Not long after the UN Secretary General began his Holy Land visit, the Israeli prime minister and president began addressing the United Nation’s disturbingly slanted positions and policies.
If the United Nations’ (UN) newest Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, thought his first official visit to Israel would be a walk in the park, he was in for a rude awakening. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, wasted no time in raising a variety of serious problems related to the international body’s biased approach to Israel as the UN Chief’s three-day visit began.
In a press conference held on Monday, Netanyahu took a balanced yet firm stance with Guterres. While Netanyahu made sure to recognize Guterres’ acknowledgment that “calling for the destruction of Israel is a modern form of anti-Semitism,” moments later the prime minister delved into the UN’s “troubled relationship” with Israel.
Netanyahu raised a number of issues in his joint press conference with Guterres, including the UN’s “absurd obsession with Israel and its flagrantly discriminatory tactics.” Among the specific examples Netanyahu cited were the UN’s failure to condemn Palestinian hate speech and it’s support for UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) votes to declare that the Jewish people lack historical ties to the Land of Israel.
Most alarming of the issues Netanyahu raised was the UN’s failure to intervene, or even live up to its obligations, with regard to Iran’s growing sphere of influence on Israel’s borders, as the state terror sponsor arms Hezbollah in Lebanon and stockpiles arms in Syria. Netanyahu explicitly referred to Iran’s use of Lebanon and Syria as “war fronts in its declared goal to eradicate Israel.”
“This is something Israel cannot accept,” Netanyahu warned, “and something the the UN should not accept.”
President Pulls No Punches
On Monday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin also met Guterres, with this meeting taking place at the presidential residence in Jerusalem. “This targeting of Israel, this singling out of the world’s only Jewish State – and even actions and statements that threaten to destroy Israel – are unacceptable and should come at a price,” Rivlin announced to the UN chief.
Before meeting with Guterres, Rivlin addressed the discrimination against Israel at various UN agencies.
“The State of Israel is the one place in which the Jewish nation can fulfill its right for self-determination…and because the idea of the nation-state is so deeply rooted in the values and principles of the UN, I call upon you, Mr. Secretary General, to work to end the discrimination against Israel in some branches of your organization,” Rivlin charged.
While the UN has historically been hostile to the nation of Israel’s plight, it’s recent actions and the platform it has given to despotic nations who seek to “wipe Israel off the map” have led leaders such as Netanyahu and Rivlin to demand that the international body acknowledge that anti-Zionism is at its core a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
By: United with Israel Staff