UN chief: Calls to destroy Israel are totally unacceptable

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is on a three-day visit to Israel pledges Monday to spare no effort to ensure Israel's security, saying calls to destroy Israel were "totally unacceptable." He stressed that those who call for Israel's destruction peddle in a "form of modern anti-Semitism."

Guterres met Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu presented the U.N. chief with intelligence illustrating Iran's accelerated moves in the region, which Israel believes could drag the entire Middle East into war, and warned that Iran was turning Syria into a "base of military entrenchment as part of its declared goal to eradicate Israel. This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the U.N. should not accept."

Another issue discussed during the meeting was Israel's criticism of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's peacekeeping mission, which is up for renewal next week.

Israel has repeatedly warned that UNIFIL falls short of cracking down on illegal arms trafficking in Lebanon, mainly arms shipments to Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, whose stockpiles of rockets and missiles pose a direct threat to Israel.

"I think the most pressing problem we face regards Hezbollah and Syria," Netanyahu said after welcoming Guterres to his office.

Referring to Security Council Resolution 1701 that set the terms for the cease-fire that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the prime minister noted that UNIFIL has "not even reported on one of the tens of thousands of weapons smuggling into Lebanon for Hezbollah, contrary to 1701."

Guterres said he would "do everything in my capacity to make sure that UNIFIL fully meets its mandate."

He also said the he understands Israel's security concerns, and that the "idea, intention or will to destroy the State of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective."

The prime minister also urged Guterres to rid the United Nations of its anti-Israel bias.

"There is no question that we've had a troubled relationship with the U.N. I think it has an absurd obsession with Israel, flagrantly discriminatory tactics. You don't have to be the Israeli prime minister to understand that, and I think people of good faith and common sense understand that," Netanyahu said.

"The mandate of the U.N. was to advance peace and security and international cooperation, and this is something that we seek to do, but I think objectively we can say that the U.N. has failed when it comes to Israel to live up to this mandate.

"The U.N. is mandated to preserve world heritage, but UNESCO, a world body, time and again makes a mockery of that heritage most absurdly when it denies the connection, 3,000 years old, of the Jewish people to our eternal capital, Jerusalem. The U.N. is mandated to pursue peace, but it allows Palestinian hate speech to flourish in its institutions," he said.

Guterres said that U.N. "member states are sovereign states; members states define their positions based on their interests, their values, their convictions. As secretary general of the United Nations, I believe it's my duty to be simultaneously an honest broker and a messenger for peace. And to be an honest broker means to be impartial. To be an honest broker means that all countries must be treated equally."

Commenting in the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process he said, "I've been expressing my opposition, for instance, to the settlement activity but [also a] clear condemnation of terrorism, violence and incitement and the understanding of the difficulties created by the separation between the West Bank and Gaza. So there is here a number of complexities that require a strong wish for peace but understanding that it will be a complex political process and once again my feeling that it would be good in parallel to that political process to have a dividend for peace in which of course Israel has achieved in its economic development extraordinary results but in which the Palestinian people with also be able to live better in the economic and social dimensions."

Earlier Monday, Guterres met with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Military Intelligence Director Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai and other senior defense officials.

Lieberman also broached the issue of Hezbollah's violations of Resolution 1701, and Iran's efforts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and Lebanon, Israel's neighbors to the north.

"Hezbollah uses civilian homes to in the villages and towns along the [Israel-Lebanon] border to hide various means of warfare, including missiles and rockets aimed at Israel," he said.

"The Lebanese government and the people of South Lebanon must know that Israel will respond forcibly during a conflict in which missiles and rockets are fired at its citizens."

Lieberman further told Guterres that "Iran is trying to establish a new reality in Syria and change the geo-strategic balance in the region in a way that will affect Israel, and we have no intention of allowing it.

"Iran plans to build air and naval bases in Syria, bring over thousands of Shiite mercenaries to the area and create a corridor from Iran, through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon, which will enable it to smuggle sophisticated weapons [to the area] and to establish Shiite hegemony that will threaten the entire region and first and foremost Israel. This prospect is intolerable as far as Israel is concerned. We are determined to prevent any threat to the Israeli public."

On Monday afternoon, Guterres met with the families of Ethiopian Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Hisham al-Sayed, both suffering from mental health issues, crossed into the Gaza Strip voluntarily in 2014 and 2015 and are believed to have been captured by Hamas.

Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, who is accompanying Guterres during his visit, has asked the secretary general to use his influence to secure the two's safe return to Israel.

Guterres is scheduled to visit U.N. facilities in Gaza Wednesday. Mengistu's mother pleaded with him "not to leave Gaza without proof of life from my son and without demanding Hamas release him immediately." The family said their son's case was "a humanitarian issue of the highest order."

The secretary general said he would look into the matter personally, as well as instruct the relevant U.N. agencies to prioritize the issue.

Lieberman also urged Guterres to assist in Israel's efforts to retrieve the remains of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, killed in the Gaza Strip in separate battles during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.

"Hamas has our soldiers and I expect the international community and the U.N. to pressure Hamas on the issue," he said.

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