What About the Rest of the Middle East? A Call to the UN, Media, and Ourselves

On February 27, 2025, a Yemeni journalist walked into the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and delivered one of the most piercing statements we’ve heard in years. Luai Ahmed did what too few in that building ever do: he told the truth.

“Why does no one care when half a million Yemenis die?” he asked.

The room fell silent.

And then, in front of the international community, he named names.

Syria. Iran. Libya. Lebanon.

Regimes that bomb their own people, silence their women, traffic human beings, and abandon their citizens in poverty – while the world watches in silence.

His message was clear: while the global spotlight remains obsessively fixed on Israel, the rest of the Middle East burns in the shadows, ignored.

Why the Silence?

Yemen has endured nearly a decade of civil war. Over 21 million people – more than two-thirds of the population – depend on humanitarian aid. Children are starving, and infrastructure has collapsed.

But it doesn’t trend, and it’s not on your newsfeed because the world is too busy blaming Israel.

While Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons against his own civilians, the world points to Israel.

While women in Iran are murdered for showing their hair, the world points to Israel.

While human beings are bought and sold in Libyan slave markets in 2025, the world points to Israel.

Meanwhile, Qatar continues to provide luxury housing and safe harbor to senior Hamas leaders. While civilians in Gaza suffer, these leaders reside in five-star hotels, far from the destruction they help orchestrate. Aid intended for civilians is funneled into weapons, not schools or hospitals.

This is not advocacy. This is not justice. This is not human rights.

Why is the global community – including the UN and nearly every major news outlet – so fixated on one tiny democracy in the Middle East? Why do they hold Israel to a standard no other nation is asked to meet?

Why is the suffering of millions across the Arab world not worthy of their outrage? This isn’t just bias. This isn’t just negligence. This is antisemitism dressed up as human rights activism.

It’s time we start saying that out loud.

As Jews, we are constantly forced to defend ourselves on the global stage. That’s exhausting – and unfair. But what’s worse is how the world’s silence toward other atrocities makes it crystal clear: this is not about human rights. It’s about scapegoating the Jewish state.

It shouldn’t be our job to expose the hypocrisy of international bodies or fix the UN. Or to document every atrocity ignored by the global press in Yemen, Syria, or Lybia.

But it is our job to tell the truth when no one else will. To demand fairness when we’re being singled out.

To ask the media why they’re complicit in this narrative. And to remind the world that real human rights activism does not ignore half the region.

Luai Ahmed’s speech was not just a wake-up call to the UN. It was a wake-up call to us.

We see, once again, that when Jews are involved, the rules change. The double standards return. The world looks away when others bleed – but watches us through a microscope.

And so, we must internalize a truth as old as our people: If we don’t support ourselves – no one else will.

This is why the Jewish Future Promise matters now more than ever. Because this isn’t just about politics or headlines, it’s about legacy. It’s about protecting the values, the identity, and the future of the Jewish people. It’s about standing strong in a world that would rather see us weak.

So yes – defend Israel.

Yes – demand justice for all people.

But above all, invest in the Jewish future.

Because no one else will do it for us.