On Monday, Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, arrived at its headquarters with a placard bearing a recent quote, from the Facebook page of a teacher at a UN-run school, praising Adolf Hitler. The school in question is one of many operated by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an organization that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem, and whose schools are often engines of anti-Semitic and jihadist indoctrination—and, in Gaza, sometimes used by Hamas as human shields. Upon entering, Erdan—who planned to use the poster during his speech to the General Assembly—was told that no such items were allowed on the premises. Benny Avni observes:

The ambassador’s team “was informed that, in accordance with the relevant protocols, . . . the display of placards is not allowed,” says the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Mr. Dujarric couldn’t cite any written no-placard rule, saying only that it was “established protocol.”

Yet, in a recorded speech to the General Assembly from his Ramallah office on September 24, the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, displayed a placard of a map, purported to document how his “state” (which America, for one, has never recognized as such) has shrank since its mythical “historic Palestine” days, before the establishment of Israel in 1948.

UN officials admit the unwritten “protocol” barring placards at the General Assembly isn’t enforced across the board. “The rules are the rules,” Mr. Dujarric said. . . . Over the years, Israeli diplomats have consistently told me they respect UN rules and protocols and obey them diligently. So either they were unaware of the particular diktat, or the unwritten “protocol” is so obscure and unevenly enforced that it’s not worth the placard it’s written on.

Earlier in Geneva, during a typical Israel-bashing session on Saturday, the UN Human Rights Council’s president, Nazhat Shameem Khan, cut off a speech by [the pro-Israel activist] Hillel Neuer shortly after he started unveiling his organization’s deep investigation into anti-Semitism at UNRWA. . . . Neuer highlighted the same quote, as well as others.

Apparently the UNHRC rules also prohibit discussing the anti-Semitism of UN employees. So far, however, no one has discovered any rules that might discourage anti-Semitic pronouncements in the first place.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.