Back in the good old days when America was a country not under systematic destruction, Pelosi got a kick out of ripping up Trump’s speech at the State of the Union. This gesture is dramatic enough to raise eyebrows, but it’s far more effective if there are actually members of the audience on your side. In Pelosi’s case, she had Squad members sitting a few rows back smiling at their Speaker’s brazenness. Reader, whilst standing behind the podium at the UN General Assembly, there isn’t much use for this particular strategy, especially if you’re Israeli. That is because the UN is unmistakably the anti-Semitic headquarters of the world. This somehow didn’t deter Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan from publicly tearing up the Human Rights Council’s annual report. Erdan evoked ambassador Chaim Herzog’s 1975 shredding of a resolution that equated Zionism with racism, on the same stage. What seems to frustrate Erdan is that Israel has been marked as a special agenda item for discussion at every council session, has been attacked with countless resolutions, and is generally subject to “obsessive” scrutiny by so-called human rights overlords.
What should really frustrate pro-Israel individuals is how the UN is even considered something worthwhile to think about, much less speak of. Honest assessment of human rights violations has been long dead within its walls. Back when Herzog tore up the anti-Zionist resolution, he proclaimed that “[f]or us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of paper and we shall treat it as such.” Speaking of suitable treatment, the only rational recourse on Israel’s end is to accept that the UN will continually hate it regardless of how many fiery speeches are staged. In other words, for us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a tombstone-shaped building, and we shall treat it as such. To lend credence to the UN is a complete waste of energy, as barely any of its resolutions are worth the paper they’re printed on. And anyway, it doesn’t appear Israel is that concerned about every human rights declaration. For one, it withheld its signature on this week’s UN statement regarding China’s treatment of the Uyghurs – you know, actual genocide. Dodging a disruption of trade ties with China was the likely reason (although trading ethics for stable trade deals is never a good idea).
Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman recently remarked that if Israel “decide[s] for itself what its long-range goals and values are – with regard to its boundaries or other critical issues – the world ultimately will respect it.” The notion is largely a Pollyannaish one. Not every country has the ability to cease hating Israel, nor any foreseeable desire to. And just like one can’t reason with a tiger when one’s head is in its mouth, one cannot justify a body when pure anti-Israel prejudice is all that occupies its leaders’ heads.