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The State of Israel’s relationship with the United Nations has often been fraught with tensions and criticism. This was underscored by recent comments made by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk who pleaded for an “illogic escalation” of violence to stop, referring to an Israeli counter-terrorism operation in Jenin. Again, the UN omitted to condemn a series of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, claiming the lives of innocent civilians, including small children.
The UN’s hostility to the state of Israel is hardly a break from the norm. In 2022 the UN condemned Israel more than all the other countries combined in the world. It is a consistent trend.
In my book, New Antisemitism Mutation of a Long-Lived Hatred, I talk at length about the UN’s anti-Israeli bias.
If the world were to decide about the creation of a Jewish State today, certainly there would be a unanimous decision to prevent it from happening. A hint of this negative disposition towards Israel was evident in the UN General Assembly of Dec. 2021 when the nations voted 160-1—Israel being the only dissenting vote—in favor of a resolution to renew funding for UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine. The organization has faced harsh criticism over the years, from alleged ties to terrorist organizations to corruption charges.
If there is anything good about the UN anti-Israeli trend, it is that we can finally see how undesirable we are in the eyes of the world. I think that in the near future, we will see the UN calling for Jews who moved to Israel over the past century and a half, to be sent back to the Diaspora claiming that it is the place where they belong as they were not the original residents of the land of Israel.
Israel keeps looking for better diplomatic ways to explain its position, to show that it is valuable to the world and that Jews have a historic right to live in the land of Israel. We don’t understand that the world does not see things the way we do. It does not care about history, and it does not care about the “startup nation” we have built here. It sees us as a belligerent, invasive nation that has taken what does not belong to it by exploiting the world’s remorse over the Holocaust.
What we are getting absolutely wrong is that we continue to ignore our obligation to the world. We are here to build “a national home for the Jewish people,” just as the Balfour Declaration says. Regrettably, instead of building our home together in unity, we are divided into factions fighting one another. If Jews are not carrying out what we are meant to do here, then we have no reason for being here. This is how the world sees it, and the sooner we realize it, the better.
Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) has already warned that: “Israel must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land! …Justice, and peace. And this wisdom is attributed to us alone. If this return is canceled, Zionism will be canceled altogether… And its residents are destined to endure much suffering. Undoubtedly, either they or their children will gradually leave the country, and only an insignificant number will remain, which will ultimately be swallowed among the Arabs.” (“The Writings of the Last Generation”)
We need to rebuild our nation by re-establishing our unity under the motto, “as one man with one heart.” We have every right to declare that this is our goal in being here once again in the land of Israel and that we will not allow anyone to interfere with our efforts. Not only will the world respect this declaration, but it will also support it.
#antisemitism #UnitedNations #israel
Posted on The Times of Israel, LinkedIn Newsletter, Facebook