A supposed independent Board of Inquiry will look into the cases of U.N. agencies hit by artillery during the Gaza conflict, as well as instances in which weaponry was found on United Nations premises, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday at the Security Council.

He also questioned the “proportionality” of Israel’s response to rockets fired from Gaza.

He ran through the standard routine of understanding Israel’s need to defend itself “from rockets above and tunnels below” but “the scale of the destruction in Gaza has left deep questions about proportionality,” he said.

He is correct.

Any normal country would have flattened an enemy for shooting missiles into its territory and threatening to fire on planes at a country’s international airport.

Ban also called for “long-term stability in Gaza,” which is a good move except that he thinks it requires “addressing the underlying causes of the conflict” an end to the occupation that has grinded on for nearly half a century, a full lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and effectively addressing Israel’s legitimate security concerns.”

“Long-term stability” in Gaza existed since the Six-Day War in 1967, when Egypt was delighted to get of the impoverished hell-hole. Gaza Arabs experienced two decades of unprecedented economic growth with the freedom to travel back and forth from Israel.

JTA contributed to this report.

12:25pm Another false alarm rocket alert was heard in a community in the Eshkol region.

Apparently this alert was not the result of a rocket launch, but an actual false alarm accidentally triggered by a system tech. We forgive him.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Gaza and the rocket-battered Tuesday, but his heart clearly was with his hope for a “one Palestine” that unites Hamas and Fatah with joint supervision of goods moving in and out of Gaza.

“We stand by you. The international community supports your government’s efforts to assume the security and governance responsibilities in Gaza,” he said after meeting with Gaza officials.

He also visited Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha and Nirim, targets of Hamas tunnel terrorists, and he toured the remains one of the tunnels with IDF officials.

Ban didn’t connect the dots.

“This is a great opportunity to unite the West Bank and Gaza under one Palestinian leadership,” he said. “My visit today to the school and to Gaza has reinforced my conviction that there is no time to lose. There can be no peace in the Middle East, no security for Israel, while the crisis in Gaza festers.”

He did not acquit Gaza terrorists of all guilt and added, “I repeat here in Gaza: the rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups must end.”

He said he was “shocked and alarmed by the underground tunnels which have been used for penetration for terrorist purposes. Nobody should live under constant threat or fear by these rockets and the penetrating alarming underground tunnels.”

Ban did his best to show sorrow for terror victims in Israel as Gazans who have been caught between their own terrorist regime and IDF retaliation.

But the bottom line, as expected, is that lifting the “senseless blockade” and addressing the underlying issues “is the only way – a viable option, so that the two peoples can enjoy peace and harmony and security.”

His visit follows by several days the “donors” conference in Cairo, where more than $5 billion was pledged to “re-build” Gaza.”

Ban said last week this will be the “last time” that aid will pour into Gaza, where Hamas has repeated used funds to feed its stockpile of weapons rather than feed its hapless resident.

A sign that the Ban called the “build-destroy, build-destroy cycle” is not about to end is that aid is going into Gaza without Hamas agreeing to give up its missiles.

The United States is coughing up more than $200 million for Gaza, and Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked the State Dept. Tuesday, “If you’re going to give them the money without a guarantee of – that hostilities aren’t going to start again, I’m wondering why you just don’t throw it on a bonfire or something.”

Spokeswoman Jen Pskai replied dodged the question, saying only, “We want to see Gaza reconstructed, and we believe that the people of Gaza have a vast array of needs… There’s a desire in the international community to see a serious approach to a lasting ceasefire. “

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press secretary hastily called The Jewish Press Monday night to announce that Ban will visit rocket-battered communities in southern Israel as well as devastated areas of Gaza.

The phone call would not be news if it weren’t for the fact that that the visit to the Negev was not previously announced by U.N. officials nor by Ban, who made special mention to journalists in Cairo Sunday that “I am announcing today that I will visit Gaza on Tuesday to listen directly to the people of Gaza, survey the situation for myself.”

We don’t usually like blowing our horn, but when Ban’s press secretary calls us directly to ask us to publicize a previously unannounced omission, it deserves attention because it only shows how biased the United Nations really is.

We asked Ban’s press secretary Stefan Dujarric why the official U.N. press releases made such a big deal out of the misery in Gaza without any mention of Israel.

The omission was an ”unfortunate error,” he explained, adding he will “look into” how it happened.

For the record, Dujarric said of Ban’s itinerary, “He will go to Kibbutz HaShlosha near and will meet with inhabitants of the kibbutz and with families impacted by the rockets and relatives of people who lost loved ones, and he will meet with them privately.”

We give the press secretary credit for admitting there was an “unfortunate error” but also suggest that the error goes a lot deeper.

It probably was not intended. It simply is natural, part of the inherent pro-Arab, pro-Hamas and anti-Israel agenda of the international community’s hold on the United Nations.

Gaza’s branch of Fatah, Hamas’ rival terrorist party headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, showed off its continuing rocket-manufacturing capabilities for visiting Russian journalists, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.

Fatah invited Russian TV (RT) last week to a rocket production facility to witness and film the actual production of new rockets. Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, depleted its reserves while taking an active part in the Gaza war alongside Hamas, firing rockets at Israeli towns and cities:

“The moment the war ended, the Palestinian military wings renewed military production in order to replenish the stock, which was emptied during the war,”  according to an Arab journalist for RT, quoted by Fatah on its Facebook page.

