The UN is a spectre in Israeli society and a byword among Israelis.
For its part, the UN has maintained a persistent and consistent critique/condemnation of all Israeli policies vis-a-vis Palestinians. On the receiving side, the common perception among Israelis is that the UN is a shield for organizations and even entire states that have declared themselves our mortal enemies.
The truth is somewhere in between. Some of the UN’s criticism of the Israeli state is legitimate, some of Israeli society’s response is legitimate. Much of both is reductive bluster misrepresenting the facts of history and recent events (recent from any vantage point in time, in fact).
But I think that one undeniable outcome of the UN’s endless, obsessive, and condemnatory rhetorical focus on the Israeli state, has been a general weakening of the Israeli public’s trust in international institutions.
In another reality, we might have avoided this war entirely by successfully petitioning for the extradition of Hamas’s leadership at all levels to stand trial for war crimes and by uniting the international community against Iran’s funding of genocidal organizations that train to commit war crimes.
If that alternate reality sounds as ludicrous to you as it does to me – ask yourself why that route wasn’t taken to begin with.