UN

The UN, Israel, and the limits of international institutions.

Shameful Company

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To Joe’s summary below, I will only add that this is shameful company in which to find ourselves, on an issue that should be a no-brainer. Our national security on the Syrian front (Russia could invade our airspace at any time and bomb Jerusalem if they wanted) can not be tied to appeasing the imperialism of Putin – you know, the staunch ally of Israel’s enemies, the Ayatollahs and their proxies, and the common enemy of Israel, Ukraine, and democratic Europe.

I can only hope that by the next time such a resolution comes to vote, Israel will have new political leadership that is capable of securing our borders and our airspace without throwing our natural allies under the bus.

Слава Україні

“On today, the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a fresh resolution urging an end to the conflict, supporting Ukrainian sovereignty, adherence tot the principles of the U.N. charter, and calling for Russia to withdraw its troops.

There was a separate vote to add the language calling for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine. It passed 93-18. Voting no:
Belarus
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Central African Republic
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Haiti
Hungary
Israel
Mali
Marshall Islands
Nicaragua
Niger
Palau
Russia
Sudan
United States”

Foreign Arrest Warrants Are Superfluous

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Foreign arrest warrants are superfluous.

We are still a functioning, lawful democracy.

We will hold our current leaders accountable in our next elections and – when we finally launch and then complete the requisite comprehensive legal investigations – we will hold any individuals guilty of committing any war crimes, accountable in our courts of law.

To my mind, that is the outcome we should all be seeking, regardless of where we live, regardless of whom we feel is best suited to replace the current political cohort.

A Short Meditation on International Law and Policy

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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.