UN Secretary General Calls Out Israel For Not Deescalating Tensions Hours After Iran Ballistic Missile Attack

Danny Danon is Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and on Wednesday he sat motionless and in disbelief as Secretary General António Guterres admonished the nation state and terrorist entities for not deescalating tensions in the Middle East.

This happened hours after Israel witnessed the largest ballistic missile strike in the history of the planet.

HEBRON, WEST BANK - Many rockets, fired from Iran, are seen over Jerusalem from Hebron, West Bank on October 1, 2024. The Israeli army announced that missiles were fired from Iran towards Israel and sirens were heard across the country, especially in Tel Aviv. (Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel Shocked By UN Comments

It came hours before the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days. 

"Exactly one week ago, I briefed the Security Council about the alarming situation in Lebanon," Guterres told delegates. "Since then, things have gone from bad to much, much worse.

"As I told the Council last week, the Blue Line has seen tensions for years.  But since October, exchanges of fire have expanded in scope, depth, and intensity.

"I stated that the almost daily exchanges of fire by Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups in Lebanon and the Israel Defense Forces are in repeated violation of Security Council resolution 1701."

FYI: Adopted in 2006, Resolution 1701 continues to be about ending hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, with the UN Security Council calling for a permanent ceasefire to be based on the creation of a buffer zone.

Jewish worshippers pray along the Western Wall inside the old city of Jerusalem on September 29, 2024. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP) (Photo by JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel And Hezbollah Not The Same

Israel rolled back from Lebanon after the 2006 war, but Hezbollah has continued to arm itself and fire rockets at a whim over the border into Israel. Since the October 2023 incursion by Hamas into Israel, Hezbollah has supported its Iranian proxy brothers by firing more rockets into Israel.

And Israel has retaliated.

But that's the point. Israel has retaliated against an organization that attacked it anew a year ago and has lately stepped up those attacks. 

A nation-state protecting itself against terrorist acts. 

So, there exists no equivalency between these two entities – moral or literal – that Guterres made at the top of his speech.

Ambassador Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

UN Criticizes ‘Ones Defending Our People’

"Imagine during World War II and while the Allies were fighting back against Germany, the UN would have asked both sides to de-escalate," Danon said on FOXNews on Wednesday. 

"The UN was not in place back then, but it was formed exactly for such scenarios. And what we see today is when you have a crisis, instead of standing with the side that is defending itself, the UN is doing exactly the opposite.

"They criticize us. The ones defending our people…"

As a matter of fact, Guterres did eventually get around to mentioning Iran and the 180 or so ballistic missiles it fired on Israel on Tuesday.  

A full 28 paragraphs into his speech, Guterres eventually condemned Iran's attack on Israel.

But, before that, he made sure he repeated Iran's reasons for bombing Israel. He repeated that Iran's attack was "a response to the killings of Hassan Nasrallah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp commander Abbas Nilforoushan last week -- as well as that of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July."

Israel Sanctions Secretary General

Got it. 

So, kill terrorists – including ones from the group responsible for the bombing of the American marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 – and that explains Iran's bombing of Israeli civilians.

Israel wasn't having any of this on Wednesday.

Soon after Guterres was finished gasbagging, the Israeli government took action against him.

He is now a persona non grata and is prohibited from entering Israel.