WarSclerotic

The UN’s theater of the absurd, Israel Hayom, Ron Prosor, November 30, 2014

(Please see also Ambassador Proser’s recent address to the U.N. General assembly. — DM)

In 1975, after repeated attempts to kick Israel out of the U.N., the General Assembly succumbed to the pressure exerted by the Arab countries and determined that Zionism is racism. The decision was the cornerstone of the institutionalized factory of discrimination against Israel at the United Nations. The U.N. waited 16 long years before retracting its “Zionism is racism” decision. The protocols have been updated, but even with no official reminder, the stain remains on the walls of the general assembly hall and the stench is still in the U.N.’s corridors today.

Of the 193 states that belong to the U.N., only 87 are democracies — less than half. The countries that are taking advantage of the democratic process at the United Nations are the same ones that suppress any spark of democracy within their borders. Although the U.N. uses a parliamentary mechanism, many of the hands raised to vote are the hands of brutal dictators.

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On Nov. 29, 1947, a Saturday night, the entire Yishuv (the Jewish community of pre-state Israel) held its breath. The tiny voice of Brazilian U.N. General Assembly President Osvaldo Aranha blared from the radios in every home. The agenda for the day: Resolution 181 on the end of the British Mandate and the partition plan of Palestine. Holocaust survivors, Jews who were kicked out of Arab lands, the many waves of immigrants to Israel, the pioneers and those who immigrated illegally all cast their lot with the promising institution that would be a magnificent monument to the triumph of good over evil in World War II.

Sixty-seven years after that historical vote — the U.N.’s shattered dream lies before us. Over the years, it has gone from a monument of victory to a memorial, a remnant of the hope that has vanished. Although it was designed to prevent the reoccurrence of Nazi crimes, the U.N. has become an international arena for Arab criminal bullying. The Arab world attacked the Yishuv only hours after rejecting the outcome of the vote, and it did not stop even after the thunder of the Napoleon cannons subsided at the end of the War of Independence. The unification of Arab and Muslim countries at the U.N. has created the foundation for a 120-state-strong anti-Israel diplomatic cartel.

In 1975, after repeated attempts to kick Israel out of the U.N., the General Assembly succumbed to the pressure exerted by the Arab countries and determined that Zionism is racism. The decision was the cornerstone of the institutionalized factory of discrimination against Israel at the United Nations. The U.N. waited 16 long years before retracting its “Zionism is racism” decision. The protocols have been updated, but even with no official reminder, the stain remains on the walls of the general assembly hall and the stench is still in the U.N.’s corridors today.

Of the 193 states that belong to the U.N., only 87 are democracies — less than half. The countries that are taking advantage of the democratic process at the United Nations are the same ones that suppress any spark of democracy within their borders. Although the U.N. uses a parliamentary mechanism, many of the hands raised to vote are the hands of brutal dictators.

The U.N. has gone from being a stage for courageous statecraft to a theater of the absurd: The General Assembly allows wild Palestinian incitement, the Security Council has Venezuela and Malaysia managing peacekeeping forces, and then there is the Human Rights Council, in which the guardians of humanity are regimes without a shred of humanity, regimes that invent blood libels against Israel while in Syria, a tyrant slaughters hundreds of thousands of his own people.

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had a vision of cross-border cooperation. It’s doubtful that this is the United Nations they envisioned: Nations united by their hatred of Israel. Right now, the U.N. is being asked to decide on its place in the annals of history, will it be remembered as an obstacle to the free world or as a magnet to the nations that aspire to join it?

“Our future does not depend on what the Gentiles will say, but on what the Jews will do,” David Ben-Gurion once said. Israel is not waiting for the U.N. to reform itself — our response to its injustices is in our actions. Our response to the demonization of Israel in the Human Rights Council is the uncompromising defense of the rights of all sectors of society, including women, members of the proud community and the disabled. Our response to delegitimization in the Security Council is the contribution of knowledge and professional experience to the U.N. peacekeeping forces. Our response to incitement in the General Assembly is a series of initiatives that aspire to create a better world, including agricultural technology in the Third World, entrepreneurship in developing countries and taking steps toward religious tolerance, like making Yom Kippur the first Jewish holiday officially recognized by the United Nations.

On the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyyar in 1948, the Declaration of Independence was signed. Its text mentions the United Nations no less than seven times. The founders of the state committed with their signatures to stay true to the principles of its charter. Even though the U.N. has lost its way, Israel is keeping its promise. Israeli eye doctors are spreading light in East Africa, Israeli officers offer help during every disaster, and the sharing of blue-and-white knowledge and resources brings water and solar energy to areas in need — we will continue to light the way for the international community until we will again gather in our homes in Israel, looking toward the United Nations filled with hope, not disappointment, appreciation and not contempt.

Ron Prosor is the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

This entry was posted on November 30, 2014 at 3:28 PM and is filed under Antisemitism, Israel. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: General Assembly, Israel, United Nations