Thursday 16 October 2008

UN: d'Escoto Brockmann hugs Ahmedinejad and says he loves Israel

Source: TJP

With great Christian charity the man told TJP that he loves Israel (nobody needs to take what he says at face value) but refuses to criticize Ahmedinejad when he compares Israel to a cesspool and calls for its destruction. He brings even more discredit on the United Nations.

"The head of the UN General Assembly claims he was slandered by "irresponsible" suggestions that he hates Israel.

President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, an ordained Catholic priest, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview Tuesday that he loves Israel and believes the Jewish people "have suffered more perhaps in time than any other people."

"I don't hate any country, but Israel I happen to love," d'Escoto said.

The 75-year-old Nicaraguan, a former diplomat for the Sandinista government, has been sharply criticized in the past weeks for hugging Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad moments after he gave a speech to the UN in which he described Israel as a "cesspool."

D'Escoto has also refused to condemn Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel be "wiped off the map."

He told the Post he "did not like" the comments, but said he believed Iran's antipathy toward Israel stemmed not from anti-Semitism but from the political dispute over the Palestinian issue.

"I don't pretend to be infallible, but I don't perceive that, for example, from Iran they would be anti-Jew," d'Escoto said. "That position of the Iranian government is on account of what they consider to be the bad treatment for the Palestinians."

D'Escoto dodged questions on whether Iran's pursuit of a nuclear capability threatened Israel. He instead said he believed the US had "no moral authority" with regard to nuclear proliferation. (...)

"He should stick to the real chores of the GA president and not give a partisan point of view," said Ambassador Daniel Carmon, chargé d'affaires at the Israeli mission. "If he is a really good friend of Israel, he would criticize a [UN] member state for making comments that another state should be wiped off the map."

Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, who said in September she felt d'Escoto was an "Israel-hater," was not available for comment because of Succot.

A spokeswoman for the mission said Shalev would stick by her earlier comments regarding d'Escoto.

In an earlier interview with the Post, Shalev said she felt d'Escoto had "hijacked" his position as General Assembly president by using it as a bully pulpit for his personal opinions.

In his opening speech to the UN in September, d'Escoto made thinly veiled attacks on the US and other permanent members of the Security Council for "casually ignoring" the will of "95% of the organization's members."

UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann hugged Ahmadinejad

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

acvhndjjypcpMr Brockman is not recognised by the Vatican and casnnot be described as other than an ex-catholic priest, indeed he is probably automatically excommunicated. In rightly deploring what the present Pope calls the sin of anti-semitism we should not fall into anti-catholicism.

Enzo said...

100% agree with Anonymous!