Reports

AJIRI #57: The UN Security Council Adopts Resolution 2334 with the U.S. Abstaining

December 29, 2016

Another Case Reflecting the Anti-Israel Culture of the UN

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 …

AJIRI #56: Fatah’s Reliance on the UN to Deliver an Arab State “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea”

December 23, 2016

Refusal to accept the Existence of a Majority Jewish State

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 …

AJIRI #54: The UN General Assembly as Sponsor of the One-State Solution

February 2, 2016

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 …

AJIRI #53: The Resolutions that Maintain the UN Worldwide Anti-Israel Propaganda Apparatus

December 21, 2015

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 …

AJIRI #52: Fatah’s Call for a One-State Solution

August 14, 2015

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 …

AJIRI #51: The Fatah Goal at the UN Security Council: Recognition of the Claim of a “Right of Return”

What do the latest Palestinian moves at the UN really mean?  AJIRI’s latest report “The Fatah Goal at the UN Security Council: Recognition of the Claim of a “Right of Return” spells it out.

AJIRI #50: The UN’s latest Anti-Israel Project: The War Crimes Charge

After ignoring the continuing Hamas attacks against Israel for years, the UN Human Rights Council convened 15 days after the start of the most recent military activities between Israel and Gaza. It spent a few hours listening to speeches attacking Israel and, without further investigation, adopted a pre-cooked resolution that found Israel guilty of a series of war crimes. The Council then arranged for the creation of a commission that was assigned the task of collecting the evidence that would retroactively prove that the Council was right in issuing its guilty verdict against Israel. The Council also called upon the Commission to come up with the names of Israeli officials against whom war crimes charges are to be brought.

AJIRI #42: Mahmoud Abbas Speech to the 67th UN General Assembly

Rejecting Negotiations with Israel

October 2012

In the course of the first week of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly a great deal of media attention has been paid to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech, which focused on the problem posed by Iran’s nuclear program. By contrast, very little attention was paid to the speech of President Mahmoud Abbas, a speech that offers very little hope of a peace agreement in the near future.

Abbas made it quite clear that he is not prepared to enter into negotiations with Israel. As he put it “marathon negotiations are not required to determine … the core components of a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” These components, he said, “are the clearest and most logical in the world.” They include “the realization of the independence of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, over the entire territory occupied by Israel since 1967, and the realization of a just, agreed solution to the Palestine refugee issue in accordance with resolution 194 (iii), as prescribed in the Arab Peace Initiative.”

AJIRI #41: The Problem Israel Faces at the UN

The Beginning: Castro and Qaddafi Take Control of the UNGA Agenda

September 2012

For close to forty years, the UN has served as the center of a worldwide effort to delegitimize Israel. It started when Fidel Castro and Muammar Qaddafi, after competing for the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement, decided in the early 1970’s to join in an effort to take control of the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Castro brought to this effort the member states of the Soviet bloc at the UN. Qaddafi brought the Organization of the Islamic Conference (now known as the Organization for Islamic Cooperation).

AJIRI #40: The Status of Jerusalem

August 2012

Recent events have introduced the question of the status of Jerusalem into the political debate.  That in turn has produced a good deal of media commentary, reminding the general public of the fact that the seat of government of the State of Israel is Jerusalem, but the U.S. Embassy, as well as other embassies, are located in Tel Aviv.  Note has also been taken of the fact that in 1995 Congress called for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but allowed the President to waive that provision of law if a waiver is deemed to be in the national interest.  Waivers have been issued, at regular intervals, by Presidents Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama.

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