Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

OBAMA SHOWS HIS COLORS; STABS ISRAEL IN THE BACK

That Obama hates Israel should not have taken anyone by surprise, but apparently it did, including American liberal Jews who chose not to consider seriously the facts Stanley Kurtz  laid out 5 years ago.  So now with the U.N. Security Council vote (on the eve of Hanukkah of all days!) we have Israel stripped of territory it has occupied for the past 1,000 years (Jewish Quarter of East Jerusalem and the Western Wall) plus so much else.  Thank you, Mr. Obama.  

Here is a worthwhile discussion of Obama's treachery.  

My own feeling is that this U.N. action against Israel will be a catalyst for a major shakeup of the world's international relationships.  As someone presciently said of President-elect Trump months before he was elected, "Trump is a wrecking ball to the spirit of political correctness."   Similarly, I think he will be a "wrecking ball" to the world's international alignments as they appeared at the end of 2016.  The world needs "shaking up" in a positive way.  Charles Krauthammer says "it is time to rethink our slavish devotion, to an institution that devotes itself to attacking an ally and to undermining American interests."   Absolutely!   That's a first step.

Partial transcript:

The fact is that Americans have to really think about why we still invest, support, and, in a sense sort of psychically invest in the U.N., which was a great idea 70 years ago when it was an idea. But it’s a complete failure, and it’s a farce. Sixty percent of its activity is devoted to reports, attacks, denunciations, and demonization of one state — the one Jewish state on the planet, a dot on the map.  . .  Time to rethink our devotion, slavish devotion, to an institution that devotes itself to attacking an ally and to undermining American interests.   [my emphases]

Other inportant commentaries:

Caroline Glick - "Obama's War Against America" 

Bat Ye'or - "Deligitimizing the Jewish State" - important history by an indefatigable researcher.

Daniel Pipes - "The Way to Peace: Israeli Victory, Palestinian Defeat"

ARTICLES WORTH READING

     - Michelle Malkin spotlights the secretive educational agenda that is undermining the curriculum in our nations' schools in her column, "Rotten to the Core: The growing grassroots revolt against Common Core."

     - Charles Krauthammer exposes President Obama's "The Sky is Falling" rhetoric regarding sequestration.

     - Claudia Rosett pulls back the curtain on the United Nations' anti-Semitic "Alliance of Civilizations"

OBAMA PLANS TO RE-FUND UNESCO BY TUCKING IT INTO AN OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL

The man in the White House wheels and deals according to his pro-UN, pro-Palestinian agenda, an agenda at variance with the majority of Americans.  He hides his actions behind an uninquisitive, complicit media.  Story here.

BE WARY THE U.N.

From the  Wall Street Journal:

**  Donald Rumsfeld - "Why the U.N. Shouldn't Own the Seas"  (Subscription required)  Rumsfeld writes in response to Kissinger, Schultz, Baker, Powell and Rice, who argue the opposite).  Excerpt from Rumsfeld:

           "The ["Law of the Sea"] treaty proposes to create a new global governance institution that would regulate American citizens and businesses without being accountable politically to the American people.  ...  Americans should be uncomfortable with unelected and unaccountable tribunals appointed by the secretary general of the United Nations serving as the final arbiter of such disagreements. 

           "Even if one were to agree wtih the principle of global wealth redistribution from the U.S. to other nations, other U.N. bodies have proven notably unskilled at financial managements. . . .

**  L. Gordon Crovitz - "The U.N.'s Internet Power Grab"  Excerpt:

The broadest proposal in the draft materials is an initiative by China to give countries authority over "the information and communication infrastructure within their state" and require that online companies "operating in their territory" use the Internet "in a rational way"—in short, to legitimize full government control. The Internet Society, which represents the engineers around the world who keep the Internet functioning, says this proposal "would require member states to take on a very active and inappropriate role in patrolling" the Internet.

Several proposals would give the U.N. power to regulate online content for the first time, under the guise of protecting against computer malware or spam. Russia and some Arab countries want to be able to inspect private communications such as email. . . .

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU'S SPEECH TO THE UNITED NATIONS 9/23/11

 

Netanyahu:  "I didn't come here to win applause, I came to speak the truth."  And speak the truth he did.  In laying out Israel's perspective, he continually extended his hand to Palestinian President Abbas to sit down with him and negotiate peace.  I wish everyone would read Netanyahu's speech.  It would help correct misconceptions and dispel ignorance.

