New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has described aspects of the draft resolution prepared by the US and France that is before the UN Security Council as a victory for the Hizballah Islamist terrorists (who are on the US list of terrorists groups) which ultimately endangers American citizens and citizens of all other democracies. The draft resolution contains several passages that reward Hizballah for its unprovoked aggression against Israel and its people and therefore strengthens the terrorist movement and provides inspiration for other Islamist terrorists groups across the globe, including those fighting America by sending a clear message that by murdering “the infidel,” meaning Jews and Christians of the Western world, gains important concessions.

Some troubling clauses in the US-French UN draft resolution:

• “Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers, Mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel” — Although this appears only in the preamble, this nonetheless gives at least the appearance of victory to Hizballah, which had been demanding the release of Hizballah terrorists jailed in Israel.
  
  
• “Delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including in the Shebaa farms area” — The Israeli-Lebanese border was fully demarcated in 2000 by the UN, which found that Israel had completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory. Shebaa Farms area is not part of Lebanon, yet Israel’s relinquishing of it to Lebanon is a stated Hizballah objective, so any call to re-open the issue is a reward for Hizballah.
  
  
• “Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hizballah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations” — The phrase Israeli “major offensive military operations” is completely inaccurate, because it suggests that Israel is the perpetrator of aggression, not acting in defense of its citizens. If Hizballah terrorists had not kidnapped and murdered Israelis and launched hundreds of rockets a day into Israel, Israel would not have been forced to launch a defensive operation (which is not an “offensive” military operation, as the draft resolution).
  
  
• It calls for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and to assist Lebanon in preventing the importation of weaponry in to the country, yet UNIFIL has never in the past stopped Hizballah before or functioned in any effective way as a peace-keeper.

The draft resolution is also seriously defective because of a number of omissions:

• There is no mention of Syria or Iran, both of which fund and arm Hizballah, which could not function without their support over decades. Any resolution that wishes to deal with the root causes of conflict in the region would include an operative paragraph calling for Syria and Iran to immediately halt all aid and support to Hizballah, with provision for sanctions if they fail to comply.
  
  
• There is no demand in the operative paragraphs for the unconditional release of Israelis kidnapped in Hizballah’s unprovoked act of aggression, only in the non-enforceable preamble.
  
  
• In the passage regarding the issue of “Lebanese prisoners,” there is no mention of the fact that most if not all of these prisoners are terrorists who were jailed for their murderous activities.
  
  
• The draft resolution provides for nations to contribute financial and humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, there is no call for the same in respect of Israel, which has suffered scores of dead, thousands of wounded, serious damage in several cities and the flight of 300,000 of its citizens from northern Israel.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This UN draft resolution is deeply troubling because it represents in some important ways a caving in to Hizballah terrorists and giving them a propaganda and a substantive victory.

“Hizballah and other Islamist terrorists around the world can clearly see and learn from this draft resolution that recent terrorist attacks which have murdered dozens of innocent Israelis is being rewarded with a UN demand to discuss giving more land (Shebaa Farms) away and to discuss releasing more terrorists from Israeli prisons while condemning Israel for its ‘offensive military actions.’ The US, the West and Israel must do everything in their power to insure that the Islamist terrorist agenda goes backward. This UN draft resolution rewards terrorists and pushes their agenda to go forward. Resolutions and appeasement like this may well, G-d forbid, inspire and encourage Islamist terrorists around the world to attack more US, Western and Israel targets as well as US, Western and Israeli citizens. We dare not send them this message.

“As Professor Anne Bayefsky, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, wrote, ‘There will be only one sure result of this [draft resolution] — the empowerment of terrorists whose ultimate target is the United States and all democratic values. Secretary Rice’s belief that there is a serious convergence between the United Nations agenda and American foreign-policy needs in the age of terrorism is a profound error in judgment for which democratic societies everywhere will be forced to pay a heavy price’” (National Review Online, August 7).