By Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist ——Bio and Archives--September 5, 2012
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"We support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, defensible borders; and we envision two democratic states – Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and Palestine – living in peace and security."The current Democratic Party platform omits any reference to the Hamas terrorists, let alone the decision of the supposedly more moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate a "unity" government with the terrorist organization while it still launches rockets against Israeli civilians. The current Republican Party platform, by contrast, states that "radical elements like Hamas and Hezbollah must be isolated because they do not meet the standards of peace and diplomacy of the international community." The United Nations is a hotbed of Israel-bashing, among its many other failings. Nevertheless, the 2012 Democratic Party platform calls the UN "a centerpiece of international order." It takes great pride in the Obama administration's "reversing the previous administration’s disdain for the UN." What the Obama administration has actually done is to engage the dysfunctional United Nations as if it were the central part of its foreign policy, as well as the sole arbiter of international law – all while the UN itself is rapidly succumbing to the influence of radical Islam. Obama decided that the United States should join the travesty known as the UN Human Rights Council, which is dominated by the 57 member state Organization of Islamic Cooperation. When the Human Rights Council is not busy dutifully passing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's resolutions restricting freedom of speech that is critical of Islam, it goes after Israel while conveniently whitewashing the records of the real serial human rights violators the world over, some of whom sit on the Council. Between the UN Human Rights Council, the Division for Palestinian Rights, the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Human Rights Practices Affecting the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, more UN resources and time are devoted to the advocacy of the Palestinian cause than to any other issue. And the United States is picking up nearly a quarter of the tab. Incredibly, the Obama administration wants to reverse years of bipartisan support for cutting off funding to any UN agencies that admit the Palestinians as a member state. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice testified before a House subcommittee in March 2012 that "longstanding legislative restrictions," which require withholding of U.S. funding from such agencies "only harms U.S. interests." Which interests are those - to appease the Palestinians and pave their way for full UN member state status when they have not yet met the standards for international recognition of statehood including a viable governing authority? This year's Democratic Party platform claims that "the President and the Democratic Party" are "working to reform international bodies." Which international bodies would those be, since the Obama administration's actions certainly do not indicate any seriousness about reforming the UN? This is evidenced in Rice's own testimony that the Obama administration opposes "legislation that would link efforts to reform the UN to withholding dues." The Republican Party platform does not gloss over the UN's failings, especially its use as a forum for Islamists and other human rights abusers to try and delegitimize the democratic Jewish state:
"As long as its scandal-ridden management continues, as long as some of the world’s worst tyrants hold seats on its Human Rights Council, and as long as Israel is treated as a pariah state, the U.N. cannot expect the full support of the American people."Anyone who cares about the future of the Jewish state of Israel need only look at the two major political parties' platforms to see which of them also cares.
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Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.