From Human Rights Voices:
The UN Secretary-General has appointed as his top counter-terrorism official a man who says Hamas is not a terrorist organization.
Frenchmen Jean-Paul Laborde will become the Executive Director of the UN's Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate. His official job description is to "carry out the policies of the [Security Council Counter-Terrorism] Committee, conduct expert assessments of each Member State and facilitate counter-terrorism technical assistance to countries." His unofficial job description will be to undermine Israel and America's abilities to act in self-defense and to stymie the war against Islamic extremists.
Here is Laborde in his own words as reported by the Philippine news agency, April 14, 2010: "Hamas is not a terrorist organization in the United Nations...we should talk to Hamas..." Laborde also said that terrorism is rooted in the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his words: "once the Israeli-Palestinian issue is resolved, the threat of terrorism will diminish."
So Laborde is on board with the familiar UN narrative that goes like this: 'if it weren't for Israeli actions allegedly taken in self-defense, Palestinian terror would disappear. All the nations of the world are best-served by isolating, demonizing and neutering Israel, because Israel is at the heart of the terrorist phenomenon everywhere. Shackle Israel and terrorism around the world will dissipate.'
In fact, Islamic terrorism is driven by a hatred of freedom, of democracy and of tolerance - whether in Jerusalem, New York, London or Mumbai. Nevertheless, on one count a UN counter-terrorism chief who has no understanding of the unmitigated hatred motivating a terrorist organization like Hamas makes sense. The UN still has no definition of terrorism because the 56 Islamic member states of the UN continue to insist on an exemption clause for killing Israelis and Americans who get in the way of "liberation" and "self-determination." The moral ignorance of Laborde will fit right in.
