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Western Democracies Fail to Support Israel at UN

(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - On Sep. 18, the UN General Assembly voted to hand the Old City of Jerusalem, home to Judaism's holiest sites, to the "State of Palestine." This resolution would return the Old City, including the Western Wall, to its pre-1967 status, when Jordan had conquered it and Jews were not allowed in it. Moreover, all countries are asked to boycott Israel diplomatically and economically. The vote was 124 yes, 14 no, and 43 abstentions. Israel and the U.S. voted no. What of all the nice, decent, democratic U.S. allies? Many abstained, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the UK. They understood that this was a completely one-sided, unfair, and unrealistic resolution but nevertheless lacked the guts to vote no. Far worse were those Western democracies who actually voted for the resolution. They include Belgium, France, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, and Spain. They voted to remove Jews from the Old City. They have indulged a great expression of antisemitism, and agreed to apply to Israel standards of conduct that are applied to no other nation. They voted yes on a resolution that does not mention Hamas, Palestinian terrorism, or the Israeli hostages. The writer, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, served as deputy national security advisor, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House.
2024-09-24 00:00:00
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