartisan cooperation. “It looks like an act out of Cirque du Soleil,” said Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. He likened the proposed maneuver to “a vision of a contortionist.”
“This John Bolton does not deserve to be promoted,” Mr. Dodd said.
Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, today declined to speculate about Mr. Bolton’s future if he doesn’t get through the Senate. “I think what we ought to do right now is simply allow senators in the lame-duck session to see if they will give John Bolton a fair shake,” he said. “After that, we’ll talk about possibilities.”
Thom Shanker contributed reporting.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Sen. Chafee May Sink Bolton Nomination
United Press International
WASHINGTON (November 10, 2006) — Lame-duck US Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said Thursday the congressional election has only confirmed his opposition to U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
Chafee’s refusal to join other Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in voting the nomination out of committee effectively dooms Bolton’s chance of confirmation, the Washington Post said. Bush named Bolton in a one-year recess appointment that ends in December.
“On Tuesday, the American people sent a clear message of dissatisfaction with the foreign policy approach of the Bush administration,” Chafee said in a statement. “To confirm Mr. Bolton to the position of UN ambassador would fly in the face of the clear consensus of the country that a new direction is called for.”
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the committee’s presumptive chairman in the next term, said Bolton’s nomination is “going nowhere.”
Bolton’s critics describe him as abrasive and accuse him of bullying his staff, among other things.
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