Visiting Israel this week, Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN, stated “President
Trump and I think that you (Netanyahu) have changed the discourse in the UN, have drawn new standards, and
everybody's taking them up, and that's great. I think it makes a world of
difference, both for Israel and the US. Again, I felt that the UN would
collapse, you know, that whole scaffolding of lies would just collapse. I think
you've put in that simple word, truth."
According to the U.N.'s top
human rights body, Israel is the worst human rights violator in the world
today.
President Trump’s
administration is currently a member of this reprehensible body. The Bush administration
refused to join the Council when it was created in 2006.
On March 31, 2009, President Obama – fully aware of its
entrenched anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias – made jumping on board one of his
very first foreign policy moves. Moreover, in an unscrupulous attempt to control his
successor, the former President obtained yet another three-year term for the
United States on the Council that began on January 1, 2017.
If President Trump were to
choose a swift departure from the Council as one of his very first foreign
policy moves, it would demonstrate a principled reset of American values and
priorities on the world stage. March 31, 2017, the anniversary of Obama’s
decision, would be an auspicious date to make that point.
The reasons for leaving are
many. Here are a few:
The Council plays a leading
role in the demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state by the United
Nations.
In its history, the Council
has condemned Israel more often than any other of the 192 UN states.
Comparative totals after this session’s pogrom tell the story: Israel –
78 resolutions and decisions, Syria – 29, North Korea – 9, and Iran – 6.
As for Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China, there’s nothing at all.
Think of it this way:
500,000 dead in Syria, forced starvation and mass torture in North Korea,
systematic and lethal oppression in Iran, gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia, and
an elementary lack of basic freedoms affecting over a billion in Russia and
China.
But at the U.N. Human Rights
Council, little democratic Israel is the problem.
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley rightly objected to a recent UN
report charging Israel with “apartheid.” But the malicious slur of “apartheid
Israel” is a staple of the Council’s fixed agenda, which dedicates time for
hate-speech and incitement at every session, and transmits it around the world
via a U.N. webcast. Contrary to rule of law 101,
the Council has an investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a
license only to report on Israel.
The “Human Rights” Council is now the principal U.N. engine
of “BDS” – the campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel. Economic
strangulation is Plan B for Israel’s enemies, war and terrorism having so far
failed to rid the world of a Jewish state. The Council has sponsored the
creation of a blacklist of companies around the world ‘directly or indirectly’
doing business with Israeli settlements – in effect, Israel period.
Make no mistake: there is no middle ground. Staying on the
Council means American taxpayers will pay for the production of a blacklist of
American companies doing business with Israel. The State Department
representative told the Council Friday that it will not provide information for
the blacklist. But, of course, the U.N. will simply get what it wants
from the Palestinian entourage.
As Freedom House attests, less than half the members of the
General Assembly are fully free democracies. The majority aren't going to create a club they can’t
join.
It is understandable why
Council members like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Cuba and China want to masquerade as
human rights authorities. But why would the United States want to legitimize
this charade by standing beside them?
Sure, we voted against – and
we lost. In fact, of the 15 resolutions this session adopted by vote, the United States lost 12 of
them. Setting ourselves up for target practice is not a foreign policy in
which Americans can take pride.
Mr. President, the UN “Human
Rights” Council, is not your place.
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