By ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN AND ELIOT ENGEL—
The world has long had a keen interest in and focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Part of this focus, for so many years, has been an unfair, microscopic attention to Israel’s actions and relationship with the Palestinians. Israel has been subjected to a standard that no other country in the world has had to endure. This has been the case for so many years, but it is now clear that the criticism of Israel is not about particular actions, or particular issues like borders, but about Israel’s very existence.
The United Nations, which voted to partition Palestine leading to the creation of the State of Israel 75 years ago this month, unfortunately has become over the years a major arena for anti-Israel propaganda. This has given aid and comfort and material support to Israel’s implacable enemies. The high point of this rhetorical abuse of Israel came in 1975, when the UN General Assembly passed a resolution which characterized Zionism, the legitimate national liberation movement of the Jewish people, as a form of racism. That obscene declaration was aptly referred to by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, America’s great UN ambassador, as an “infamous act.”
As it is often said: “words have consequences.” That shameful UN resolution, cooked up by the Soviet Union and pushed through the UNGA by the Islamic Conference and the Communist bloc, gave a false international credibility to the idea that Israel is a racist, illegitimate, uniquely evil state. In 1991, the United States, during the George H.W. Bush administration, led a successful effort to repeal the resolution. Unfortunately, two UN institutions that were created in the wake of that original resolution, and that have served to implement its message, continue to operate. Continue Reading….