UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 4 -- Israel, the target of hundreds of critical U.N. resolutions, introduced on Tuesday its first initiative before the 191-member General Assembly in more than a quarter-century, a resolution condemning attacks against Israeli children by Palestinian suicide bombers.
This is a shift in strategy at the United Nations by Israel, which has sought to avoid engaging in a forum that is traditionally sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Israel is also considering pressing the Security Council to consider passing a resolution condemning new suicide attacks against Israeli citizens, Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador to the United Nations, Arye Meckel, said in an interview Tuesday.
The diplomatic campaign reflects a calculation by Israeli diplomats that U.N. members will be hard-pressed to oppose an anti-terrorism resolution. "We are testing the waters," said an Israeli official who asked not to be identified. "We believe that there is less tolerance for terrorism."
But the move places Israel in the awkward position of lending credibility to a body that it has long charged with being irrelevant and unfair to the Israeli cause. It is also runs counter to Israel's standard position that the conflict in the Middle East should be resolved through negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, not by the United Nations.
The Israeli initiative is complicating efforts by the Bush administration to persuade the Palestinian U.N. representative, Nasser al-Kidwa, to reduce the number of resolutions the Palestinians present to the General Assembly. The United States has asked al-Kidwa to consolidate as many as seven resolutions dealing with the chief U.N. relief agency into one large resolution. Al-Kidwa had agreed to reduce the number to four.
"It's up to the Israelis to decide what to do, but we are just saying that resolutions, whether in the Security Council or the General Assembly, dealing with the Middle East don't necessarily contribute to bringing about a peaceful resolution to the conflict," said a State Department official who asked not to be identified.
Meckel said that Israel decided to circulate its draft after Egypt presented a nearly identical resolution last week condemning Israel's treatment of Palestinian children. "We know these G.A. resolutions are not binding. Nevertheless, they do play a role in the court of public opinion," Meckel said in an interview Tuesday. "We feel we cannot sit by idly and display indifference."
Meckel, who presented the draft to a group of European envoys Tuesday, said that Israel wants to force U.N. members to face a stark "dilemma." Either they can vote in favor of the Palestinian and Israeli texts, he said, or they can oppose both. "This is a test case for the U.N. member states. Are they ready to say to us Israeli children are not as important as other children?"
Israel presented its draft resolution Tuesday morning to the General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with children's rights. Israeli diplomats said that they had not decided when to call for a vote on the resolution and left open the possibility of withdrawing it if the Egyptians agreed to withdraw their parallel pro-Palestinian resolution.
Arab diplomats said it is unlikely that Egypt will withdraw the draft. But one European diplomat said that the European Union would try to persuade both countries to withdraw their resolutions and focus on one broad resolution that deals with the rights of children.
Israel circulated its first draft resolution to the General Assembly in December 1976, calling for revival of peace talks with Syria, Jordan and Egypt. But the text was withdrawn after the Palestinians backers offered an amendment to include the Palestine Liberation Organization in the discussions. At the time, the PLO was calling for the destruction of the Israeli state.
Israel has not since put a resolution before the General Assembly. But last December it won support for a Security Council resolution condemning a Nov. 28, 2002, al Qaeda attack that killed three Israeli tourists at the Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Kenya.
