Should America Leave the U.N,?

Dershowitz, Alan M.

Should America Leave the U.N,? Alan M. Dershowitz What should our attitude be toward the United Nations — an organization under whose auspices so much good work is done and so many evil words are...

...A fascist voice from the past, that of former dictator Franco, completes the evil circle of right and left wing dictatorships that have but two points in common: their hatred for Jewish Israel and their repressive and undemocratic rule over their own people...
...WHO" and other agencies of the UN which have not themselves been guilty of anti-Semitism, helps to bolster the prestige and respect of the United Nations, and thereby threatens to magnify the impact of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist resolutions adopted by UN-affiliated organizations...
...We in America must never underestimate the appreciation and reverence much of the world has for the UN...
...Few who learn that this august organization has condemned Zionism realize that countries with 10 percent of the world population control two-thirds of the General Assembly...
...Now, 30 years later, the rostrums of the General Assembly — and of several other UN affiliate organizations — are being used to spew forth an anti-Semitic gospel that has not been so publicly and unselfconsciously proclaimed since the days of Goebbels...
...all our economy was in the hands of the Jews at that time . . . Because they received orders from Zionism, from Israel, you will not believe I was denied a radio set...
...The good works of the United Nations endow that organization with credibility — and it is this credibility that is being deliberately exploited to lend an air of authenticity to the absurd resolutions that the Arab nations have generated...
...Karen DeCrow, the president of the National Organization of Women (NOW), recently put it: It was "ironic" that a majority of women from Arab and Third World countries refused to endorse a statement condemning sexism but endorsed a resolution that denounced Zionism...
...It was disgraceful . . . but it was unfortunately part of the pattern, because most of the nations of the world they represented approve of sexism and practice it, and approve of anti-Semitism and practice it...
...Spain, though absenting itself for the final balloting, voted for the resolution in committee...
...There is some evidence that the United States may seriously be considering some degree of disengagement from the UN apparatus — at least on a selective basis...
...Nor is this vilification of Zionism-Judaism limited to the General Assembly...
...It is entirely possible for the humanitarian work currently being done under the auspices of the UN to be continued through multinational professional groups which are unaffiliated with the UN...
...It is misleading, therefore, to pose the question — as many have — "Does the UN do more harm than good...
...is now on notice that the United States will withdraw in two years unless the organization becomes more even-handed...
...For it is precisely the good work that lends legitimacy to the bad...
...United Nations have become the battleground for the Arab "grand design" to cut off Israel from the international community and to place world Jewry in a defensive position...
...Among its premier accomplishments was the partitioning of mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab sectors, thus setting the stage for Israel to declare itself an independent nation...
...It is important to emphasize that the threats of the United States — and other democratic countries — to withdraw from United Nations organizations will lack credibility unless there are on the drawing boards serious contingency plans for continuing the humanitarian work of the United Nations through other, less politicized, groups...
...The I.L.O...
...women and children understand the utter hypocrisy of the United Nations' lending its podium to a self-appointed military leader who daily violates its charter...
...He cannot conceive of a world denied the good work currently being done under the auspices of that organization...
...For example, several days after the "racist" vote, The New York Times reported that the World Health Organization was performing a "miracle" in India and Bangladesh by virtually eliminating smallpox...
...Saudi Arabia — which denies Jews (with very few exceptions) the right to step on its holy soil — joins Uganda, Iraq, Sudan, which are among the most racist governments in the world, in supporting the resolution...
...Few who witness television coverage of the standing ovation given by the General Assembly to a mass murderer of noncombatant men...
...More generally, the United Nations may now also have been put on notice by the near-unanimous congressional reaction to the "racist" vote: that the United States may be reassessing its role in the General Assembly...
...As Vernon E. Jordan, Jr...
...Conceived in reaction to the scourge of Nazism, the United Nations was seen as mankind's hope for enduring peace...
...Its charter was praised as the most eloquent — and significant — document of liberty since the American Bill of Rights...
...It has not created these evils, but it has helped to make them respectable in the eyes of many in the world who respect the UN for its humanitarian work...
...Democratic countries around the world should begin to prepare contingency plans for continuing important humanitarian work outside the formal structure of the United Nations...
...JFor example, the General Assembly resolution will undoubtedly serve as a "legal" excuse for some governments to imprison Zionists as part of that country's "contribution" to the elimination of racism in the world...
...that it will go away by itself...
...If the United Nations continues to permit itself to be used in destructive and divisive ways, the day may well arrive when all people of good will — Jew and non-Jew alike — will see no alternative but to call for its dismemberment...
...Under its umbrella, millions of people are fed, clothed and treated for illnesses...
...Many other agencies of the Democratic countries should begin to prepare contingency plans for continuing important humanitarian work outside the formal structure of the United Nations...
...The General Assembly formally declares "Zionism" to be a "form of racism and social discrimination...
...The General Assembly has now become the house organ of the Arab states...
...The sad truth is that the United Nations has contributed to the international legitimization of anti-Semitism, terrorism and injustice...
...The irony is that the Third World countries (who pay the least and gain the most) know full well that the United States and the other democratic countries (who pay the most and gain the least) will simply not allow the good work of the UN to go down the drain...
...Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far, is the realization that now presses upon us — the realization that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened...
...The obvious answer is that it does a great deal of both: and that each — unfortunately — is inextricably intermeshed with the other...
...The lesson of Sadat's illustration is that those who would extinguish Zionism are no longer even making serious efforts to distinguish Zionists from Jews...
...As one diplomat put it: If Algeria introduced a resolution that the world was flat, it would prevail 70 to 30 with 29 abstentions...
