by Jonathan Pollard
I remember back in 1975 when the UN General Assembly passed the infamous Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism. At the time, I felt very strongly that we should pull out of the UN, expel its workers and diplomats from Israel and close down all of UNRWA’s terrorist training schools. Although 3379 was eventually rescinded, the UN’s anti-Israel bias only got worse by the year. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any more disgraceful, UNESCO proved me wrong.
Indeed, how biased the UN has become towards Israel was just demonstrated by UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterres, who falsely accused Israel of having committed war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza, which is the modern day equivalent of a medieval blood libel. Granted, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen responded sarcastically by asking him “in what world do you live?” But the fact of the matter is that Gutterres, along with many other UN states, lives quite comfortably in a sick universe that’s pathologically obsessed with condemning Israel of every imaginable crime that can be conceived of- regardless as to the lack of any rational reason for singling us out for such unjustified opprobrium. By remaining in this diplomatic cesspool, then, we’re simply providing the UN and its various permanent anti Israel committees with a convenient punching bag. Indeed, nothing is gained by our presence except to suffer the hypocritical rants of such paragons of humanitarianism as Syria, Iran, and Jordan, to name but a few. This is why I firmly believe that it’s time for us to leave the UN.
The role of the UN in our current war with Hamas has been to try to tie our hands by bizarrely pushing the humanitarian relief of Gaza as the most appropriate response to the brutal terrorist attack against us on October 7. Apparently, the fact that all the UN supplies intended for Gaza will go directly to Hamas is besides the point for Gutterres. Nor has he- or any other UN affiliated relief organization, been concerned at all with helping the 500,000 Israelis who have been internally displaced by the war. Making the UN’s position even more untenable is the fact that both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been blatantly using UNRWA schools in Gaza as weapons storage facilities and rocket launching sites. But Gutterres hasn’t said anything about that or the fact that these schools have long been used by Hamas to teach Palestinian children to hate Israel and Jews.
Unfortunately, we can’t say that the Israeli government wasn’t aware of the misuse of UNRWA schools as brainwashing centers. David Bedein, the head of The Center For Near East Policy Research, has spent a lifetime exposing how both Hamas and the PA have been quite successful preparing successive generations of young Palestinian terrorists, who have been raised on an educational curriculum of lethal incitement. Chilling video interviews that Bedein’s organization has collected with UNRWA students in Deheisha, Aida, and Shuafat shockingly portray these children as dedicated terrorists, who are totally committed to waging Jihad against both Jews and Israel. But in spite of this evidence, neither the Israeli army nor our security establishment has done anything whatsoever to stop this. Quite the contrary! They seem to be scared to do anything that would expose the UN to criticism or condemnation. Obviously, if we want to choke off the supply of new terrorists, this cowardly attitude by our military and security services has to end- the sooner the better.
So, would our leaving the UN actually damage Israel in any way? From a practical point of view, I really can’t see how this could be the case.
After all, diplomatic contacts with UN member states could easily be maintained by the local Israeli Consulate in Manhattan, while the use of Israel’s UN Ambassadorship could cease being used as a form of exile by the Prime Minister for those he perceives to be political rivals. Certainly, a man of Gilad Erdan’s proven abilities should be in Yerushalyim right now, not cooling his heels in Turtle Bay.
Nearer to home, we simply have to close down all the UN facilities in the capital, particularly the UN Headquarters, which is located at the appropriately named “Hill of Evil Counsel”. Most importantly, each and every UNRWA “school”, and I use that term lightly, must also be shuttered, permanently. We simply have to put an end to these terrorist indoctrination centers. And for all those worried western progressives who might accuse us of depriving Palestinian children of an education, we should just reassure them that the children in question can always watch PA television, where they can get their fill of instructions on how to knife and shoot Jews for a paid living.
The bottom line is that our self respect and security demand that we leave the UN as soon as possible, and send their local representatives packing. We gain absolutely nothing from maintaining a relationship with an organization that hates us and treats us worse than a serial child murderer. What is ironic, though, is that the minute we leave, the UN will do everything it can to bring us back. After all, what good is it to bash Israel if our representative isn’t there to be insulted?
Jonathan Pollard is a former US naval intelligence analyst who spent 30 years in prison for having spied for Israel. After his release he made Aliyah to Israel and today writes and speaks on behalf of Israel and the Jewish People.
