The UN’s war on Israel continues — and the U.S. is silent

by Ann Bayefsky, The NY Daily News

Today the UN "Human Rights" Council appointed a notoriously anti-American and anti-Jewish figure to his second prominent UN position. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, who served as the President of the UN General Assembly from 2008 to 2009, was elected by acclamation to the Council's lead advisory body, the Council Advisory Committee. The Obama administration representative, Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, remained silent as the nominee of the Group of Latin America and Caribbean Countries was gaveled through without opposition.

Created in 2007, the Committee is composed of 18 "experts" and is charged with being "a think-tank for the Council." Given the Council's pathological fixation on Israel, it is clear why Brockmann got the job. It is less clear why the United States made no protest as he was appointed.

Reminiscent of a classic anti-Semitic slur, on November 24, 2008, Brockmann claimed that our Palestinian "brothers and sisters are being crucified" by Israel. Anti-Defamation League National Director, Abe Foxman, noted at the time "the charge that the Jewish people were responsible for crucifying Jesus was used as an excuse for pogroms and other violence against Jews." He called it "unconscionable" for Brockmann to charge Israel with, "in essence, doing it again."

When Brockmann was elected President of the General Assembly, the Catholic News Agency reported that the former Sandinista leader was a suspended priest who had been publicly reprimanded by Pope John Paul II for his political activities. In a 2004 interview, D'Escoto, called former U.S. President Ronald Reagan an "international outlaw" and "the butcher of my people," and continued: "Because of Reagan and his spiritual heir George W. Bush, the world today is far less safe and secure than it has ever been."

Among his many other distinguishing moves while Assembly President, Brockmann accused Israel of apartheid and used his bully pulpit in the General Assembly Hall to lecture UN members accordingly. Brockmann said: "We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid." The apartheid charge is especially insidious, since one-fifth of Israel's population is Arab with more democratic rights than in any Arab state, while Jewish populations of Arab states have been rendered virtually non-existent. Brockmann went on to demand "a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against Israel, akin to the treatment of apartheid South Africa.

On January 8, 2009, in the middle of the Gaza war Brockmann called his own news conference and displayed some of the most offensive and bizarre behavior ever seen from a General Assembly President.

He began by stating "most of my very dearest friends are Jewish people" and then went on to display a photo of what he said were some Rabbis from an Orthodox community in Jerusalem holding a sign reading "stop the massacre in Gaza." "Is it a fake?" he asked rhetorically.

At the same news conference, he claimed Israelis were like Nazis and suggested anti-Semitism meant something other than Jew-hatred. Referring to Israel, he said "All dictatorships including Hitler claim that those who criticize us hated the Nazis, all dictators do the same, and so also here … The Palestinians. Are they not semites?"

On September 23, 2008, in another first, Brockmann came down off the Assembly President's podium to give a warm bear hug to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad immediately following another anti-Semitic diatribe. Ahmadinejad had just finished alleging: "a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists … have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner … [T]he great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people."

The Human Rights Council is concluding its 14th session in Geneva today by maintaining its reputation as an institution with a greater interest in demonizing the Jewish state than in protecting human rights around the world. With the adoption of yet another resolution critical of Israel, the Council has adopted more resolutions and decisions condemning Israel than all other 191 UN member states combined.

Ann Bayefsky

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