For Sharon, long snubbed by many U.N. member states, it was a reception that would have been unthinkable just two or three years ago, according to those who follow Israel\’s treatment at the United Nations.
A year after the U.N.-affiliated International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that Israel\’s West Bank security barrier was illegal, controversy over the section in and around Jerusalem could spark new international pressure on the Jewish state to change the fence route or stop construction altogether.
As the United Nations prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding in San Francisco, the occasion is bittersweet for Jewish observers.
It was the United Nations that sanctioned the State of Israel\’s birth in 1948, but it gave the Jewish state the status of an ugly stepchild — constantly singling out Israel for condemnation and excluding Israel, alone among U.N. member states, from full membership in the regional groupings that apportion key positions at the world body.
That said, Israel recently has made strides at the United Nations.
On the eve of elections, scheduled to begin May 29, Hezbollah is trying to retain its pose as the ultimate guardian of Lebanese interests vis-á-vis Israel, stoking a flare-up along the border with Israel last week.
UNRWA chief Peter Hansen drew Israeli ire on Oct. 3 when he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that there were Hamas members on the agency\’s payroll.
One can argue whether the actions Israel\’s government has taken in the face of terror and recalcitrance are moral or effective. One can argue that Israel\’s settlement policy — as its architect, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has come around to doing — is deleterious to the nation\’s security.
Israeli officials are elated at the tough language in a resolution passed last week by the board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog rebuking Iran for not cooperating with nuclear inspectors.
Altogether, approximately 700 pro-Israel demonstrators from around the world gathered in the Dutch capital to bear witness and protest the travesty of justice taking place.
A friend leaned across a bar and said, \”You call the war in Iraq an anti-fascist war. You even call it a left-wing war — a war of liberation. That language of yours. And yet, on the left, not too many people agree with you.\”
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