The EU Wise Men and Women of Brussels
In the past week, 40 civilians were massacred in Kandahar, Afghanistan at a wedding party, at least two dozen Iraqi civilians died in a Sunni attack in Baghdad and hundreds of Uzbeks have been murdered in Kyrgyzstan. Hundreds of thousands more have fled that country to neighboring Uzbekistan.
In the meantime, the UN Security Council joined by the United States’ ambassador, Susan Rice, is demanding an international commission of inquiry into Israel’s behavior in intercepting the “Free Gaza” flotilla in which 9 knife and pipe wielding “peace activists” were killed in self-defense by Israeli commandos.
Today, the EU Foreign Ministers convened, demanding
“an immediate, full and impartial inquiry into these events and the circumstances surrounding them. To command the confidence of the international community this should include credible international participation.”
The Goldstone Report should serve as a model for such an impartial investigation.
No such demand for an investigation was imposed on Turkish sponsorship of the IHH, an international terror support group with proven ties to Al Qaeda and Hamas (hat tip to Elder of Ziyon). No such demand was imposed on the Afghani Taliban whose effective control of Kandahar province goes unchallenged. No such demand was placed on the Kyrgyzstan government, whose police and military forces have been observed joining in the slaughter of their fellow Uzbek citizens.
The infamous UN Council for Human Rights is airlifting aid supplies to Uzbekistan to the 100,000 + refugees, but has assiduously refrained from identifying a culprit. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, composed of 57 Islamic states, has gently urged restraint:
OIC secretary-general Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu delivered this stinging rebuke to the government of Kyrgyzstan:
“…I urge all communities in Kyrgyzstan to show their utmost restraint and continue to live in peace with one another, under the rule of law in order to preserve national unity in the country,”
Kyrgyzstan has been a member of the OIC since 1992.
No rebuke or even call for restraint has ever been issued during the decade-long Iraqi conflict in which hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have been massacred. Nor was a condemnation of the Kandahar massacre addressed by the OIC, the EU or the United Nations. This is the same OIC that has in the last week, demanded that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem be turned over to its impartial administration:
The EU foreign ministers went beyond parroting the call for an international investigation of Israel and further declared that,
“The continued policy of closure is unacceptable and politically counterproductive… …in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1860, the EU reiterates its call for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza including goods from the West Bank.”
As an inoculation, the EU added,
“(The EU) deplore the continuing acts of rocket fire. All those responsible must take immediate and concrete steps to cease and prevent such violence. The Council calls on those holding the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to release him without delay. Hamas must also unconditionally allow ICRC access and end its interference with the operations of NGOs and UN agencies in Gaza.”
Of course, as with previous EU statements, there are no concrete penalties designated for continued aggressive acts by Hamas, providing adequate cover for the Ministers.