The UN vs. the Treaty

...Zionist practices in the occupied territories constitute a danger which in itself is living proof of aggressive intentions...

...abstain...

...The press section was nearly empty, creating the impression that the Council was talking to itself...

...signing a peace treaty...

...He sat at the horseshoe table facing Harriman and UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, who was completely silent throughout...

...So far this year, 29 meetings have been called, many of them on Israel...

...Today, Council deliberations are conducted not only in the elegant blue and gold main chamber, which is open to the public, but also privately, behind closed doors...

...But Nigerian Ambassador Leslie O. Harriman, the Council president for March, ruled for instant consideration...

...The vote for approval was 12-0, with the United States, Great Britain and Norway abstaining...

...You are asking yourselves why he is so skeptical [about the Mideast accord]," Waldheim told the gathering of diplomats, officials and bankers...

...Among the first to speak was Norway's Ambassador Ole Algard—one of the 10 nonpermanent members of the 15-member Council...

...Anticipating the coming historic Washington ceremonies, Blum kept his replies to these attacks short and dry, and generally maintained a low profile...

...In fact, to conclude a Middle East peace, the parties involved chose to bypass the United Nations altogether—a choice, Waldheim recently complained, that other governments are making, too...

...Blum commented: "This debate and the resolution just adopted by the Council on the eve of the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, constitute yet another attempt to...

...so did number 1,500 (August 14, 1969...

...Yet for all the time and attention the Council has devoted to the area, remarkably little has been accomplished...

...He bluntly pointed out that the debate was taking place "at a time of dramatic and promising developments...

...When asked why Waldheim couldn't make it, UN spokesman Rudolf Stajduhar replied: "He was not invited...

...In addition, he visited Austria, Switzerland and East Germany...

...At the end of the marathon, a resolution sponsored by Bangladesh, Kuwait, Nigeria, and Zambia (Resolution S/13171/Revision 2) called on the president to appoint a three-member commission that would "examine the situation in relation to settlements in the occupied Arab territories since 1967, including Jerusalem...

...The "tradition" underscored by the session is the ceaseless vendetta of the UN's so-called "automatic majority" against Israel, and the Council's preoccupation with the Palestine question...

...Thus, on Saturday, March 24, two days before the signing, Waldheim was in London, delivering an address to the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House...

...Indeed, listening to the proceeding here that paralleled the Carter Administration's all-out drive to turn the Camp David framework agreements into a formal accord, an objective observer might well have wondered whether the Council mistakenly saw its mission as preventing peace...

...Shmuel Moyal, an Israeli consul in New York, told me: "We feel bad, since Americans know very well that the Jordanians and the Palestinian Arabs were invited to be in the frameworks of the Camp David accords, to participate in the negotiations on self-rule in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza districts...

...The reaction I have got from the Arab world is not encouraging...

...After London, Waldheim flew to Bonn "to take up an old invitation," Stajduhar reported...

...Why, then, did the U.S...

...The scene for these "Informal Consultations, " as they are called, is a smaller adjoining chamber, with members seated around a modified horseshoe table...

...substitute confrontation tactics for a negotiated peace...

...veto would have killed the resolution...

...Israel's Ambassador Yehuda Z. Blum noted that the letter was clearly intended to disrupt the delicate Mideast treaty negotiations...

...An Israeli spokesman later announced that the commission would not be admitted to the occupied areas, nor would Israel cooperate in any way...

...Saudi Arabia) And so on and so on...

...Soviet Union) "All Palestinians—and I wish to emphasize this point—all Palestinians, both inside and outside the occupied territories, must be guaranteed unfettered freedom to enable them to return to their homes...

...is the question of Jerusalem...

...speechmaking marathon that lasted for several days: "Israel is not above the law____A consistently defiant member must not be given the right to continued membership of a world organization whose rules of the game are the Charter and not the law of the jungle...

...As of December 14, 1978, the body had held a total of 2,107 meetings in 33 years...

...But, Waldheim went on, the Palestinian issue remains "the crux of the problem," and the substance of this has not been dealt with...

...The debate was triggered by a letter from Jordan resurrecting old charges that Israel was illegally expanding settlements, harassing and driving out Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and appropriating water resources...

...According to an official source, however, Waldheim had let it be known that he did not want to be present...

...That, however, was not the case with the UN Security Council...

...His view was not shared by most other speakers—Council members and a score of "invited delegates"—during the Gertrude Samuels reports regularly on the United Nations for this magazine...

...Perhaps this explains why the Secretary-General did not attend the treaty signing ceremonies, and instead flew off to Europe...

...There, the Council president can?without any rapporteurs or press around—hold talks on whether to schedule a public meeting, consider procedural questions or simply dismiss an issue altogether...

...the TrCclty by gertrude samuels United Nations Considering the human, financial and military cost of the four wars between Israel and Egypt over a brief span of 30 years, it would seem only natural for an international body devoted to "maintaining world peace" to welcome the treaty signed by the two nations in Washington last month...

...Jordan) "The conclusion of a separate peace treaty between Egypt and Israel will be an obstacle to the achievement of a comprehensive and just settlement in the interests of all the peoples of the Middle East...

...The change is procedural...

...Nigeria) "Of particular importance...

...Of the 52 meetings held last year, one-quarter dealt with the Mideast, including the creation of a UN Interim Force in Lebanon...

...A veteran radio newsman offered the following explanation: "It's the American way of telling the Arabs, 'Look, we're evenhanded: We're giving Israel a kick in the pants, while handing you this small bouquet.'" This latest Security Council session—probably the year's most active in terms of meetings, questions and resolutions—highlighted both a major change that has taken place at the UN over the last few years and a "tradition...

...Although the vote was no surprise to Israel, the American abstention was nevertheless disappointing, for a U.S...

...In 1973, out of 77 meetings for the year, half were devoted to the region...

...Will it be possible to make it [the treaty] the basis of a comprehensive Middle East peace...

...It is a very important and historical development, and I certainly appreciate the fact that two UN members are...

...A glimpse at some Security Council statistics and "anniversaries" demonstrates this...

...While in Vienna, Kurt Waldheim received the Austria Institute's "award for democracy...

...the beginning of an era of peace for the countries and peoples of the Middle East...

...Number 1,000 (April 3, 1962) concerned the Mideast...