By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 19 -- After UN Security Council president Nestor Osorio read out a press statement about the killing of seven Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative Haim Waxman took to the UN microphone and said Hezbollah and Al Quds were responsible.
Inner City Press asked for a bit more information. He said he couldn't say more, but the attacks bore all the fingerprints of Hezbollah, citing the killing of 85 in Argentina 18 years ago.
But when Bulgaria's Permanent Representative Stefan Tafrov spoke, he was asked if he yet knew who did it. No, he said.
He praised the Security Council for issuing its press statement so quickly, noting that when Bulgaria was on the Security Council in 2002-03, during a month he was president it took two weeks to negotiate a statement about Saddam Hussein.
Noting that the increase in speed is due to the Security Council never trying to say who is responsible -- since a notably error of blaming the Madrid bombings on ETA not Al Qaeda -- Inner City Press asked the Bulgarian Ambassador if such lack of attribution is useful. He again said, it is too early to say who is responsible.
Nor would he or Osorio say which Council member was responsible for drafting the statement. Late Wednesday, Inner City Press was reliably informed that Germany had been asked to draft it; the source said that Germany is now "always eager on matters concerning Israel." But Thursday, no one would confirm authorship or initial drafting. And so it goes at the UN.
