2002-12-20: U.N.-Tal Becker |
||||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
By Donald H. Harrison Do you think your job is tough? Consider trading yours with Tal Becker. He works at a place where some of the people won't even talk to him, simply because of the country that he is from. And while some other people at his place of employment are willing to have private discussions with him on occasion, and even say nice things, they routinely denounce everything he stands for on public occasions. Why hasn't he quit long ago? Becker believes however hostile some other diplomats at the United Nations are to him as a member of Israel's delegation, the price is worth paying. Sure, there are short-term disappointments, but he is playing for long-term benefits. Becker was in San Diego County for meetings with supporters of the Israel Center at the United Jewish Federation as well as with members of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He discussed his work with Heritage over breakfast on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Meanwhile, Israel was winning one of its rare diplomatic victories at the U.N. Security Council. A resolution was then being drafted, over the objections of Syria, condemning terrorist attacks on Israeli targets in Mombasa, Kenya. The resolution was adopted on Friday by a vote of 14-1, with only Syria in the negative. Becker said the idea that there had to be a fight over even naming Israel in the resolution was "totally outrageous." "The fact that Israelis were targeted, Israelis were killed, and yet you have to debate whether it is permissible or acceptable to have reference to Israel, I think is symptomatic of the entire U.N," he said. The condemnation of terrorism was a clear-cut victory for Israel in a forum where the Jewish state usually measures its victories by its effectiveness in blocking anti-Israel resolutions, or as Becker put it, where "we measure our success by the degree of our failure." When their resolutions fail, said Becker, Arabs and Palestinians are forced to consider the possibility that bilateral negotiations with Israel may be more productive than such international debates. As an attorney for the Israeli delegation, Becker looks carefully at the wording of a variety of important proposals in international law treaties dealing with definitions of terrorism, the international criminal court and other multilateral issues. Having made aliyah to Israel from Australia in 1994, the attorney is more comfortable than some other Israelis analyzing English-language documents. It is not uncommon for foes to suggest that Israel has violated the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of Palestinians. Asked how he responds to them, Becker said: "Israel is proud and wants to be held to the highest standards of international law, and humanitarian law and human rights standards. The standards are not relative; they are universal. They do no depend on the situation. But if you are going to hold Israel to that standard, and you do not hold anyone else to that same standard, particularly our neighbors in the region, then you are really not interested in human rights and justice. What you are really interested in is using human rights and justice as a weapon, and, in that case, the greatest victims are human rights and justice because you undermine them. If you apply justice selectively, then you are really denying justice its proper role." Becker, who is working for a doctorate at Columbia University in addition to his diplomatic assignment, added that "the whole body of law which Israel is accused of violating, the international humanitarian law, is based on one fundamental distinction, between combatants and civilians, because we want to minimize the harm to civilians so combatants have to separate themselves from civilians. "Terrorism is the antithesis of that very notion. Not only do they dress as civilians, not only do they target civilians, but they hide among them. How do you confront that?" Furthermore, he said, by focusing condemnation "on the country which
combats terrorism, rather than on the tactics of the terrorists, they end up
encouraging terrorism. I canąt think of a better thing for a terrorist who
hides and fires from a civilian populated area to achieve than to have a |