On December 11, a record 1,000 people attended the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National Dinner at which the keynote speaker was one of Israel’s truest friends, U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, who opened his address by saying, “When Mort Klein asked me some months ago if I’d be available I said: tell me the day and I’ll be there.”
Also addressing the dinner was the distinguished Jerusalem Post managing editor and syndicated columnist Caroline Glick. [Editor’s note: See this week’s front-page essay for an adaptation of Ms. Glick’s remarks.] Both speakers displayed uncommon clarity and insight into the enormous problems facing Israel and the United States.
The United Nations, despite the hopes of some that it was reforming its attitude toward Israel in the wake of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria, has not stopped passing anti-Israel resolutions and funding bodies that propagandize against Israel. Bolton was refreshingly direct in speaking out against entrenched anti-Israel bias at the UN. In his words, “to say that Israel is treated as a normal nation at the UN would be a statement of fantasy.”
Bolton promised to pursue the issue of UN-sponsored anti-Israel campaigns. Referring to the recent “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” at which a “Map of Palestine” was displayed from which Israel was expunged and which was attended by senior UN dignitaries, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Bolton said that there was reason to believe the map had been produced and paid for by the UN.
He referred also to the case of the UN Development Program (UNDP) that had produced mugs and t-shirts with the statement “Today Gaza, Tomorrow Jerusalem,” saying that the U.S. would pursue these matters.
Bolton continued, “If that is true, then you, the American taxpayer, paid for 22 percent of that map [percentage of UN budget paid for by U.S.]. You probably paid 22 percent of that entire event. We’re going to find out if that is true….This is not simply a mistake that [Annan and other officials] made not speaking about the map. They didn’t speak about the map because they didn’t see anything unusual….We need to say this is a pivot point to change the culture at the UN….I want to make it clear that we are not finished with the issue….We are setting a new standard for honesty at the UN.”
Calls for Israel’s destruction are nothing new in the Middle East, but Bolton refused to ignore the repeated calls in recent weeks by the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, something which he says has “drawn almost no attention” at the UN: “This is no mere flight of rhetoric…remember, this is the same president of the same government that is trying to acquire a nuclear capability that could wipe Israel, or any other state, off the map.”
Bolton also praised the ZOA for being willing to speak the truth about the Middle East even when others are reluctant to do so.
Caroline Glick, who was presented with the Ben Hecht Award for Outstanding Journalism on the Middle East, spoke powerfully of the dangers for Israel in pursuing new political fantasies about unilaterally withdrawing from territories and setting up barriers that will supposedly buy it security.
In my own address, I took up the same issue, noting that, “Ever since the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria, instead of things getting better, things have been getting worse. Hundreds of missiles have been fired at Israel from Gaza, thousands of weapons have been smuggled into Gaza and dozens of terrorists have entered Gaza and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas continues to praise the ‘martyrs’ and actually named the Rafah border crossing after a terrorist killer of Jews.”