American Jewish International Relations Institute
Dedicated to combating the use of the UN to delegitimize Israel.
December 2018
On December 6, 2018 the UN General Assembly took a very unusual step: it voted on a pro-Israel resolution. What is more, a majority of the votes cast, 60.4%, were cast for the resolution. Those unfriendly to Israel have minimized this reality because the resolution did not get the support of 66.7%, a two-thirds majority, but that does not change the reality that the votes on the resolution were 87 for and 57 against. It is a significant step forward.
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October 2018
December 2017
The purpose of the United Nations, as set forth in Chapter I, Article 1, is to “maintain international peace and security.” Under the provisions of Chapter V, Article 24 the Members of the United Nations conferred “on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
As we review the world situation at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 and try to determine where international peace and security are most seriously threatened, it is clear that we need to focus on the Middle East. Death and destruction threaten millions of people in Syria and Iraq. But we do not find the Security Council seriously engaged there. It focuses once again on Israel, the favorite whipping boy of the UN system. So, on December 23, 2016 it adopted another anti-Israel resolution, which not only fails to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but makes the attainment of peace more difficult.Continue Reading …
On November 30, 2016, Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Fatah party, delivered a three-hour speech to the Seventh Congress of Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority. He made it quite clear that Fatah is not prepared to accept the existence of Israel, as a majority Jewish state. “Moderate” Fatah thus joins extremist Hamas in refusing to enter into an agreement with Israel on a lasting two-state solution. While Hamas is committed to the use of force to end Israel’s existence, Fatah seeks to attain that result through action by the United Nations. It is prepared to agree to a temporary two-state solution, but one that reserves the claim of a so-called “right of return”, the mass migration to Israel of 5,300,000 persons of Palestinian descent living in the Middle East. It expects to realize that claim through a UN directive to Israel to allow these “refugees”, more than 99% of which are not refugees but are their descendants, to settle in Israel and thus end the existence of Israel as a majority Jewish state.Continue Reading …
The United States is committed to a two-state solution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It is clear that a majority of Israelis would agree to such a solution if they can be assured of provisions for security in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 242.
What is not well known is that Fatah, which leads the Palestinian Authority (PA), has the same ultimate objective: the liquidation of Israel and creation of an Arab State “from the River to the Sea.”
That Hamas rejects that solution and seeks to destroy the State of Israel is well known. What is not well known is that Fatah, which leads the Palestinian Authority (PA), has the same ultimate objective: the liquidation of Israel and creation of an Arab State “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” Rather than engaging in warfare against Israel to attain that result, Fatah is engaged in major efforts to maintain the support of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for its claim. As UNGA resolutions are advisory only, the PA expects ultimately to succeed with the next step: having the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) order Israel to recognize the “right of return”, with the United States not exercising its veto power to prevent this destructive action.Continue Reading …
At each of its annual sessions, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopts about 80 resolutions by roll call vote, including 18 resolutions that are directed against Israel. The United States votes No on each of these resolutions. AJIRI has focused its attention on three of these resolutions, the resolutions that renew annually the mandates of three UN bodies, two UNGA committees and one division in the UN Secretariat.
“. . . the United States remains profoundly troubled by the repetitive and disproportionate number of one-sided General Assembly resolutions designed to condemn Israel. . .” — U.S. Ambassador David Pressman
The sole purpose of these UN bodies is to conduct the UN’s worldwide anti-Israel propaganda apparatus. It is in that context that we should take special note of the statement made by Ambassador Pressman, the U.S. Alternate Representative at the United Nations, on November 24, 2015, when he delivered the U.S. explanation of vote after the UNGA had adopted a series of anti-Israel resolutions. He underlined the special importance of the three resolutions that AJIRI has emphasized:Continue Reading …
It is well known that Hamas is committed to resort to warfare and terrorism to end the existence of the State of Israel. What is less well known is that Hamas’s political rival, Fatah, which leads the Palestinian Authority (PA), has the same objective, to be achieved by different means. Rather than resorting to violence, the PA looks to the United Nations to help it achieve its desired result.
That is why we need to take due note of the news item in the Jerusalem Post that PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Maliki announced on August 11, 2015 that the PA “is planning to present a new resolution to the UN Security Council (UNSC) calling for ending Israeli ‘occupation’ and providing international protection for the Palestinians.” What such a resolution is likely to contain is spelled out in a June 18, 2015 position paper authored by Saeb Erekat, principal negotiator and now also Secretary-General of the PA.Continue Reading …
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister & former Israeli Ambassador to the US
“AJIRI is playing a crucial function to redress the balance of the automatic majority against Israel at the UN. This role is critical as Israel faces a concerted campaign of delegitimization which appropriates and abuses multilateral forums for their agenda.”