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UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer joined Fox Business with Cheryl Casone to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East and the upcoming session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Cheryl Casone, Fox Business: Joining me now is UN Watch Executive Director, Hillel Neuer. Hillel, your reaction to all of the breaking news out of the Middle East this morning?
Hillel Neuer: Well, first, the condolences to the families of the six who were murdered in a horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem, where Palestinian terrorists opened fire on innocent civilians, including the rabbi and others who were going to study in a Jewish Rabbinical College. They had the holy books in their hands as they were slaughtered by machine guns. The attack this morning - six dead, six seriously injured - underscores what is happening, that the Islamic Republic of Iran has terror proxies, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad operating from Gaza and Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, that have as their mission to murder innocent civilians. That is what terrorists do.
The Houthis, as you indicated, they have sent a drone a thousand miles away. You know, Yemen is a place where people are starving. They don’t have food in Yemen, and the Houthis are spending their resources to send a drone, as you can see on the camera, firing at an airport a thousand miles away - a civilian airport in southern Israel. And the Houthis are a terrorist group, armed, funded, trained by Iran, and their slogan is, “Death to Israel, Death to America, Damn the Jews, Allahu Akbar, Allah is great.” So they’re as jihadist, antisemitic, and anti-American as they get. That’s the Houthis. Amazingly, Israel was able to target several of their leaders just about a week ago in an extraordinary attack, and it shows that the long arm of Israel can reach a thousand miles away, whether it’s Iran or whether it’s the Houthis. And now it’s Hamas’s turn to answer the president. President Trump should be commended. He is trying to release the hostages, end the war, and all of this can happen with those two things. If Hamas today releases the hostages, lays down their arms, the war is over. That’s what we need to see.
Cheryl Casone: But unfortunately, though, if you listen to the back channeling that’s coming out of Hamas, they want the Israelis to leave Gaza, and the Israelis have made it clear they are not doing that. And all of this is unfolding as the 80th annual United Nations General Assembly actually kicks off tomorrow. That’s happening right here in New York, the first day of high-level general debate begins on the 23rd. Countries like the U.K., France, Canada, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Malta - they’re all expected to recognize a Palestinian state. U.K. leaders have suggested they may not recognize Palestine if Israel and Hamas reach a ceasefire. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussing options for a U.N.-endorsed Gaza reconstruction plan. Hillel, what are you expecting? And in particular, what do you make of this, our allies backing a Palestinian state? Doesn’t that fly in the face of what the United States is trying to accomplish here?
Hillel Neuer: Well, it does. And let’s recall that the U.N. General Assembly that’s about to open in New York City - the main event, as you said, will be the 23rd when the president and other heads of state will arrive - in many cases, it’s a catwalk for dictators. We’re going to have the dictator of Turkey, the dictator of Qatar, the dictatorship from Iran, from Syria. So it’s a catwalk for dictators. And what we don’t need is our democracies making things worse.
As you indicated, President Trump, his envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Rubio are working very hard to get the hostages released to end the war. What Britain and France and the others are threatening to do only rewards Hamas. It encourages them to be rejectionists. It does not encourage them to release the hostages. It tells them you get a prize if you invade a neighboring country, break a ceasefire, massacre 1,200 people, commit mass rape, you get the reward that France, the U.K., Canada and other democracies say, we will recognize Palestine as a state. Well, this is before, you know, the Palestinian Authority hasn’t dismantled Hamas. They haven’t stopped paying payments to the terrorists. You know, the Palestinian Authority, which is supposedly the moderate in this picture, they’re the ones who do ‘pay to slay’ - they make payments to the families of terrorists. If you commit murder against Israelis - like what happened this morning in Jerusalem, and if the terrorist gets captured and put in prison - then the families get a pension for life. You get rewarded for terrorism.
So the democracies should not be undermining President Trump’s efforts to bring peace and end the war. Instead, what they’re doing is they’re rewarding Hamas. They’re saying you get a prize. And under international law, this is completely bogus. You know, in first-year international law, you learn that to be a state, you need defined territory, effective government, and they have none of these attributes.
