From Ian:
Don’t Defund the U.N., Just Say ‘Go!’
The United Nations Has Broken All Its Promises to Israel
Don’t Defund the U.N., Just Say ‘Go!’
We are voluntarily underwriting an institution that — with Obama having formally boarded the anti-Israel train — is joining the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The General Assembly, which is steered by the sharia-supremacist Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has just created a BDS database to target companies that do business with Israeli settlements in what the U.N. has declared is “Palestinian territory.”
What else is new? As UN Watch has reported, in 2015–16, the General Assembly adopted 20 resolutions condemning Israel, compared to just three against the rest of the planet — including none against such favorite U.N. human-rights havens as China, Russia, Cuba, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia.
Now consider this: There is one reason and one reason alone why the U.N. is relevant: because the United States is in it. It is not our financial support that the U.N. needs; it is our participation. The U.N. is a corrupt institution that is hostile to our interests and system of government while living off our prosperity, banking on our rule of law, and luxuriating in the very society it so routinely condemns. And we continue to legitimize it.
Basta!
Of course the United States must have robust, vibrant international relations. We need friends with common interests, and we have to deal with the hostiles. We do not need the U.N. for any of that. We do not need the U.N. at all — it needs us. And if we were out of it, we could still deal with it and support what little good it does.
It is not enough to cut off funding from a bad organization. We should disassociate from that bad organization. We should stop helping it be a consequential bad organization by denying it legitimacy. Don’t defund the U.N. Just say, “Go!”
The United Nations Has Broken All Its Promises to Israel
A lot has been written about the UN Security Council resolution declaring all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to be illegal. Even so, there is an important point I haven’t seen made.David Singer: Congress rebuffs Obama and Kerry for abandoning American Policy on Israel
The West Bank was “created” by the armistice agreement of 1949 that ended Israel’s War of Independence. The agreement was brokered and monitored by the UN. It did not require any Arab recognition of Israel, nor did it require either side to give up any claims to territory on the other side of the line. It reads: “It is also recognised that no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine question, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations.”
It must be remembered that when this agreement was actually in effect, it provided no legitimacy or safety to Israel. No Arab country recognized these borders. It was only when they lost the West Bank after the 1967 war (which they started) that they supported this “border.” But a border has to work both ways if it is to mean anything at all.
The armistice agreement was with Jordan, not with the Palestinians. And only two countries (Pakistan and the UK) recognized the Jordanian occupation of the West Bank as legitimate. Yes, King Hussein gave the West Bank to the Palestinians in 1988. But it was never his to give.
In passing the latest resolution, the UN has clearly reneged on the armistice agreement. So why should Israel trust the UN or any government that voted for (or abstained from) this resolution? Every conceivable “solution” to this conflict requires Israel to give up something tangible for the false promise of security and peace. The UN has broken its word to Israel time and time again.
So if no one feels obligated to keep its word with Israel, then Israel has no reason to trust any promise that the world, or the UN, makes.
Here, hot on the heels of his previous must-read article (see previous post), is Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer's latest incisive contribution.
He writes:
The US Congress has swiftly moved to rebuff the efforts by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to reverse long-standing American policy in relation to Israel. By a vote of 342:80 Congress resolved on 5 January 2017:
“the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 undermined the long-standing position of the United States to oppose and veto United Nations Security Council resolutions that seek to impose solutions to final status issues, or are one-sided and anti-Israel, reversing decades of bipartisan agreement”
Congress’s decision goes a long way to restoring America’s reputation and integrity.
Congress now needs to rectify Obama’s abandonment of the written commitments made to Israel by President Bush in his letter to then Israeli Prime Minister Sharon on 14 April 2004 (“Commitments”)
Congress has a vested interest in seeing those Commitments restored - because it overwhelmingly approved Bush giving those Commitments to Israel by a massive vote of 502 to 12.
Among those voting to support those Commitments was Senator Hillary Clinton.
Senator John Kerry – whilst not casting a vote in the Senate – made his position very clear to moderator Tim Russert on Meet The Press on 18 April 2004:























