The question Jews around the world face today is a new one: Is it possible to be at war against something other than a country, terrorist organization or religion? For eons, people have fought wars between religions. Israel is currently fighting a war against multiple terrorist organizations, so we know that type of war exists. And in the age of nation-states, countries go to war with one another. But can the United Nations or the International Criminal Court go to war against a country? If the last 14 months are any indication, the answer is a resounding yes.
Even before Oct. 7, the United Nations was at war against Israel. UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that is in charge of declaring historical sites, named the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron a “Palestinian Heritage Site.”
It is crazy to say that the place where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah are buried is anything other than a Jewish and Israeli heritage site. They are the forefathers and foremothers of Judaism, the religion practiced by the Jews in the Land of Israel and around the world. To suggest otherwise is an attempt to erase Jewish history and its connection to the Land of Israel. UNESCO, an arm of the United Nations, does just that.
No arm of the United Nations has done more to incite war against Israel than UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. In recent years, 58% of the UNRWA’s budget went to education needs. Yet according to UN Watch, a watchdog group that publishes periodic reports on the agency, the education they provide has a devastating impact on youth by inciting hate in the region by teaching Palestinian children to aspire towards martyrdom in the form of murdering Jews and Israelis.
They do so through the erasure of Israel and glorification of violent jihad, which is why UNRWA arithmetic is taught by counting the number of martyrs in the First and Second Intifadas, and physics lessons revolve around sling-shotting stones at Israeli soldiers. The United Nations knows what’s in the textbooks; its educators teach Palestinian children to hate, and everyone accepts it.
So it should come as no surprise that numerous members of the UNWRA and many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, took part in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. When the head of UNRWA takes meetings with known terrorists, as then-head Pierre Krahenbuhl did in 2017, it is overtly propagating terrorism. Krahenbuhl went so far as to tell representatives of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, “ … we are united, and no one can separate us.”
The U.N. war on Israel would also explain why Hezbollah has flaunted U.N. Resolution 1701 for years without repercussions from the agency. The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is tasked with enforcing Resolution 1701, which calls for the withdrawal of Hezbollah to an area north of the Litani River, leaving the Lebanese army and UNIFIL as a buffer. The resolution, however, was never enforced and is a total failure.
Instead of enforcing its mandate, UNIFIL and its forces, like the Irish “peacekeepers,” blatantly violated the mandate, which allowed Hezbollah into Southern Lebanon, where it fired thousands of rockets, leading to the murder of 12 Druze children by Hezbollah rocket fire while they were playing on a soccer field. UNIFIL has essentially been protecting terrorists whose aim is to murder Israelis, and nobody thinks this is an act of war? (Ironically, even UNIFIL and Irish forces are not immune from the lack of enforcement of Resolution 1701.)
And now, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant. Netanyahu’s crime is protecting his country and his citizens while bringing terrorists to justice in the most moral war waged to date. If defending your country and its citizens from sexual violence, beheadings and kidnapping is now considered a war crime, then the term means nothing. It has been stripped of its value, and the world is worse for it.
Whether it is recognized or not, the United Nations and International Criminal Court are at war against Israel. Now is the time for Israel—and its ally, the United States—to act accordingly.
