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March Madness at the UN
This past week was a bad one for Israel, and her supporters around the world, especially here in America. After another victory for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party on Tuesday, the White House started floating the idea that it might change its relationship with Israel in the United Nations. In Politico, Michael Crowley wrote:
In the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisive reelection, the Obama administration is revisiting longtime assumptions about America’s role as a shield for Israel against international pressure.
Angered by Netanyahu’s hard-line platform toward the Palestinians, top Obama officials would not rule out the possibility of a change in American posture at the United Nations, where the U.S. has historically fended off resolutions hostile to Israel.
And despite signals from Israel suggesting that Netanyahu might walk back his rejection, late in the campaign, of a Palestinian state under his watch, Obama officials say they are taking him at his word.
Sadly, this is not surprising, as Obama has been hostile to Israel well before he became our 44th President (please see Ben Shapiro’s column: A Complete Timeline of Obama’s Anti-Israel Hatred). From comments between Obama and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy caught on an open-mic, to an anonymous White House official calling Netanyahu a “chickens***,” the relationship between two long-time allies seems to be on life-support.
Also this week, the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women wrapped up at United Nations in New York. We most likely wouldn’t have heard of the Commission, or their session, were it not for that fact they voted and decided:
Top violator of women’s rights around the world? It’s Israel says UN.
Not a typo. Not The Onion. The 45-member Commission singled out Israel.
By now, I’m sure you’re asking who the 45 members of this body are. A full list is here, but thanks to Anne Bayefsky, here are some of the lowlights:
Syria. Where government forces routinely employ rape and other sexual violence and torture against women as a tactic of war. Where in 2014 the Assad regime starved, tortured and killed at least 24,000 civilians, and three million people – mostly women and children – are refugees.
Saudi Arabia. Where women are physically punished if not wearing compulsory clothing, are almost entirely excluded from political life, cannot drive, cannot travel without a male relative, receive half the inheritance of their brothers, and where their testimony counts for half that of a man’s.
Sudan. Where domestic violence is not prohibited. There is no minimum age for “consensual” sex. The legal age of marriage for girls is ten. 88% of women under 50 have undergone female genital mutilation. And women are denied equal rights in marriage, inheritance and divorce.
Iran. Where every woman who registered as a presidential candidate in the last election was disqualified. “Adultery” is punishable by death by stoning. Women who fight back against rapists and kill their attackers are executed. The constitution bars female judges. And women must obtain the consent of their husbands to work outside the home.
The United Nations has long been a very anti-Israel organization, and Obama’s continuing move in that direction is a bad portent for the country that should be our biggest ally in the Middle East. This is especially true as the region continues to be a hotbed of terrorism and as the specter of a nuclear Iran looms.
On Twitter, Shimon Levit posted:
UN Commission on Status of Women condemns only one of the 193 UN member states for violating women’s rights – Israel. pic.twitter.com/RMqLuMB3FW
— Shimon Levit (@ShimonLevit) March 20, 2015
Only difference, is that clowns can be funny. What happened in the United Nations this week is sad — and deadly serious for Israel and all who support her.
Published in Foreign Policy, General
Oh my – yet another reason Fred Cole will have to stop defending Israel.
I remember when I’d see a “Get Out of the UN” bumper sticker I’d think that guy was pretty nuts. Now I’m wondering why do we play in that insane UN game? I hope the smarter folks at Ricochet can school me on why we must stay in the UN.
Israel lets women go out of their houses without the proper covering of a burqa. It is like they want women to get skin cancer.
It certainly has been a very uncomfortable week for Israel, but I disagree that it’s been a “bad week”.
Israelis, Jews worldwide, and supporters everywhere who have been asleep and dreaming of a peaceful tete a tete with Palestinians and radical Islamists have had their slumber interrupted. Just like the family that wakes up in a house full of smoke and a screaming smoke alarm.
The wolves are shedding their sheep’s clothing, and we’re seeing naked anti-Semitism in all its horror. And the disintegration of our nation at the hands of a mentally ill leader and his depraved party.
Good can come from evil, if one wakes up and acts in time.
I find it amazing that Obama can be consistently anti-Israel without the media making even one reference to the fact that he chose to be ‘mentored’ for twenty years by an anti-Semitic hatemonger like ‘Rev.’ Wright. If a Republican president, senator or congressman had spent one minute in the audience of any hatemonger, the media would refer to it constantly.
I find it amazing that Obama can do most of the things he is doing without the media giving warning.
On a comparatively minor note, why does he celebrate the Muslim new year at the White House? Does he celebrate the Indian and Chinese new years?
I saw a “Get the US out of the UN” billboard in Kentucky 30 years ago. I thought it was strange then. I think it was ahead of its time now.