Tor Wennesland is the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. For those familiar with the UN, you know what that means: it means he’s one more virulently anti-Israel bureaucrat, just like Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967, and the three members of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Navi Pillay, Miloon Kothari, Chris Sidoti. These people are immune to all appeals for fairness, decency, even common sense when it comes to the Jewish state. They are firmly on the side of the Palestinians, water-carriers for the PA and defenders, even, of the terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A recent tweet from Wennesland deserves to be noted:
Horrified by today’s killing of a Palestinian man, Ammar Mifleh, during a scuffle with an Israeli soldier near Huwarra in the West Bank. My heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family. Such incidents must be fully & promptly investigated, & those responsible held accountable.
Horrified by today’s killing of a Palestinian man, Ammar Mifleh, during a scuffle with an Israeli soldier near Huwarra in the o. West Bank. My heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family. Such incidents must be fully & promptly investigated, & those responsible held accountable.
— Tor Wennesland (@TWennesland) December 2, 2022
Imagine that. During a mere “scuffle” with an innocent Palestinian Arab, Ammar Mefleh (Wennesland spells it “Mifleh”) by name, an Israeli soldier pulled out his gun and murdered – there is no other word for it – Mr. Mefleh.
But that’s not what happened. There was no “scuffle,” but a failed attempt first to murder Israeli civilians and then to kill an Israeli border policeman. Here is what actually happened: “Israel rebukes UN official for referring to terror attack as ‘scuffle,’” by Tovah Lazaroff and Anna Ahronheim, Jerusalem Post, December 3, 2022
An Israel Border Police officer was lightly injured in a stabbing attack that occurred after a Palestinian, identified as Ammar Mefleh, attempted to break into a vehicle with an Israeli couple inside, the Border Police said.
After he realized the car door was locked, he tried to break into it using a stone, before being shot by the driver – an IDF officer on leave.
Mefleh then approached a team of Border Police soldiers and stabbed one of them in the face, lightly injuring him. Graphic footage posted to social media showed another Border Police officer trying to arrest Mefleh as two other Palestinians attempted to pull him away from the officer.
The officer then put Mefleh in a headlock, pulling him away from the other Palestinians until he broke free from the officer’s grasp. The attacker then appeared to grab for the officer’s weapon. At that point the officer pulled his handgun and fired four shots at Mefleh at point black range, killing him.
The wounded officer was evacuated from the scene of the stabbing for medical treatment, and the terrorist’s death was determined at the scene of the attack.
On Saturday night, the officer told Channel 12 he feared that had Mefleh succeeded in grabbing his gun, he would have used it for a terror attack against motorists.
When Mefleh tried to break into a car with an Israeli couple inside, he was intent on harming them with the knife he was carrying. When he discovered that the car door was locked, he tried to break the window with a rock, hoping he could then reach inside, open the door, and stab those in the car. He was the one doing the assaulting. But the Israeli man inside the car turned out to be an IDF soldier on leave, carrying a gun, and he managed to fire that gun at Mefleh, wounding him lightly. No “scuffle” there – only a failed attempt by the Palestinian Arab to murder, with his knife, the Israeli couple inside the car. Had the car not been locked, Mefleh might well have succeeded in stabbing one or both of them before the soldier could have used his own weapon.
Then, still holding his knife, Mefleh approached a group of Israeli Border Police, and stabbed one of them in the face. That’s not a “scuffle,” but a second assault with a deadly weapon by Ammar Mefleh, more successful than his earlier abortive attempt on the couple in the car. And after he had stabbed that first border policeman, another border policeman then managed to put him in a headlock and to pull him away from his fellow Palestinians. Mefleh then tried to grab the soldier’s rifle and at that point, the soldier used his handgun to fire four shots at Mefleh, killing him. As the soldier explained, he was fearful that if Mefleh had managed to get control of the rifle, he would use it against Israeli motorists – Mefleh’s attack took place at the side of a major road.
When Tor Wennesland describes as a “scuffle” what anyone of sense can see was an assault with a deadly weapon – first on the couple inside the locked car, then on the Border Policeman who was stabbed in the face, and then the attempt to take another Border Policeman’s gun from him – he does violence to the truth. A “scuffle” is defined in the dictionary as a “a short, confused fight or struggle at close quarters.” It implies a very brief physical encounter between two or more unarmed antagonists. That’s not what went on here. This was a deliberate assault – no “confusion” about it – by a Palestinian Arab intent on killing Israelis. He went from one target – the couple in the car – to another, the Border Policemen, one of whom he managed to stab in the face. There was nothing “confused” about this assault. Ammar Mefleh knew exactly what he was doing, and in the end, this would-be murderer he got exactly what he deserved.
Now the Israelis – both Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz – have reacted strongly to Wennesland’s “scuffle” remark. They have patiently explained what happened, and why Mefleh’s double assault does not deserve to be dismissed as a mere “scuffle.” Will Tor Wennesland apologize for his remark? No. When it comes to Israel, being a UN bureaucrat means never having to say you’re sorry.
First Class article, should be syndicated to a larger audience.