Text of Netanyahu's speech: [my bolding]

AHMADINEJAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS: WHAT DID HE SAY?

Joe Rosenberg says we need to study Ahmadinejad's words, which we seldom do. Rosenberg writes: [my emphases]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a world leader worthy of the world stage. He is the evil leader of an Iranian death cult. A new U.N. report indicates that he is making progress in building nuclear weapons. He has predicted the arrival of the Twelfth Imam and called for wiping Israel “off the map.” He aspires to be a mass murderer beyond the scale of history’s great dictators. He deserves to be in prison, or an insane asylum. His speech on Thursday before the United Nations General Assembly was further proof, if any more were needed.

Did you see Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic address, or read the full text? You should. It’s instructive. Unfortunately, you won’t find Ahmadinejad’s full speech reprinted in the major newspapers. It was pitifully covered by the mainstream media. It should have been carefully analyzed.

Ahmadinejad isn’t hiding what he believes. He denied the Holocaust. He blasted the U.S. for bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. He blamed the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the U.S. government. He insisted that his so-called messiah known as “Imam al-Mahdi” or the Twelfth Imam is coming soon. He insisted that Jesus Christ will come with the Mahdi to take over the world. He called for “the shared and collective management of the world.”

ANTI-ISRAEL DURBAN DECLARATION REAFFIRMED

Anne Beyefsky writes:

On Thursday, Western negotiators at the U.N. caved in to the demands of envoys from Islamic states to renew a modern-day form of the decades-long U.N. smear campaign alleging that the Jewish state is racist. Diplomats agreed on a new “anti-racism” declaration that went public Friday at noon. The document is intended to be adopted by all the heads of state and government in attendance at the U.N. “Durban III” conference to be held in New York City on September 22. So far, nine democratic countries, including the United States, Israel, and Canada, have decided to boycott the event and will not agree to the racist “anti-racism” manifesto.  [more...]

Me:  A commenter well stated:   "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany...than the UN."   Another commenter wrote:  Why is the UN so anti-Israel? Find out in this short, succinct video produced by the Jerusalem Institute for Justice for Boycott Durban III.  [Below]  The writer says, "Join the demonstration on SEPT 21 across from the U.N. to Boycott Durban III"

Truth bites: (Scroll down)

• 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs who enjoy full equality in all areas of life.

• Arab Israelis have more money, education, rights and freedom than Arabs living in any other country in the Middle East.

• Arab Israeli women were the first Arab Women to receive the right to vote.

• Arab Israelis enjoy a higher GDP than their neighbors in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and all other Muslim nations, with the exception of the oil kingdoms.

• It is estimated that 30% of UNCHR’s (the UNHRC’s predecessor) country specific resolutions were against Israel.

• In 2006-2007, the UN passed 22 resolutions against Israel, but neglected to form a single resolution regarding the ongoing Darfur genocide in Sudan.

• More than 17,000 deadly terrorist attacks have been committed by Muslim extremists since 9/11. How many has Israel committed? Zero.

• Over a thousand civilians have been killed in recent political uprisings and demonstrations in Libya, Egypt and Syria.

• It is estimated that over 70% of the state specific condemnations made by the UNHRC over the last 30 years, have been against Israel.

• Mahmud Ahmadinejad, key note speaker at the past Durban convention, represents a country which tortures and murders its civilians, arrests those who speak against the government, and forbids the international media from entering the country.

• Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recognized, in 2005, that the Commission’s (CHR) “credibility deficit” was “cast[ing] a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.”

• The HRC’s resolutions against Israel equal the combined total of country-specific resolutions adopted against all other countries in the world.

• The former CHR and today’s HRC bar Israel from participating in a Regional Group, and from membership in the Commission/Council, therefore making her the only country who cannot participate in the Commission/Council.

CUBA ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT OF U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

This is sick.  One looks for an exit from the current mad house.  Except it's for real.  Our president is part of the cast of characters making it all possible.  From Jay Nordlinger:

Have you heard the latest news from the U.N. Human Rights Council — the most exalted body within the most exalted body in all the world? Cuba, as a nation — as a government, rather — has been elected vice president of the council. In celebration, the Cuban government put out a statement:

“The election of Cuba to this important post recognizes the exemplary work of the Cuban Revolution in favor of the human rights of its people and the world. It also shows respect for Cuba’s active and committed work as a founding member of the U.N. Human Rights Council in defense of truth and justice and for its leadership in favor of the noblest causes.”

