Hillel Neuer appeared on Newsmax to discuss the U.N.’s latest biased remarks against Israel and the organization’s moral decline.
António Guterres {on tape}: And the ceasefire is an absolute must. As I said, the level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my mandate as Secretary General of the United Nations. I’ve never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months.
Newsmax: That is the head of the United Nations making arguably his strongest remarks against Israel and the war with Hamas in Gaza, as you take a live look in Gaza at this moment. Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon responding, saying “it is disappointing to see the U.N. advocate for a ceasefire without mentioning the hostages and without condemning Hamas. A ceasefire cannot - and will not - take place so long as our remaining hostages taken from us on October 7th, remain in captivity in Gaza.”
Newsmax: Hillel Neuer is the executive director of the United Nations Watch organization. Welcome.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you.
Newsmax: I want to ask you, world leaders will gather in New York later this month for the U.N. General Assembly. Israel will surely be a huge topic there. And it appears the anti-Israel rhetoric is already being led by the head of the U.N. That’s got to be very disappointing to hear.
Hillel Neuer: Look, the United Nations was founded by the anti-Hitler alliance. We just marked, last year, the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but the U.N. has lost its moral purpose. Someone like Guterres has almost never spoken out about some of the world’s worst dictatorships. China, a regime that is repressing one-fifth of the world’s population, is sitting on the Human Rights Council. The Islamic regime in Iran was chair last year of the U.N. Human Rights Council Social Forum, and Guterres never speaks about that, so I think there is an upside-down morality going on here. I will just mention your quote of Guterres saying that he has never seen such destruction. It is notable that this is something Guterres only does when it comes to Israel. When he speaks about other conflicts, there is never this comparison being made about what he has seen in his lifetime. And it is false. The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to an estimated 172,000 people killed, 500,000 estimated casualties, far greater than even the Hamas propaganda numbers. The civil war in Ethiopia from a few years ago has claimed anywhere from 160,000 deaths to 600,000 killed and 875,000 refugees. In Yemen, 377,000 killed in the past several years. So, it’s false what he is saying, and he is doing it to point the finger at Israel when, in fact, Hamas is to blame. Hamas launched the conflict on October 7th. Hamas embedded hundreds of miles of terror tunnels under homes, hospitals, and schools. They are responsible for the casualties there. They started the war, and they’re the ones he should be blaming, but the U.N. is not blaming them.
Newsmax: Just a quick follow-up to your point. Why do you think it’s never mentioned by people who are calling for a ceasefire that you have a population that is unwillingly embedded with these people? They don’t operate the same way the IDF does but you never hear that practice condemned.
Hillel Neuer: That’s right. I mean, when you do make comparisons, when comparisons are made, it’s essential, of course, to understand that this conflict is not like most others - I am not aware of another conflict where the main warring party has embedded all of its terrorist forces underground. They built these for about two decades, you know. The United States gave a billion dollars in the last three years, the Biden administration, to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that’s supposed to take care of Palestinians. But when the international community and the U.S. taxpayers were giving billions of dollars of cement to build homes, hospitals, and schools in Gaza because UNRWA teaches them that their home is not in Gaza, they use the cement instead to build hundreds of miles of terror tunnels. No one talks about it. And the reason is because they want to maintain this false narrative that Israel is to blame for civilian casualties. The truth is Hamas seeks the civilian casualties for the propaganda value. They’re doing it deliberately, and sadly, the U.N. and other phony human rights groups like Amnesty International are all too eager to play along and play kind of the puppets for the Hamas narrative.
Newsmax: Innocent civilians still remain hostage in Gaza by Hamas, even at this moment. I wanted to bring this up about the U.N. Secretary-General had more statements here on this. Since this war started, the Biden-Harris administration has been calling for a two-state solution. We’ve seen this touted on social media from other political correspondents as well. Here’s how the U.N. chief responded to that, watch.
António Guterres {on tape}: I think it’s not only viable, I think it’s the only solution. Is the one-state solution viable? What does it mean a one-state solution? It means that you have five million Palestinians living there without any rights in a state. Is it possible? Can we accept an idea similar to what we have in South Africa in the past?
Newsmax: So you hear him mention South Africa, seemingly comparing Israel to what was apartheid in South Africa. How do you respond to this, and also knowing the fact that we haven’t heard either side confirm that they’re even interested in a two-state solution?
Hillel Neuer: Well, look, anyone who’s making the comparison with South Africa is acting in bad faith, to put it mildly. Israel is a country that has at least two million Arab Muslim citizens. I’ve just been to Jerusalem. You see Arab doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, managers of hotels and whatnot. They’re in the Knesset - in the parliament. They’re in the Supreme Court. None of this happened in apartheid South Africa. Arabs can vote and be elected. So, any comparison of the nature is absolutely false. Now, regarding the territories, Gaza, the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, these are territories that the Palestinians were given for - largely for autonomy, and you saw what Hamas did. Israel had a very difficult pull-out. Israel pulled out all of its civilians who were living in Gaza, all of its soldiers in 2005, handed it to the Palestinians. They turned it into a horrific terror state. A nihilistic terror state. That’s what they did. So, it was the hope of many Israeli Prime Ministers, Rabin, Sharon, to have the Palestinians rule themselves, and we’re still waiting for it. Israelis don’t want to rule Palestinians in Gaza, but sadly, they keep turning their territories, when they have free reign, into terror states - their goal is to destroy Israel. That’s never going to work if we want peace.
Newsmax: Well, a very important conversation. Hillel Neuer joining us with that. Hillel, good to see you. Thank you for that.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you.
