Penna Dexter

A couple of weeks ago there was an event at the White House honoring Israel on its 69th Independence Day. Vice President Mike Pence gave what has been described as “a stirring tribute” to this nation which has traditionally enjoyed close ties with the United States. It’s nice to see the US acting like a friend and ally to Israel again, something we saw little of during the previous administration.

Then, last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas came to Washington DC. In discussions, President Trump called him out for the Palestinians’ funding of terrorism against innocent Israelis. This, too, is a departure from what we’ve seen in recent years.

Let’s hope this change spills over to influence the United Nations to pull back on its mostly abominable treatment of Israel.

The United States is the principal founding member of the UN and its largest financial contributor. The US Senate has taken a step toward employing that leverage by admonishing the United Nations for its blatant anti-Israel bias. Two senators, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Chris Coons of Delaware wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asking for better treatment of Israel by the UN. And every senator, Republican and Democrat, all 100 of them, signed it.

The letter stated that too many of UN “member states and agencies use the world body as a vehicle for targeting Israel.” The letter specifically called for the elimination or reform of UN standing committees whose principal purpose is to attack Israel, and support boycotts, sanctions and divestment movements against Israel.

The senators also critiqued UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which continually pushes initiatives that are really attempts to delegitimize Israel.

And they excoriated the UN’s Human Rights Commission whose “obsession with Israel” the letter states, makes a mockery of the council whose members include “some of the world’s worst human rights violators.”

Senator Rubio gave the letter some teeth by sponsoring a bill withholding funding to the UN for targeting Israel. This effort deserves our support.