Bear in mind that Cuba is a one-party dictatorship with a gulag. (Therefore, it’s perfect for the U.N. Human Rights Council.)

Can you stand a little more news? Miguel d’Escoto, the old Sandinista foreign minister, and a classic anti-American and anti-Semite, has just been appointed to the council’s advisory panel. Of course.

And, in this article, Anne Bayefsky tells us this: “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.”

Our previous president, George W. Bush, thought that the United States should have nothing to do with this council — that it was too disgraceful to join. Too contrary to the U.N.’s founding principles to dignify. His successor, President Obama, immediately had the U.S. join the council. The argument of Team Obama was that the U.S., by its presence, would improve the council.

Sure! Nice going, guys.

FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. JOHN BOLTON, PREDICTS "OBAMA'S NEXT THREE YEARS"

I consider John Bolton one of the wisest and most perceptive foreign policy experts we have.  His analysis of President Obama seems right on target to me, though I find it chilling.

The best way to predict Obama’s foreign policy in the next three years lies not in examining how he deals with the accumulated baggage of Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East peace, and the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs. Important as those are, they constitute what Obama has had to confront. We should ask instead what he will attempt to establish once he has become less encumbered by the inherited issues. Here, the record shows three critical characteristics. . .

Read on . . .

JOHN BOLTON ON OBAMA'S U.N. SPEECH: "THE MOST RADICAL ANTI-ISRAEL SPEECH I CAN RECALL ANY PRESIDENT MAKING... I WAS VERY SHAKEN BY THIS SPEECH"

Pamela Geller put up a blog post at Atlas Shrugs featuring Glenn Beck's interview with John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  I am a fan of John Bolton and value his perspectives.  Excerpts (emphases are Pamela Geller's):

Bolton: This is the most radical anti-Israel speech I can recall any president making.

Two phrases in what you've just heard, the president says that "America does not accept" and I'm quoting now, "the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." Not 'new Israeli settlements', "continued Israeli", which, this is Mr.Wordsmith here, that calls into question in my mind all Israeli settlements.

NETANYAHU SPEAKS AT THE U.N. - "HAVE YOU NO SHAME?"

Update: Pamela Geller has the text and video of Netanyahu's UN speech.

(Original post) - Joel Rosenberg says,

Over the years, I’ve heard Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliver a lot of speeches. But none so powerful as this.

Highlights from Rosenberg:

• The Prime Minister laid down the gauntlet with Iran, and the world.
• He commended the nations whose leaders and diplomats either boycotted or walked out of Ahmadinejad’s speech yesterday for their “moral clarity.”
• He also shamed those who stayed and those U.N. leaders who gave the Iranian leader — who calls the Holocaust “a lie” while publicly threatening to annihilate the Jewish people in the not-too-distant future — a platform to spew his vile beliefs.
• “To those who gave this Holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, Have you no shame? Have you no decency?”
• Must-see video clip of Netanyahu’s speech. [1 minute, 40 seconds]
  
• He showed the world original Nazi documents explaining the Holocaust that were given him by the German government and repeatedly asked world leaders, “Are these a lie?”
• He noted that President Obama recently visited a Nazi death camp in Europe and asked whether Obama gave validation to “a lie.”
  
• Netanyahu urged the world to stop Iran now from getting the Bomb, and warned the failure to do so could lead to incalculable suffering and damage.
• He challenged the U.N. for its anti-Semitic and anti-Israel “Goldstone Commission” report. The report charges the Jewish state with war crimes for defending her people from eight years of 10,000-plus rockets and missiles raining down from Gaza. What’s more, he challenged the U.N. to reject the commission’s report and thus side with Israel, or accept the report and side with and reward the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. He asked how Israel could possibly take more “risks for peace” if the world condemned Israel for defending herself from terror attacks launched from the last swath of land offered to the Palestinians in the name of peace.

It reminded me of President Bush’s speech to the U.N. in September 2002 when he challenged the world community to effectively hold Saddam Hussein accountable for dozens of violations of international law or risk irrelevance.

Today, Netanyahu challenged the world to stop Iran from acquiring weapons of genocide, or risk losing all moral legitimacy.

