The US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Friday she agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that the UN is biased against Israel, though she would not go as far as to describe the global body as antisemitic.
In an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, the US Ambassador was asked about Netanyahu’s speech at the UN and about her reaction to his accusing the UN of being antisemitic.
“Let me just say, we have raised concerns consistently of an unfair bias in the UN system as it relates to Israel. We have, I think, an inordinate number of meetings related to Israel compared to other regions in the world that – where we have sometimes even more problems, like Sudan is an example,” she replied.
“So I think the Prime Minister is right in the sense that there is an unfair focus on Israel. I will not comment on antisemitism. I have no doubt that there are individuals in the UN system that might – or among Member States that that might apply to. I would not apply it to the entire UN system,” added Thomas-Greenfield.
Asked how concerned she is about the threat of an escalation between Israel and Iran, Thomas-Greenfield said, “The President, of course, has made clear that we do not want to see the situation in the Middle East escalate. We don’t want to see a full-blown war in the Middle East. So yes, we are concerned about the situation. We have just urged the Iranians, who have been proactively engaged with supporting anti-Israel elements that they should cease those actions. But Israel has a right to self-defense. And we have been clear about Israel’s right to defend itself should it be directly attacked by the Iranians”.
She was also asked about the US proposal, endorsed by France and other countries, for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, which was presented before Netanyahu’s arrival in New York. Netanyahu initially said he rejected the ceasefire, but later clarified that Israel “shares the aims of the US-led initiative”.
Thomas-Greenfield replied that the US hopes to get “to a cessation of hostilities that would allow for hostages to be returned to their families, assistance to be provided directly to Palestinians in Gaza, for Israelis along the border with Lebanon to return to their homes in safety, and for Lebanese who are living on that border to return safely. So those efforts continue as we speak. And we continue to be hopeful that they will bear fruit.”
“We also have engaged with the Israelis, with others on the ground to ensure that humanitarian aid gets through to the people of Gaza. This is the highest priority of the US government. And as I have said to my colleagues on a regular basis here, we are the only country with diplomats on the ground working on this every single day. Israel does have a responsibility to ensure that humanitarian assistance is allowed in. And this is an issue that we raised with them on a regular basis. The UN has a special reconstruction and engagement representative who has been meeting with the Israelis on this issue on a regular basis. And we are meeting with others in the region to ensure that we can get the needed humanitarian assistance on the ground to Palestinians,” she added.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)