Libya blocks UN Security Council From Condemning Yeshiva Shooting

The UN Security Council, that Bastion of Peace was blocked from condemning the horrible tragedy at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva by Libya. While the students inside prayed, the gunman killed two people at the entrance to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and then entered the first-floor library, spraying the religious students with gunfire from a Kalashnikov rifle, according to the Israeli police.Eight students were butchered.Libya does not believe that this act and acts like it constitute terrorism.

Libya blocks UN council from condemning fresh violence in Mideast

UNITED NATIONS -- For the second time in two months, Libya has blocked the U.N. Security Council from condemning violence and unrest in the Middle East.

The United States had proposed a press statement, which carries less weight than a formal resolution, condemning a day of violence Thursday that included a gunman's attack on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem in which eight people were killed and a deadly ambush of an army patrol near Israel's border with Gaza. But the statement fell short of gaining the unanimous support it needed to be approved.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said such obstruction undermines the council's effectiveness in the region.

"What happened today was clearly a terrorist act," Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters after the council's almost two-hour emergency session Thursday. "We regret that this makes it difficult for the council to contribute positively to developments in this region, but those who blocked this possibility bear responsibility for that."

In closed-door discussion among the 15-nation council's diplomats, Libya insisted that the statement should be "balanced" by including condemnation of Israeli actions in Gaza, a Libyan U.N. representative said after the meeting. Three other nations agreed, but most of the council's members wanted to keep the issues separate, according to council diplomats involved in the negotiations.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, the council's president this month, suggested a compromise by including an expression of deep regret at the loss of civilian life in the conflicts so far, and said he regretted that Libya would not go along.

In late January, Libya blocked the council from expressing concern about the safety of people living along the chaotic Gaza-Egypt border. The council had negotiated for most of the week on how to word a statement originally proposed by Arab nations and initially opposed by the United States. That month, the Libyan U.N. ambassador held the council presidency.

Early last Sunday morning, at the request of the Palestinians and their Arab supporters, the council emerged from a five-hour emergency session to issue a press statement condemning the escalation of fighting in southern Israel and Gaza and urging Israelis and Palestinians "to immediately cease all acts of violence."