Kerby Anderson
The latest controversy at the United Nations over comments by the Secretary-General is a reminder of how many times the UN has taken an anti-Israel stance. Senator Ted Cruz believes the Secretary-General should resign and adds that “many aspects of the UN, like the Human Rights Council and UNRWA are either antisemitic or give cover for terrorism or both.”
While there may be some debate about the recent comments, they come after decades of false accusations against Jews in general and Israel in particular. For example, the 1975 UN resolution passed by a majority of UN member states equated Zionism (the founding philosophy of the state of Israel) with racism. The resolution eventually was overturned but was used to justify actions against Israel.
Back in the 1980s, New York Mayor Ed Koch referred to the UN as a cesspool. That was when the UN passed an anti-Israel resolution because the country occupied the Golan Heights to prevent rockets from being launched into northern Israel.
The late Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Abba Eban once joked, “If Algeria introduced a UN resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.”
As I mentioned in my booklet on antisemitism, always blaming Israel is irrational. “Israel is about the size of New Jersey and is surrounded by Arab countries with more than 500 times the land area.”
Israel realized long ago that it could not depend upon the United Nations to defend it. This latest controversy with the UN is just another reminder of that fact.

Kerby Anderson
We need to confront antisemitism. Noah Rothman writes, “Your Turn, Democrats.” He explains that mainstream Republicans have confronted right-wing antisemitism, but the left has not done so. It is time for Democratic politicians and liberal thought leaders to do the same.
Yesterday, I talked about the divide in America between those who were shocked at the brutality of Hamas terrorism and others who marched in the streets to support Hamas and oppose Israel. Add to that the increasing number of antisemitic statements and violent actions against Jewish citizens in this country. It is time for leaders to speak up.
Noah Rothman says that “these are times that call for plain language” and reminds us of “the Republican Party’s leading lights and household names” who spoke out years ago against the “antisemitic sentiments on display in America’s streets” and criticized those who paraded through the University of Virginia’s campus. He concludes, “In 2017, it was incumbent on Republicans of conscience to anathematize the noxious elements orbiting their periphery. Democrats are now confronted with the same challenge.”
While it is true that the president and administration give no comfort to the toxic rhetoric from the streets, Noah Rothman says more needs to be done. “It won’t be done though inference, by declining to name names . . . Democrats had the opportunity to throttle the rising antisemitic sentiments in their coalition in their infancy” but now the problem is growing and Democrats will find it harder to speak out.
The lesson for us to learn from this is to confront evil and error when it first appears. When we give it a pass, it becomes more difficult later when the rhetoric and actions ratchet up.