António Guterres: 184 harsh words for Israel and 63 warmer words for Russia

Portuguese Socialist António Guterres delivered his final speech as Secretary-General before the UN General Assembly yesterday.

UN Secretary General's shameful attitude towards dictators Putin and Lukashenko
The infamy of the UN: it invokes against Israel the article that it has never invoked against Russia

His speech (which can be heard on the UN website, which also offers an AI-generated transcript) has sparked understandable outrage in Israel and Ukraine due to a highly unfortunate statement Guterres made regarding the war between Israel and Hamas, describing the Israeli counter-offensive against that terrorist organization as "an onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza, with a scale of killing and destruction, and like anything I've witnessed in my years as secretary general." From Israel, journalist Yair Lapid responded to Guterres with this message, which has already been shared by over 6,000 people and liked by more than 24,000 on Twitter:

"According to even the most critical reports, Guterres, 70,000 people were killed in the war in Gaza, a large proportion of them Hamas terrorists. During your years as Secretary-General: more than 600,000 people were massacred or starved to death in Ethiopia. 377,000 died in Yemen — that figure appears in reports issued by your own organization. 150,000 were killed in Sudan and 12 million were displaced. Hundreds of thousands have been buried in Ukraine. You didn’t see it? They died before your eyes. You simply looked the other way, because the Jews couldn’t be blamed."

Guterres’s farewell speech was yet another display of the ideological bias that has characterized his tenure at the UN. One need only review the transcript of his speech to confirm two facts: Guterres devoted 184 harsh words to Israel regarding Gaza, but only 63 milder words to Russia regarding the invasion of Ukraine.

In the section dedicated to Gaza, Guterres placed special emphasis on the "devastating situation in the occupied Palestinian territory", the aforementioned assertion that sees there "an unprecedented scale of death and destruction", and also leveled accusations of "ethnic cleansing" and even "genocide." These grave accusations gave way to a display of tepidness in the subsequent section, once there was no longer any need to level charges against Jews.

When referring to Ukraine, Guterres made no mention of genocide or ethnic cleansing, even though that is precisely what Russia has been perpetrating in Ukrainian territories occupied since February 2022. After mentioning Russia, Guterres spoke of "a brutal war in blatant violation of the charter," but immediately proceeded to display a false equivalence: "Civilians continue to be killed far from the front lines, mainly in Ukraine, but also more recently in parts of Russia." This was a shameful statement in which Guterres equated systematic Russian attacks—and even massacres of civilians with their hands bound—with Ukrainian strikes on strategic targets within Russia, the invading country, the one that started this unprovoked war, and the one that, to this day, retains its permanent seat and veto power on the UN Security Council.

The Portuguese socialist added a second paragraph referring to attacks "threatening food and energy supplies and supply chains globally." Guterres did not specify whether he was referring to Ukraine or Russia. Unlike his reference to Gaza, Guterres did not speak of a "devastating situation" regarding the daily suffering of the Ukrainian people amidst Russian attacks on the civilian population. It is worth recalling that, according to UN data published a month ago, 16,874 civilians have died in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including 820 children. In this war, the UN speaks only of civilian casualties, whereas regarding Gaza, it conflates civilians with Hamas terrorists, relying on figures provided by that terrorist organization through the so-called "Gaza Ministry of Health."

Referring to Guterres's farewell speech, Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of United Nations Watch—a Swiss-based NGO that monitors UN activity—noted this morning:

"In my 22 years at United Nations Watch, I have never witnessed a Secretary-General legitimize lies, propaganda, and antisemitism on this scale. António Guterres has appeased tyrants and terrorists. He has disgraced his office. He is the worst Secretary-General in U.N. history."

A characterization I fully share.

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Photo: UN. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.