UN GA – we are 70% of the world’s problems – WHY?

The United Nations General Assembly voting record is clear – since 2018 there have been 143 Resolutions against ALL countries, 99 against Israel and 44 ALL other countries and the ratio is similar every year. WHY?

As an accountant, I am drawn to facts and figures. This may not be the most exciting story visually but it paints a fundamental picture, which overhangs our current political situation, which can be interpreted one of two ways.

OPTION 1 – THE ANTI-ISRAEL VIEW

Israel is TRULY EVIL! Despite being a liberal democracy and comprising just 0.11% of the world’s population and compared to the ALL countries in the world, including North Korea, Sudan, DRC, Iran, Syria, Russia and the approximately 64 other authoritarian regimes on the planet, Israel is so evil that it deserves that 70% of all resolutions in the world’s most senior forum be against it.

Israel would truly need to be at a level of immorality that would make its citizens, including me, somewhere above the level of abhorrent – a charge I wholly reject.

OPTION 2 – THE SKEPTICAL VIEW

Israel is being targeted specifically and disproportionately for another reason(s) and I offer two. (1) a convenient lightning rod used as a distraction, obsessively or (2) an element of antisemitism

POLITICAL LIGHTNING ROD USED OBSESSIVELY:

Watching the UN in almost all configurations except perhaps the Security Council where there is a veto held by the US, is like seeing someone with compulsive behaviour. It has become standard practice to focus on Israel completely disproportionately – (see table reference).

In our modern day culture, we can’t blame the developing world for its crimes because of the unfair cultural colonial narrative and of course the numbers are in favor of the developing world. Similarly the world doesn’t want to target the large developed world nations on whom it depends for funding and aid (both the countries and the UN itself), and in fact the main players have a inbuilt veto, so that leaves needing to find someone who is neither one of the above and it conveniently leaves Israel – a small democratic state, isolated, in the wrong neighborhood. Israel is a very convenient distraction.

I further suggest that to the institution it has become so ingrained that it has become almost compulsively a de facto routine and the institution is blinded by it.

One recent example from last week is the interview UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths held  interview with Sky News. Sky News reported:

‘Gaza is worst humanitarian crisis I have seen in 50 years’, top UN official says. The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs said it was worse than “awful scenes” he witnessed during the civil war in Syria a few years ago and worse than the “horrors” that were the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s.”

Comparing the Gaza situation to the Syrian Civil War and Khmer Rouge is (I hate to use hyperbole but…) insane. The Cambodian genocide for example was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodian citizens by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea general secretary Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population in 1975

The situation in Gaza is clearly tragic but (a) it is nothing like the Cambodian genocide – just look at the statistics above, and (b) was not any form of systematic persecution and killing – it is the impossible result of Hamas’s cynical use of human shields and Israel’s right to self defence

As an aside, in the same interview, he stated that: “Hamas is not a terrorist group for us, as you know, it is a political movement.”

The narrative that Israel is more dangerous than any other country seems hardwired into the UN’s DNA.

AN ELEMENT OF ANTISEMITISM

Interestingly in August 2023 – two months before October 7th – the well respected Deborah Lipstadt, now an Ambassador and Special Envoy to the US on Antisemitism delivered the following remarks: https://www.state.gov/usun-engaging-the-united-nations-in-the-fight-against-antisemitism/

The United Nations is in a unique position to play a significant role in efforts to combat antisemitism around the world and to encourage such efforts as part of its larger mission to promote global peace and the protection of universal human rights for all people.

We all are painfully aware that member states and others at the United Nations make antisemitic comments, partake in Holocaust denial, and distort or deny Israel’s existence. These comments reflect unfortunate and historic prejudice against Jewish people and, when they occur, the United States makes sure to call them out as antisemitic.

Past actions by the United Nations have sometimes had the effect of fueling antisemitic attitudes about Jews. Notably, UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted in 1975, which former Secretary-General Kofi Annan called a “low point,” endorsed the “Zionism is racism” trope. In a long overdue step, the General Assembly revoked the resolution in 1991.

To this day, Israel is often the subject of disproportionate and one-sided attention from United Nations intergovernmental bodies relative to other actors and situations of global concern. Of course, not all criticism directed at the State of Israel is antisemitic. Israel is subject to criticism just like any other country, but when that criticism is premised on a double standard, attempts to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel, or otherwise crosses the line into antisemitism, the United States will push back.

In the fight against antisemitism, we point out that antisemitism is not only harmful to Jews, but also to the entirety of societies where antisemitism goes unchecked — whether or not those societies have substantial Jewish communities. We stress that antisemitism, as are other forms of hatred, is a threat to societies, breeding conspiracy theories and distorting the ability of citizens and public officials to make logical, informed decisions, which is central to healthy development and effective governance.

…

At the United Nations, which will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this December, discrimination and bigotry must have no place. It is the responsibility of the United Nations to ensure its staff are aware of the risks of antisemitism, that they are able to recognize it, and that they respond effectively when it occurs.

The United Nations was founded as a direct response to the devastating effects of the Holocaust. The UN’s very existence serves as a constant reminder — a reminder of the need to reject hatred motivated by a person’s identity, of the international catastrophes to which unchecked hatred can lead, and of our shared imperative to promote tolerance and uphold the human rights and dignity of all.

Like most things in life, it is probably a combination of factors that drives things the way they are but the key points I want to make are:

1. The UN is statistically unfair, consistently, towards Israel
2. It is not because Israel is EVIL…it is a mixture of other reasons

This is a great shame for Israel and the world but it is hardwired so let’s not expect it to change soon.