Israeli Ambassador to UN: 'Israel Is World’s Most Isolated Country'

Al-Manar'

21/07/2010 Outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev told American journalists on Monday that Israel is “the most isolated, lonely country in the world,” and that the biggest threat to its existence is not Iranian nuclear proliferation, but international attempts to delegitimize it.

Shalev told an Israel Project luncheon in Washington that threats to Israel’s right to defend itself constitute the “first challenge” of the Zionist entity, according to The Washington Times.

Shalev cited Iran and tensions with the Palestinians as other significant problems, but particularly highlighted the international community’s actions toward Israel as being potentially detrimental to the country’s future.

She specifically cited European court prosecutions of Israeli officials for alleged human rights offenses and UN efforts to single out Israeli conduct for reprimand.

Shalev said that as sanctions resolutions at the UN put international pressure on Iran, Israel’s biggest threat is now those who question Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, the Washington Times reported.

Israel Project president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi told The Jerusalem Post she felt Shalev’s remarks had been on point.

“Iran has been the No. 1 issue in the pro-Israel community for many years, but right now there is something of a sigh of relief that the world has come to a deeper understanding that Iran is not just Israel’s threat, it is the world’s threat,” Mizrahi said, citing sanction developments in the US, UN and Europe.

“What [Shalev] was saying was that everyone at the UN in theory supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but when it’s actualized, they stop supporting it in many cases,” Mizrahi said, citing the May 31 Gaza flotilla incident as an example. “I think [Shalev] is right. I think that this is a major problem, and we’re deeply, deeply concerned about it.”

At a departing reception held for Shalev last week in New York by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, praised her efforts at the world body. Rice told attendees that she would “continue US efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of Israel – including and especially at the United Nations.”

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