De :  Ioan Rosca   
Date :  Samedi 9, Octobre 2004  5:10  
Objet :  Pozitia "Romaniei" ....
3:11 p.m. October 5, 2004 
 
UNITED NATIONS – The United States on Tuesday vetoed an Arab-backed resolution 
that demanded an immediate end to military operations in the northern Gaza Strip 
and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, saying the measure was "lopsided and 
unbalanced" and "absolves terrorists in the Middle East." 
 
Israel launched the operation six days ago after a Palestinian rocket killed two 
children in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. The drive into Gaza has left 68 
Palestinians dead. 
 
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mission of inquiry. 
 
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 in favor, one against, and 
three abstentions – Britain, Germany and Romania. 
 
U.S. Ambassador John Danforth cast the U.S. veto after British and German 
efforts to find compromise language failed. "Once again, the resolution is 
lopsided and unbalanced," Danforth told the council just before voting "no." 
 
"It is dangerously disingenuous because of its many material omissions. Because 
of this lack of balance, because of these omissions, the resolution lacks 
credibility and deserves a 'no' vote," he said. 
 
After the vote, Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali, the only Arab member 
of the council, thanked the resolution's supporters and noted that the measure 
got more than the minimum nine "yes" votes needed for adoption. 
 
Citing the high casualty toll and extensive destruction during the Israeli 
offensive, he said, "It is a sad day for the Palestinians and it is a sad day 
for justice." 
 
Arab nations that introduced the resolution on Monday said they wanted a quick 
vote because of the urgency of the Israeli military operation – the deadliest 
Israeli incursion into Gaza in more than four years of fighting. 
 
The resolution would have condemned "the broad military incursion and attacks by 
the Israeli occupying forces in the area of northern Gaza Strip, including in 
and around the Jabaliya refugee camp, resulting in extensive human casualties 
and destruction and exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation." 
 
The defeated draft demanded "the immediate cessation of all military operations 
in the area of northern Gaza and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces 
from that area." 
 
It called for a cessation of violence, adherence to international humanitarian 
law, and for Israel and the Palestinians to immediately implement the 
long-stalled "road map" to peace backed by the United Nations, the United 
States, the European Union and Russia. 
 
Danforth said the resolution put the blame on Israel "and absolves terrorists in 
the Middle East – people who shoot rockets into civilian areas, people who are 
responsible for killing children." 
 
The United States in the past has vetoed similar resolutions, saying they lacked 
balance by not criticizing Palestinian attacks against Israelis while 
concentrating only on Israeli responses. 
 
Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinians' representative, scoffed at Israel's assertion 
that the military operation was a justified response to the firing of two 
Palestinian rockets from Gaza that killed two children in the southern Israeli 
city of Sderot on Wednesday. 
 
Al-Kidwa told the council on Monday that Israeli reacted to an attack by a 
"rudimentary" rocket by sending 2,000 troops, 100 tanks, more than 100 other 
armored vehicles and bulldozers and helicopter gunships into the strip, focusing 
on the Jebaliya refugee camp. 
 
"Now there are hundreds of Palestinians without shelter as a result of that 
total demolition or partial demolition of their homes, tens of thousands without 
water or electricity and suffering from severe shortages of food and medicine, 
precipitating a genuine humanitarian tragedy," Al-Kidwa said. 
 
Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the Palestinian rocket attacks had become 
more sophisticated and created "an insufferable situation that no country ... 
would tolerate." 
 
The council once again, he said, "had put the victim of terrorism in the dock 
and not the perpetrators."