Very little that the United (Arab) Nations does strikes me as surprising any longer.  I expect the worst from it and I’m never disappointed.

But this week, United (Arab) Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, did pronounce such a doozy that even I was caught off guard.

Israel, Arbour told the Jerusalem Post, could be considered deserving of more blame for its actions in the Lebanon war than Hizbullah.

Yes, it’s true, Arbour argues that Israel is the true villain of the 34-day Hizbullah-Israeli conflict earlier this year. 

Forget the reasons, Arbour argues, why Israel killed civilians versus the reasons why Hizbullah kills innocents.  “When you kill civilians virtually each time [in a military attack], at some point you have to ask yourself, ‘wasn’t that foreseeable that so many would be killed?’”

According to her High self, “It is a small distinction as to whether you desire the result, or you foresee it as virtually certain and you do not care.  In terms of culpability there is not a lot of difference between recklessness and intent.”

I beg to differ.  

The way I see it is this: Hizbullah burrows itself into innocent civilian population centers – including hospitals – with the very intent of using its own innocents as human shields.  Hizbullah then strikes deliberately at Israeli civilian targets.  Hizbullah makes zero pretenses that it even wants to hit Israeli military targets.  Its sole aim is Israeli civilians.

The only choice that Israel has is to allow its own civilians to die unimpeded, or to strike back where the terrorist devils are based – i.e. in civilian areas.

Moreover, who is Arbour to judge that Israel does “not care” about the civilians it kills.  I can find no nation in the world – with the possible exception of the United States – that cares as much as does Israel about the civilian losses of its enemies.  If Israel didn’t care about civilians, it most certainly could have used its enormous air power to flatten Lebanon – without having to sacrifice any of Israel’s precious ground troops.

As Golda Meir told Anwar Saddat, “We can forgive you for killing our sons.  But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.”  Does anyone recall similar statements from any enemy of Israel?

Madam Commissioner, you have no business serving in the post that you do when you can’t make more than a “small distinction” between the actions of Israel and those of Hizbullah.

The fact that you went on in your remarks to the Jerusalem Post to blame much of the human rights problem in Gaza on the “policies and practices” of Israel seals the deal.  You, Louise Arbour, are an anti-Semite.

Welcome to the House of Bnai Haman.

Louise Arbour was formerly a Canadian Supreme Court justice.  She was appointed United (Arab) Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in February 2004.  She succeeded Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed by a bomb set off in August 2003 at the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

Arbour made her mark on the world stage as chief prosecutor for tribunals that probed human rights abuses in Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda. 

A native of Montreal, the 59-year-old attended convent school.  Her parents owned a hotel chain.  She, herself, is the mother of three.

To contact Arbour about her induction into the House of Bnai Haman, please write:

(Dis)Honorable Louise Arbour

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

UNOG-OHCHR

1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Ph: 41-22-917-9000

Email (unconfirmed):  larbour@ohchr.org