The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (rule of thumb: the longer the title of an organization, the less useful it is likely to be) has just published a list of 112 businesses with ties to Judea and Samaria, the objective of this publication being to encourage United Nations members to boycott these companies.
Move over, “orphan” who kills his parents, we have a new definition of chutzpah. This U.N. agency that has never seen fit to single out any other country in this manner, no matter how egregious their actual violations of human rights, is lecturing Israel on human rights. That probably has much to do with the fact that the OHCHR has among its members such paragons of virtue as Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China.
This is just one more in a string of U.N.-imposed indignities to which Israel has been subjected for the past 75 years, and it raises two very important questions. First, why does Israel abide this charade by remaining a member of the United Nations, and two, given the Trump administration’s robust support for Israel and disdain for the United Nations’ blatant biases and ineffectiveness, why does the United States still foot the major portion of the United Nations’ expenses?
So here’s my suggestion to Israel and the United States: get the heck out of the United Nations.
What did Einstein say about “insanity”? Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result? Maybe after all these years of having their thoughtful and moral arguments before U.N. bodies ridiculed and rejected, it’s time for Israel to try some other approach to international relations. Israel has been very effective in forming and strengthening bilateral relations with a host of countries (examples: India and China), rendering Israel’s continued presence in the U.N. General Assembly a wasteful and unproductive exercise. And why should the United States continue to be the single largest contributor to an organization that essentially mocks American values?
The fact is that the United Nations serves absolutely no useful purpose. It is an organization run by thugs, socialist failures, Islamists and tiny municipalities parading as sovereign nations, who do nothing to stop unjust wars or improve the lives of anyone anywhere. The “diplomats” assigned to the United Nations spend their days arguing motions that lead nowhere, they devote approximately 98 percent of their time and energy to condemning Israel, they scoff at U.S. laws (about $15 million annually in unpaid tickets), they jet around the world attending virtue-signalling events and conferences, their “peacekeepers” are routinely responsible for exacerbating the problems wherever they are assigned and they administer a near infinite number of agencies and branches accomplishing nothing but providing very lucrative employment to United Nations staffers.
President Donald Trump has rightfully called to account America’s NATO partners for their abysmal contributions to their own defense. He has invoked the concepts of accountability and consequences where past U.S. presidents could simply not be bothered. He should bring those same considerations to the question of the continued presence of the United Nations in New York.
Why continue allowing them to occupy a prime piece of New York real estate (what a great location for a new Trump hotel) when they contribute nothing to peace or the improvement of living conditions for so many people who could benefit from a serious international deliberative body? Why continue being the single biggest contributor to funding the United Nations when the United States receives almost nothing of value in return?
Accountability and consequences, indeed.
I’m hopeful that President Trump will have five more years to continue draining the American swamp of parasites and careerists who believe (against all evidence to the contrary) that they are morally and intellectually superior to him. By throwing the United Nations bums out of New York, the president could also help drain the international swamp.
I do believe there is a need for a serious international forum where those countries who support economic and social freedom prevail, so here’s another suggestion to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump: recruit the members of NATO and like-minded democracies around the world to establish a new-and-improved United Nations where membership is only available to those states that adhere to a Code of Conduct encompassing equality for women and minorities, freedom of expression and religion and a commitment to stand together against those outliers not practicing or defending those principles.
So please, Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. President, help make this world a better and safer place by tossing the United Nations onto the trash heap of history where it so deservedly belongs.
Henry Roth is a businessman and a proud Zionist. Born in Haifa, Israel, he moved to Canada as a child, where he currently resides together with his wife, Brenda.
