Soccer Dad

Global warming?

A recent NY Times article, "UN is gradually becoming more hospitable to Israel" noted that Israel's status in the UN seems to be changing for the better has gotten some comments from the blogosphere.

Secular Blasphemy echoes a sentiment expressed by Abe Foxman in the article:

It is useful to have a Secretary General who is weakened by criticism over the oil-for-food scandal (UNSCAM) and other incidents.

Powerline, in an update, (thanks to an e-mail) notes that the audience attending Sharon's speech may have been supportive but:

This photo does suggest that they weren't exactly hanging from the rafters for Sharon's speech...

Meanwhile Pillage Idiot notes:

But you can't get through a whole NY Times article without some gratuitous moral equivalence. In the process of talking about "antagonism" between the U.N. and Israel, the Times says:

The nadir in relations occurred in 1975 with passage in the General Assembly of a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The measure stayed on the books until 1991, when it was revoked after a campaign led by the United States.

Got it? The U.N. declares Israel to be a pariah state, and that's a "nadir in [their] relations." As if Israel and the U.N. just weren't able to get along.

(Can I crow that I made a similar observation, in a different context here?) BTW, there's a lot more at Pillage Idiot.

Of course, a general observation might be why such cynicism surrounds this most idealistic of institutions. Of course the answer is that the UN has hardly lived up to its ideals.

I'd also add that an annoying part of the article is the credit it gives to Kofi Annan. The reporter, Warren Hoge, notes some positive things he's done recently concerning Israel. However this is the guy who, along with Turd Terje Roed Larsen protected Hezbollah when its terrorists crossed Israel UN sanctioned border to kidnap and kill 3 Israeli soldier. He's also the guy who was responsible for the The UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa. It would have been nice if Hoge had given the complete Annan record on Israel; not just the uplifting parts.

But the warming trend in the UN is something that's been noticed before. Of course if the trend was real then, one would have to credit President Bush as Evelyn Gordon did in "The Frequent Abstainers Club" (Cached version) and as demonstrated by a speech by John Danforth, a year ago. Perhaps refusing to put up with nonsense, is a cause of the UN's (very) modest changes in recent times. Still as Poweline's commenter rightly notes:

However, until Israel is admitted as a full member to one of the five regional groups (which among other things allows a member state to become a temporary Security Council member), apartheid will still be alive and kicking in Turtle Bay.

Posted by SoccerDad at October 16, 2005 4:36 AM