SWC: World's Silence Empowered Hamas' Terrorism; No UN Member Would Act Differently Than Israel

WIESENTHAL CENTER: “WORLD'S SILENCE EMPOWERED HAMAS'TERRORISM; NO UN MEMBER WOULD ACTDIFFERENTLY THAN ISRAEL”

The Simon Wiesenthal today accused theinternational community of empowering Hamas by remaining silent while thousands of rockets were hurled at Israeli cities and towns. "The UN Security Council scurriesinto action only when the Hamas terror infrastructure is being attacked,” charged Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Wiesenthal Center and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, theCenter's associate dean. "If a Security Council meeting is convened, Israel's ambassador should look at Security Council members and challenge them directly,'Which one of you would allow your cities and towns to suffer constant rocket barrage without retaliating?' Even PA president Abbas lays the blame for the current situationsquarely at Hamas' door when he declared at a Cairo press conference: '...we said to them: We ask of you, don't stop the ceasefire, the ceasefire must continue and not stop, inorder to avoid what has happened, and if only we had avoided it.' "

"Israel is finally doing what every member state of the United Nations has the right and obligation--to protect the long-suffering residents ofSderot and communities across southern Israel who have been bombardered with over 3,000 missiles by a terrorist organization. Many have chosen to forget that Israelunilaterally left Gaza in 2005, spending 2.5 billion dollars to remove Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip as an investment for peace with their Palestinian neighbors. AllIsrael has gotten for this unprecedented gesture are terrorist attacks targeting civilians in Israel proper and official anti-Jewish campaigns in government - controlled media,mosques and schools," they added. "Now Hamas leadership is renewing calls for suicide bombings-- another issue the UN refuses to deal with. And while no one wants tosee innocent people suffering, it has long been Hamas' policy to deploy their terror infrastructure in and around civilians."

"The International Community can help--not by their serial condemnation of Israel but by signaling the Palestinians and the Arab world that Hamas'terrorism has brought their cause to a dead end', Center officials concluded.

The Simon WiesenthalCenter is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agenciesincluding the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center’s Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.