The UN’s Dark Truth: Bias and Betrayal

The UN’s Long Illusion of Neutrality.

For decades we were told that the United Nations and its many agencies; UNTSO, UNIFIL, UNRWA etc, were stabilizing forces in the Middle East. Neutral, reliable, guardians of ceasefires. My family’s experience inside the UN system, combined with the last 75 years of failures, tells a very different story.

This is not theory. This is lived reality, beginning with my father, a Dutch UNTSO observer deployed in the late 1970s. He joined with the idealistic belief that the UN stood as an honest broker between enemies. What he found was dysfunction, bias, and theatre, a façade of neutrality masking complete inefficiency.

The “Tel Aviv Express”: A Daily Ritual of UN Futility.

My father’s first station was the Golan Heights, monitoring Syrian- Israeli ceasefire violations. Every day at the same hour an Israeli reconnaissance plane, nicknamed the “Tel Aviv Express”, crossed over Syria, took photos, and left.

The observers knew it. Syria knew it. Israel knew it.

And every day, in perfect bureaucratic choreography, UN observers raced to the phone to report the “violation.” And every day Israel responded with the same scripted line:

“Oh, sorry — a mistake. We’re calling the plane back.”

Everyone understood the game. Nothing changed. Nothing was solved. This was UN supervision: a box to tick, a report to file, a theatre of fake accountability.

From Surveillance Flights to Arafat’s Garden.

The absurdity grew worse when complaints arrived from Israel about rockets being fired from southern Lebanon toward the Galilee. UNTSO needed to “investigate,” so my father and a colleague volunteered to cross into Lebanon.

What they found remains one of the most striking examples of UN blindness or complicity.

They were taken to the villa where Yasser Arafat lived in 1978. Arafat received them politely:

“Welcome, gentlemen. How can I help you?”

They explained the Israeli complaint. Arafat denied everything:

“No, of course we don’t fire rockets at Israel. Please check.

So they walked into the garden and stood directly in front of an active rocket launcher, positioned openly, in full use.

When they returned to Arafat and demanded an explanation, he delivered the same line Israel had used earlier, but now dripping with sarcasm:

“A mistake. We didn’t know.”

The UN logged the report. The rockets continued. Nothing changed.

A Mission Without a Mandate and Without Respect

Over the years UN vehicles were stolen in Lebanon, UNIFIL soldiers were robbed of everything including their cars, and UN observers were routinely intimidated or ignored by the very armed groups they were supposed to be “monitoring.”

Israelis had a nickname for UNTSO: “United Nonsense.” It wasn’t a joke, it was an evaluation.

The UN demanded Israel’s cooperation but refused to acknowledge Israel’s legitimacy. My own UN “white card”, the ID for UN dependents, listed every regional country by name except Israel. This was 1978. Thirty years after the Holocaust. And still, the UN would not print the word “Israel.”

Neutral? Hardly.

The Bias Never Ended, It Got Worse

Today the same pattern continues:

• UNRWA schools distribute textbooks teaching children that Israel does not exist.
• UNRWA employees participated directly in the October 7th massacre and kidnappings.
• UNIFIL in Lebanon has done nothing to stop Hezbollah’s buildup of 150,000+ rockets.
• UN General Assembly passes more resolutions against Israel each year than against Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, and Syria combined.

Billions of dollars were poured into these agencies. Billions that could have fed Africa’s hungry or turned Gaza into the Singapore of the Middle East.

Instead, the UN helped destabilize the region by enabling terror groups, excusing violations, and treating Israel as the region’s only problem.

Why These Agencies Should Be Dismantled

A “neutral” UN in the Middle East exists only on paper. The reality is simple:

• UNTSO observed violations but prevented nothing.
• UNIFIL recorded Hezbollah’s rise but stopped nothing.
• UNRWA perpetuated statelessness, radicalization, and war, not peace.

These institutions have become part of the problem, not the solution.

The Middle East needs accountability, not endless reports. It needs truth, not theatre. And above all, it needs organizations that do not empower extremists under the banner of neutrality.

Factual Add-On: What UNTSO Was Designed to Be

Because accuracy matters, here is the factual outline, stripped of illusion:

• Created in 1948, UNTSO was the first UN peace-observation mission, monitoring ceasefires after Israel’s War of Independence.
• It operated across Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.
• The Netherlands joined in 1956, sending unarmed observers to monitor ceasefires, not to enforce them.
• Dutch participation continued for decades, part of a multinational UN effort to observe, report, and maintain communication between hostile sides.
• UNTSO still operates today, mainly in the Golan Heights and Lebanon

The mandate was noble. The execution was hollow.

Time to Admit the Truth:

From the “Tel Aviv Express” to Arafat’s rocket garden, from UN cars stolen in Lebanon to UNRWA teachers celebrating massacres, the pattern is undeniable:

The United Nations is not a neutral actor in the Middle East. It is a political machine that failed its own mission and failed the people it claimed to protect.

And after 75 years, it is time to stop pretending otherwise.

About Time To Stand Up for Israel

Time To Stand Up for Israel is an independent foundation dedicated to fighting misinformation, countering antisemitism, and providing clear, fact-based education about Israel. We do not engage in internal Israeli politics. We stand on two core principles: Israel has the right to exist. Israel has the duty to defend itself. Support our work: Donate and/or subscribe at: www.timetostandupforisrael.com