USA BLOCKS UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION CALLING FOR INVESTIGATION OF GAZA BORDER VIOLENCE: The United States blocked a UN Security Council statement calling for an investigation of Israel’s use of force against Palestinians who massed on Gaza’s border. The statement proposed on 31 March 2018 called for an investigation of the Israel Defense Forces use of live fire, rubber bullets and other crowd control methods to push back the estimated 30,000 Palestinians in six spots along the border. Some of the Palestinians threw firebombs and rocks, and planted explosives on the border, according to the IDF. “While Jews around the world gathered with their family at the Seder table to celebrate the Passover holiday, the Palestinians sunk to a new deceitful low so that they could use the UN to spread lies about Israel,” said Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. “This shameful exploitation of our holiday will not succeed in stopping us from speaking the truth about the Hamas terror-gatherings that aim to destabilize the region,” he added. Hamas said the lack of a resolution from the Security Council about the border clashes due to the USA rejection showed that Washington is “fully biased” for Israel. (JTA)