A Fatah video, as seen below, shows Fatah members at work producing new rockets, and a masked Fatah terrorist explained, “We are preparing and developing rockets in the productions’ division of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – Al-Asifa Army following the ceasefire agreement in preparation for the coming battles.”

The Palestinian Authority does not want another cease-fire unless it has plenty of rockets on hand to make sure that the truce is temporary. Terrorists in Gaza, like those in the Judea and Samaria who received thousands of rifles from Israel in the 1990s to keep the peace as part of the Oslo Accords, never store their weapons for a long period of time. Their idea of “defense” is to use them to attack Israel, whose existence is considered an offensive act.

The journalist added that Fatah is making rockets because the partial blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt interferes with efforts to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

Of course, Israel could put an end to all smuggling simply by removing the maritime blockade. Then, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and all of the other terrorist groups simply could bring in weapons at will in response to the “humanitarian gesture” by Israel.

Fatah’s activity in the war, in which it lost 17 times more members than those identifying with Hamas, is a sign that Fatah and Hamas have achieved unity in the area of terror, if not on the diplomatic front.

A Sept. 10 Fatah post, translated and published by PMW, quoted the RT reporter as stating. “We are visiting the Al-Aqsa Brigades – Al-Asifa Army (i.e., Fatah’s military wing)… where fuel for rockets and mortar shells is being produced.”

An Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fighter added, “We are preparing and developing rockets in the productions’ division of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – Al-Asifa Army following the ceasefire agreement in preparation for the coming battles. During the last war, we fired rockets at the Zionist enemy. We have notified the enemy that we have many more [rockets]. We have also successfully developed the K-132 rocket, which is here beside me.”

Lady Gaga received assurances from the White House before she traveled to Tel Aviv for her performance earlier this month, she told the Associated Press in an interview.

Either she never heard of the Boycott Israel movement, a virtual impossibility, or she simply showed great political savvy by ignoring the issue when asked in the interview, “Other singers have backed out of performing in Tel Aviv. How did you make the decision to perform there this week?”

Lady Gaga didn’t miss a beat and responded as if the interviewer asked if it was safe to be in Israel only a few days after an uncertain end to the war in Gaza.

“I was very confident based on my relationships with lots of internal, political people,” she answered.” We’re very lucky to have great relationships with the White House. They let us know it would be very safe while we were there.”

Lady Gaga and President Obama have a solid political relationship based on a politician’s best friend – money.

They met at a fundraiser in 2011 where approximately 70 guests paid the privilege to attend to the tune of $38,500 per couple.

She was her usual gutsy self, having tweeted before the event that she intended to raise the issue of bullying when she would meet the president.

“I am meeting with our President. I will not stop fighting. This must end. Our generation has the power to end it. Trend it #MakeALawForJamey,” the singer tweeted.

Obama reportedly spoke to her of his administration’s work against the practice of bullying, and he later commented that his meeting with her was a little intimidating.”

If that is the case, Israel can learn from Lady Gaga how to deal with Obama and with has become his legendary pressure on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to toe his line.

After having performed at Obama’s second inaugural in 2012, she has an inside track to the White House.

With a war going in Gaza and missiles exploding over the skies of Tel Aviv, Lady Gaga had reservations about her life and turned to the White House for assurances, that presumably precluded any pressure by the White House on Netanyahu to stop funding for the Iron Dome anti-missile system for Israel is he did not soften up on a cease-fire.

Now we know that Lady Gaga should be Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

Np one could have spoken for Israel as well as she did after her performance. She told the Associated Press that she hoped “to share…with the world…that they know it is safe to be in Tel Aviv right now…I felt a beautiful energy when I was there.”

Next time there is a war, which is more likely to happen if and when there is a formal cease-fire with Hamas, Israel should pay Lady Gag to return for a performance in Sderot. Obama will make sure the Negev is safe, at least for a couple of hours while Lady Gaga performs.

Below are Lady Gaga’s performance at his inaugural and a spoof YouTube of a supposed rendition by Obama of her “Do What U Want.”

Residents of Gaza Belt communities in southern Israel once again raced in a mad dash for their bomb shelters when a Code Red rocket alert siren activated Monday at midday.

The siren sounded in Netiv Ha’Asara, Yad Mordechai and along the Mediterranean coast in the city of Ashkelon.

It was initially believed to be a false alarm, then later reported as a rocket fired at Israel that had fallen short, landing within Gaza territory.

Ultimately, it now appears that it really was a false alarm — but at the end of the day, it’s not clear because numerous jets were heard to scramble overhead, flying south.

Also in Karnei Shomron, Home Front Command apparently scheduled a test Monday morning for the Code Red incoming rocket alert system, but didn’t bother to inform residents about the drill. Talk about really bad timing.

In the north, the IDF has cleared for publication that early Monday morning a “stray rocket” landed in Israeli territory after being fired from the Quneitra border crossing in Syria.

The rocket exploded in an open area. No one was physically injured in the incident. According to the report, fighting on the Syrian side of the border has been “particularly intense” throughout the day.