A PARADOX OF JUSTICE
The irony is startling . On a wall just outside UN headquarters in New York City , there is a quotation from the biblical prophet Isaiah envisioning world peace : “ They will break their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks . Nation shall not lift sword against nation , nor shall they learn war anymore .” Created in 1945 in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust to actualize that vision , the UN has become a major sounding board for hatred of the world ’ s only Jewish state .
CROWDS IN TEL AVIV CELEBRATE THE UN ’ S VOTE FOR PARTITION IN 1947 .
The UN helped create the State of Israel by its 1947 partition resolution that called for dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states — a step accepted by the Jews , who proclaimed the independence of Israel the next year , but not by the Arabs , who fought , unsuccessfully , to destroy it . Israel became a member of the UN in 1949 .
THE LATE SENATOR DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN DESCRIBED AS “ OBSCENE ” THE UN ’ S ZIONISM-IS-RACISM RESOLUTION , WHICH FOUND ZIONISM TO BE A FORM OF RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION . FOR 15 YEARS , AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE ( AJC ) LED THE ULTIMATELY SUCCESSFUL FIGHT TO REVOKE THIS ODIOUS LIE .
While the Arab and Muslim worlds remained hostile to Israel , it was not until the 1970s , when the Soviet Union and its satellites turned sharply against Israel , that a UN majority coalesced in opposition to the Jewish state . In 1975 , the UN General Assembly , in which all countries are represented , overwhelmingly approved Resolution 3379 declaring Zionism — the founding ideology of Israel , affirming the need for a Jewish state in the historical homeland of the Jewish people — a form of racism . It was not until 1991 that the resolution was revoked , due in part to U . S . influence and as an outcome of that year ’ s Madrid Peace Conference .
DASHED HOPES : ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS AT THE UN • 5