...Few who hear calls for the "extinction of Israel" from its marble chambers know that the calls come from a racist madman who, while proudly wearing an Israeli paratrooper's wings, sought to build a monument to Hitler in his nation's capitol...
...He is right, of course...
...Until recently, that question would never have occurred to a Jewish liberal...
...The contributions currently made by the United States alone to the General Assembly and other UN affiliates could buy more medical care, food, and other professional services than is currently provided by the entire UN...
...Indeed it can fairly be said that never in the history of the world have so many nations reached so much agreement about a single issue: There was not nearly as much international consensus in condemnation of Hitler or Stalin...
...It will be the inevitable consequence of a self-inflicted wound...
...The straw that caused the American delegation to walk out was the I.L.O.'s invitation to the "Palestine Labor Organization" — a virtually non-existent contrivance — to accept observer status in its assembly...
...The most critical country standing between Israel and its illegal expulsion from the General Assembly is Egypt, which — for tactical reasons — has decided that this is not the time for Israel's expulsion...
...Our reverence and respect for the United Nations of 1948 must not blind jus to the reality of what it has become in 1976...
...East Germany, Poland, the Ukraine — among the countries who taught the world the meaning of the word "racism" and whose earth serves as burial ground for half a "race" genocidally butchered by elements of its population — solemnly cast their vote on the side of those who would complete the unfinished job...
...Alan M. Dershowitz What should our attitude be toward the United Nations — an organization under whose auspices so much good work is done and so many evil words are spoken...
...the Indian who learns that the organization that has just saved his family has also voted (with the support of his country) to condemn Zionism as a form of racism, will have every reason to give credence to that conclusion...
...no reasonably educated person will "believe" that Jews controlled the entire Egyptian economy in 1950...
...But there is no evidence to suggest that without an effective counterattack, the Arab offensive will abate...
...Perhaps the most striking example of the absurd lengths to which the Arab governments will go in distorting the proper role of the international community in their vicious game of hatred was the recent International Woman's Year World Conference, sponsored by the United Nations and held in Mexico...
...the black director of the National Urban League, who has devoted his life to opposing racism, observed after the original "racist" vote: "The attack upon Zionism amounts to the grossest form of anti-Semitism, since it is clear that the term Zionism is used by its opponents as a code word for Judaism and Jews...
...This then is the dilemma of the moralist looking at the UN today...
...All that will have been destroyed is a one-sided debate society of hate...
...As Ms...
...The real question is whether the good which the UN currently does can be continued without enhancing the legitimacy and respectability of the evil that has become, recently and tragically, the hallmark of the General Assembly...
...The fact that the resolution was rammed through by the Arab states that themselves practice racial discrimination against their own minorities — Jews, Kurds, Copts and others — makes the current debate even more obscene...
...has, over the years, applied — in George Meany's words — a "double standard" on the issue of human rights: It has been unwilling to investigate any charges against Communist and Third World countries, while jumping at any opportunity to score political points against Israel and the West...
...What then is to be done in response to this rapidly escalating war of words...
...Sadat has apparently contented himself with the condemnation of Zionism — making it clear that he understands the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism by using an example from his youth: "I went to the dealer and asked for a radio set in 1950...
...Nor is it an acceptable answer for him to limit his support to the good work of the UN...
...Democratic countries may have no choice but to withdraw from the General Assembly and its constituent organizations...
...The I.L.O...
...Organizations ranging from UNESCO to the International Labor Organization to the World Health Organization to the Food and Agriculture Organization have been the scene of attempts, usually successful, to condemn Zionism...
...To most of the world, the UN does not mean the vicious diatribes of the General Assembly...
...As Ambassador Daniel Moynihan put it in the aftermath of the General Assembly vote on Zionism: "The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty — and more — to the murderers of six million European Jews...
...A multinational health organization, whose sole job it was to treat illness, could be at least as effective as the World Health Organization, which spends far too much of its time and resources deciding whether to take political sides...
...There are those who argue that it should be ignored...
...Our threats to withdraw are thus not taken as seriously as they would be if our withdrawal were seen not as an end to our support for humanitarian programs, but rather as an end to our support for an organization that has lost its credibility with our citizens, and that is threatening to become the Der Sturmer of a new wave of world anti-Semitism...
...Its decision to give formal notice of intention to withdraw from the International Labor Organization — a United Nations agency — may signal the beginning of a new policy...
...In the end, we need not accept a choice between preserving the UN as it presently exists or losing its good work...
...Yet he cannot continue to support an organization that has become the international loudspeaker for a virulent and dangerous form of world anti-Semitism...
...One can see the Soviet Union cynically outlawing Zionism and anti-Semitism at the same time, thereby demonstrating its commitment to the United Nations while imprisoning its Jewish dissidents...
...Every good deed done by UNICEF...
...it means the food parcel with the blue and white symbol of peace, or the doctor or nurse with the blue and white arm patch...
...Moreover, the tragic lesson of history is that words, repeated often enough and from important enough places, can take on a generative power of their own and become deadly weapons of destruction...
...To most Americans, it means a UNICEF collection box on Halloween, a graceful building in New York, or an admiring chapter in a high school civics book...
...If the groundwork for such withdrawal is carefully laid in advance — if alternative structures for the provision of humanitarian services are created — the withdrawal of democratic countries need not be seen as a tragedy...
...Our guest columnist this month is Alan M Dershowity Professor of Low at Harvard University He clerked for Justice Arthur Goldberg of the U S Supreme Court and has written extensively m the field of civil liberties The United Nations and Israel emerged — almost in tandem — out of the ashes of Hitler's Europe...

Vol. 1 • January 1976 • No. 6


 
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