Of the many fundamental flaws that characterize the United Nations, one is that, on the 47-member Human Rights Council (UNHRC), China, Cuba, and Qatar have the same vote as the U.S., UK, or Finland. Another is that an entire UN agency is dedicated to perpetuating the Israel-Palestinian conflict, running schools that indoctrinate pupils into hating Jews while using them as human shields for Hamas rocket batteries. Another is that the UN’s permanent, professional staff is rife with anti-Semites. Take the all-too-typical case of Craig Mokhiber. David May and Richard Goldberg write:
Craig Mokhiber heads the New York section of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which oversees the UNHRC. On Twitter, Mokhiber has falsely accused the Jewish state of “genocidal cruelty” and of committing “ongoing genocide,” “race-based slaughter,” “apartheid,” and “ethnic cleansing.” But that’s just par for the course. Mokhiber is currently in the spotlight because UN Watch—an NGO dedicated to accountability at Turtle Bay—issued a report showing that Mokhiber wants to block the UN from endorsing a widely-used definition of anti-Semitism, a key step in the process of rooting out anti-Semitism at the UN.
The Biden administration is a bit player in this drama, which is part of the problem. It promised that deeper and more consistent engagement with UN bodies would promote reform, but that hasn’t happened. The Mokhiber affair suggests it is past time for the Biden administration and Congress to threaten to withhold U.S. funding from any UN body found to be engaging in anti-Semitism.
Every year, the president requests and Congress appropriates upwards of a billion dollars to the United Nations and its various agencies and operations. That money should not be handed over as a blank check. Instead, conditions should be added to tie U.S. funding to any UN organization on whether that organization or its officials engage in anti-Semitism. American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the world’s oldest hatred.
Read more on Algemeiner: https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/03/21/how-to-keep-antisemitism-away-from-turtle-bay/