USA PROMOTES COERCED INTERNATIONAL ABORTION

I consider this a MUST-READ article.  Chuck Colson writes:

Last year, a young Chinese woman—let’s call her Dan Li—ran afoul of the Chinese government. She had become “illegally pregnant.” By the time the authorities found out, Dan Li was seven months along. Family planning officials tied her to a bed, induced labor, and, when the baby was born, killed the baby.

What happened to Dan Li is an abomination—one, however, that tragically takes place regularly in China. But now, thanks to the U.S. Congress, you and I will be paying for it.

Last March, without fanfare, Congress passed a bill providing $50 million for the United Nations Population Fund. This organization promotes abortion around the globe—including in China. What makes the bill especially heinous is that it voided Kemp-Kasten, a bill which, for two decades, prevented our tax dollars from funding forced abortions and sterilization.

This blows the lid off the argument that abortion is all about giving a woman choice. If Congress really stands for choice, as they claim, why did they vote for coercion? If feminists are really for choice, why aren’t they fighting this law? Why isn’t our pro-choice President demanding that this brutalization of women be stopped?  Keep reading. . .

HOW U.N. CONVENTIONS ON WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS UNDERMINE FAMILY, RELIGION, AND SOVEREIGNTY

From the Family Research Council:

Click here to download paper.

By Patrick F. Fagan, William L. Saunders, and Michael A. Fragoso

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

U.N. committees charged with offering guidance on the obligations incumbent upon nations that have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ("CEDAW") and the Convention on the Rights of the Child ("CRC") are, instead, advancing a radical agenda harmful to the best interests of societies and states, under the cover of providing review and recommendations. In doing so, these U.N. committees are decisively undermining the sovereignty of state parties to the treaties in matters that have always been within the domestic jurisdiction of individual states to decide. These committees have recommended -

• Legalizing prostitution and elevating it to the status of a profession
• Diminishing the legal protection of freedom of conscience
• Diminishing parental guidance for teenagers' emerging sexuality
• Promoting access to abortion, contraception, and other "medical" services for children without parental consent
• Promoting contraceptive use without regard to its social consequences
• Promoting abortion under the fiction of an international law mandate
• Demeaning traditional motherhood and those who support it
• Promoting professional child care for newborns
• Equating mild spanking of children by their parents with serious physical abuse
• Objecting to the influence of religion on society
• Objecting to the protection of rights of religious minorities

If these recommendations were followed, marriage and family would be further undermined, as would religious freedom.

UN PANEL PASSES THE RELIGIOUS-DEFAMATION RESOLUTION

- Update 4/5/09 - Robert Spencer has put up a valuable post, titled "The UN's Jihad Against Free Speech." Excerpt:

In other words, if the OIC and the drafters of the Durban declaration get their way, any honest examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to make recruits will be illegal. So not only does this herald the death of free speech, but it also leaves us mute and defenseless before the advancing global jihad.

- (Original Post) - Ed Morrissey over at HotAir reports:

The UN Human Rights Council has passed the resolution calling for an end to critcism of religion around  the world.  Actually, to be fair, that’s not entirely accurate.  They want an end to criticism of one  particular religion — and we all know which religion that will be:

The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations  Thursday  urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.

The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries — with  the backing of Belarus and Venezuela — had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

 A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven nations, mostly Western, opposed the resolution, and 13 countries abstained. …

U.N. 'Climate Change' Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy

Oh, brother.  As in World Big Brother controlling the world economy!  Click here for the Fox news report.  (HT: Drudge) Ed Morrissey offers analysis and commentary and concludes:

If one tried to get as many foolish ideas into one 16-page document as the UN does here, they’d be hard pressed to do so.  If Obama cooperates with this, we will have willingly traded American sovereignty for rule by thieves and knaves.  Republicans need to win some seats back in the Senate to ensure this treaty never gets ratified.

- Speaking of the UN, Another Day, Another Scandal

AT THE UN, VICIOUS ANTI-SEMITISM IS MET BY A ROUND OF APPLAUSE

Anne Bayevsky writes:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 will go down in history as the day the United Nations General Assembly provided a platform for a head of state [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran] to spew unadulterated, vile antisemitism — and the assembled nations of the world clapped.

The United Nations has become the largest global purveyor of antisemitism in the world today.  In the full knowledge that the president of Iran denies the Holocaust and advocates the destruction of the U.N. member state of Israel, the U.N. invited him to mount the dais and gave him a megaphone.  [more . . .]

IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD RETURNS TO THE UN

I P. David Hornik offers a valuable overview of the return visit of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the U.N.   Hornik writes:

Incitement to genocide is doing well these days. On Monday, September 22, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be arriving to address the UN General Assembly for the third time. At least this time he won’t be an honored guest of Columbia University as well.

Since his last address to the world body, a year ago on September 24, Ahmadinejad has been adding to his genre—not only referring to Israel last May 8 as a “stinking corpse” that “should be wiped off the face of the earth” as Sarah Palin has noted. Six days later, for instance, on Israel’s 60^th birthday, he said on Iranian state television that “The Zionist regime is dying. The criminals assume that by holding celebrations...they can save the sinister Zionist regime from death and annihilation…. Nations of the region hate this criminal fabricated regime and will uproot this fabricated regime if the smallest and briefest opportunity is given to them.”

Me:  This time Ahmadinejad will be met by protests and responses.  Read on...

- See also "Iran's Faltering Economy" by Michael Rubin in Euro-Atlantic Quarterly (HT:  Corner)

THE U.N., ABORTION, AND "WOMEN'S HEALTH"

Family Research Council report:

The United Nations (U.N.) is once again trying to force abortion on its member countries, this time using the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a radical U.N. document that seeks to redefine family and globally legalize abortion on demand in the countries that sign onto it. This week, the U.N. Committee for CEDAW issued a report demanding that Britain force Northern

BURMA'S TRAGEDY - WHERE WAS GOD?

Should God have given men free will to to do evil, to be irresponsible, callous, and derelict in duty and compassion?   Should God have allowed the United Nations power to achieve sanctimonious irrelevance and venality?  I ask these questions not to blame God, but to put the blame where it belongs:  on corrupt men and institutions.

The Burmese tragedy should never have occurred, at least not on the scale the world witnesses today. Read Joseph Laconte's account: Abetting Burma: The United Nations is complicit in the current catastrophe.

While you're at it, read John Bolton's assessment of the United Nations,  an address offered at a Hillsdale College gathering on February 11, 2008.

On the issue of possible global warming causes, read on...

HOW IS THE UNITED NATIONS DOING UNDER KOFI ANAN'S SUCCESSOR, SECRETARY GENERAL BAN KI-MOON?

Not very well, it turns out, as this excellent survey by Joseph Klein makes clear.

. . . in terms of the institution, the change at the top has made little difference. The United Nations continues to spiral downward.    (more . . .)

UN's AIDS Statistics Inaccurate and Overblown

I have updated a previous post to reflect the latest admissions.

John Bolton, Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. - A Hero to me (and others)

For delightful nuggets gleaned from John Bolton’s new book, Surrender Is Not an Option, read Jay Nordlinger's comments and excerpts here.

Gore Wins 2007 Nobel Peace Prize - Plus a Look Back at Past Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).   Powerline asks the question, "When did the Nobel Peace Prize go off the tracks?" and supplies this reminder of past recipients (HT: Hugh Hewitt):

2005
MOHAMED ELBARADEI (joint winner).  He's done such a nice job with Iran. 

2004
WANGARI MAATHAI. The Kenyan ecologist peacefully teaches that the AIDS virus is a biological agent deliberately created by the Man.

2002
JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America. A true cosmopolitan, he has undermined the foreign policy of his own country and vouched for the bona fides of tyrants and murderers all over the world.

2001
UNITED NATIONS, New York, NY, USA. 
KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General. Among other things, they have

Anne Bayefsky on the Fiasco that is the U.N. Human Rights Council

Click here.  Bayefsky begins her excellent report with these words:

When President Bush told the United Nations General Assembly this week “the American people are disappointed by the failures of the Human Rights Council,” his words could not have been more timely or deserved. He pointed out “This body has been silent on repression by regimes from Havana to Caracas to Pyongyang and Tehran — while focusing its criticism excessively on Israel.” On Friday, the Council piled the dung heap higher. It wrapped up another session in Geneva by adopting two more resolutions against Israel and no resolutions critical of the human-rights record of any of the other 191 U.N. member states.   (more)

Me: Read the whole thing.  It's amazing... and disgusting.

