Is the United Nations broken beyond repair? Aylana Meisel, executive director of the Israel Law & Liberty Forum, sits down with Eugene Kontorovich, a renowned international-law expert and professor, to explore how international institutions like the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee (UNRWA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have become politicized and weaponized against Israel and the West.
This episode unpacks how bodies originally designed to promote global peace have morphed into vehicles of bias and impunity, and how they have enabled terrorism worldwide, but particularly in the Middle East.
Director of international law at the Kohelet Policy Forum, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a law professor at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School, Kontorovich offers a strategic roadmap for how the United States and Israel can confront and realign their relationship with these global institutions.
Key topics covered:
- The structural flaws and politicization of U.N. agencies
- How organizations like UNRWA and the WHO have been infiltrated or manipulated by Hamas
- The legal doctrine of international organization immunity—and how it shields wrongdoing
- U.S. legislative efforts like the LIABLE Act to hold international bodies accountable
- The power of defunding, treaty withdrawals and targeted sanctions
- Why the ICC’s anti-Israel posture must be countered with firm diplomatic and legal responses
- Opportunities for Israel to coordinate with U.S. allies like Argentina, Hungary and Italy on U.N. reform
Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.
The Israel Law & Liberty Forum is proud to partner with JNS to offer a platform for conservative and classical liberal legal thought from within Israel. Any opinions stated are those of the speaker and not meant to represent the positions of the forum or JNS. The forum is an organization that fosters thoughtful conversation and debate on key issues in Israeli law and democracy. The forum takes no official position regarding any specific policy issue, nor does it advance specific policies.
