Protests against Israel and silence on Russia, but they don't want to be called 'antisemites'

I have been denouncing that the accusations of "genocide" against Israel are not only false, but are also an attempt to whitewash Hamas.

The biased list of condemnations by the United Nations General Assembly, by country
The gross manipulations of a United Nations commission to accuse Israel of 'genocide'

This was evident this week at the United Nations General Assembly. On Friday, some countries boycotted the Israeli prime minister there, with delegates leaving the room to boos and jeers as Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage. Outside the building, about 2,000 people demonstrated with Palestinian flags, with criticism and insults directed at Israel and Netanyahu.

A day later, the atmosphere changed radically. Yesterday, the Russian Foreign Minister spoke from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly. Unlike on Friday, there were no protests against Sergey Lavrov, no whistles or boos were heard, the cameras did not focus on any delegates leaving the premises, and there were no demonstrations outside the building.

This very different treatment of Netanyahu and Lavrov is especially shocking considering that Israel was attacked on October 7, 2023, a terrible event that was not only the worst terrorist attack in its history, but also the largest antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust. Even today, dozens of Israeli citizens remain hostage by Hamas. Let us also remember that Hamas has held some of these hostages in UN compounds in Gaza. It is worth remembering that a few weeks after that attack, the UN General Assembly refused to condemn that antisemitic massacre, approving a resolution in which it equated the attacked country and the terrorist aggressors.

On the contrary, Russia has attacked a neighboring country, Ukraine, in an unprovoked invasion in which the Russians have also been committing all kinds of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Ukrainian population. Putin's dictatorship has been systematically and indiscriminately attacking civilian targets, launching missiles, drones, airstrikes and artillery shells against residential buildings, schools, hospitals, kindergartens, temples, universities, museums, etc. In fact, unlike what happened with Hamas's aggression against Israel, the UN expressly condemned both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Russia's illegal annexation of several Ukrainian regions.

Many seem to have forgotten, but Ukraine has been enduring this invasion for more than three and a half years, to which must be added the illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. In this war, military casualties already amount to 1.4 million, a to which thousands of civilians must be added. Despite the tremendous atrocities perpetrated by Russia, protests against this war in the West are very rare and generally organized by Ukrainian associations. The far left has already made it clear that it doesn't give a damn about the Ukrainians killed by Russia.

This double standard has been made evident once again by the slander campaign against the Jewish state: the government of socialist Pedro Sánchez has repeatedly accused Israel of "genocide" but not once Russia. In the same vein, in December 2023, UN Secretary General António Guterres, a socialist, invoked against Israel an article that he has never invoked against Russia to pressure the Security Council on matters that could "endanger the maintenance of international peace and security". Similarly, recently an independent UN commission accused Israel of "genocide" with a manipulated and shameful report. However, so far no UN official has made the same accusation against Putin's dictatorship.

You don't have to be a fortune teller to understand the reason for this blatant double standard. Russia is not a Jewish state, and that's why some people so easily forget its crimes, while remaining silent when a minister from that criminal regime takes the UN podium to accuse the invaded country of not wanting peace, which is the height of cynicism.

But when we talk about Israel, it doesn't matter that it is a country under attack: it is turned into an aggressor, as Pedro Sánchez has been doing, which is a clear way of whitewashing Hamas terrorism. What happened this week at the UN is yet another example of the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the world, a hatred of Jews that is the reason why some politicians and activists raise their voices so loudly against Israel and at the same time lower their voices or remain silent when it comes to Russia, but then do not want to be called "anti-Semites", when that adjective is the most appropriate to describe those who direct criticisms against Israel that they do not direct at the worst dictatorships.

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Image: United Nations.