Vaclev Havel Calls on the Int'l Community to Support Freedom in Myanmar

Update 10/1/07 - The "Daily Mail" reports Thousands Dead in Massacre of the Monks Dumped in the Jungle.  It looks like the hoped-for revolution has been put down.  - The Heritage Foundation offers analysis of the roles China, India and ASEAN play (or should play)

**
Michelle Malkin is keeping close tabs on the Burmese crisis.  Vaclev Havel has issued a call for the international community to add genuine support to the pro-democracy movement.   National Review Online's editorial offers excellent background and analysis.  An excerpt:

Backing the protesters is morally sound because the Burmese regime is among the cruelest on the planet. It is responsible for a campaign of ethnic cleansing that has killed scores of thousands and displaced multitudes more. It is an unapologetic practitioner of forced labor. It conscripts children into its armed forces. It keeps Aung San Suu Kyi — the leader of an immensely popular pro-democracy opposition — under house arrest or worse (reports surfaced this week that she had been thrown in prison). It has shattered the Burmese economy: Resource-rich and once relatively prosperous, Burma now has a per capita income of just $200. What wealth does exist is concentrated in the hands of its rulers. Top general Than Shwe, who sees himself as a god-king, recently moved the capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw, a place whose extreme remoteness protects his opulent palace from the righteous anger of the dispossessed.
 
Small wonder the Burmese have taken to the streets. Their protests began last month when a few hundred gathered to decry the junta’s decision to raise fuel prices by 500 percent. The protests have now spread across the country, and their ranks have swelled to the tens of thousands. Significantly, they are led by Buddhist monks, who represent

Mark Steyn on the Fiasco of UN "Peacekeeping" Missions

Steyn offers a brief comment worth noting:

The worst Hallibushitlerburton war crime pales into insignifance compared with what Dutch "peacekeepers" allowed to happen in Srebrenica or a passive UN force (under Canadian command) sat back and watched in Rwanda.

Whatever you want to call these latterday expeditionary activities, it isn't soldiering. The Iranians understood that. They understood it three years ago; the British didn't and they've learned nothing since.

KOFI ANNAN AND THE UNITED NATIONS EXPOSED FOR DISTORTION, DECEPTION, MORAL OBTUSENESS AND PETTY HYPOCRISY

Victor Davis Hanson lays bare the oily false moralism of the U.N. typified by its out-going leader, Kofi Annan.  Here are a few quotes excerpted from an article that deserves to be read in full.

. . . By any fair measure the current international renegade in matters of trademark infringement, copyright violation, or cutthroat acquisition of resources is an undemocratic China. Yet we know that Annan would not go to Beijing to lecture

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFL) - Sitting Around, Not Stopping Weapons Smuggling

According to news reports,

"Despite the 20,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon, the United Nations admits that weapons smuggling from Syria continues unhindered. A German report finds UNIFIL does not patrol after dark.

Hizbullah terrorists are free to roam at night without fear of being identified by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), according to a report by the German paper Der Spiegel.

Spanish UNIFIL official Richard Ortax admitted to the paper that no patrols are carried out at night “because of the danger involved.”    (Read more)

KEEPING TRACK OF THE U.N. AND ISRAEL

Anne Bayefsky reports on "The U.N.'s Spokesperson for Suicide Bombers:  John Dugard delivers his annual address to the U.N. on Israel's human-rights record."   She writes: 

On October 19, U.N.-appointed “human rights” expert John Dugard told the General Assembly that “Palestinian suicide bombers” are “a consequence of occupation.” In five years traveling on the U.N. payroll - 22 percent of which comes from American taxpayers - Dugard has now distinguished himself as the most fanatical spokesperson for terrorism at the U.N. outside the Arab and Muslim world.   

More here.     Anne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and at Touro College Law Center.    She is also editor of www.EyeontheUN.org.

THE UNITED NATIONS' HUMANITARIAN FAILURES

Michelle Malkin argues against Anglina Jolie's devotion to the United Nations, saying:

In the land of make-believe, Jolie's call to pour more tax dollars into the U.N. refugee agency's coffers might well help to stem the refugee tide. But in the real world, it will only perpetuate exploitation. The well-read actress ought to read up on the Kenyan bribery scandal that has plagued the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR.

You want to talk about scandal? For years, U.N. staff members in Nairobi shook down African refugees seeking resettlement in North America, Europe and Australia while the U.N. looked the other way. The extortion racket charged up to $5,000 a head for resettlement rights. Belated investigations found that the scandal wasn't the result of a few rogue workers-but of negligent management that created a ripe atmosphere for abuse.