U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would seek a second term in the top post at the international agency, with another five year tenure spelling possible disaster for Israel.
The Middle East has been in the throes of a so-called Arab Spring, with some governments — such as the Syrian regime — conducting countless human rights violations as protesters are thrown in jail or slaughtered on the streets of regional capitals. While Israel’s neighbors are largely ignoring universal rights of the governed, Ban has not been as vocal decrying these atrocities as he has previously been to condemn Israel.
The spotlight on human rights in the Middle East will assuredly reveal abuses by all parties, fueling the international community’s obsession with disproportionately chastising Israel compared to regimes that regularly suppress rights to retain control of the population.
The United Nations has been a hot bed for this disproportionate obsession with castigating Israel, from the so-called Human Rights Council that is merely a platform for anti-Israel speech, to U.N. resolutions that attack Israel’s policies while the Palestinians and Iran obtain platforms to vocalize their agenda, to fallout and criticism of Israel’s attempts to defend its borders and prevent the influx of terrorist weapons.
Ban’s watch has included the resurgence of the Human Rights Council and the anti-Israel Durban conference, while his tenure also witnessed the drafting of the anti-Israel Goldstone report that condemned Israel for human rights violations without knowing the facts, spurring its chief author to later refute the findings.
Ban has also had some choice words on Israel, saying “the occupation that started in 1967 is morally and politically unsustainable, and must end.” He has taken a hard-line on Israeli construction, saying building in East Jerusalem must stop and is illegal.
He has chastised Israel for its blockade on Gaza, contending the closure is “wrong,” even though Israel only began its policy after terrorist rockets began pelting the country.
Ban has, though, occasionally come to Israel’s defense. For example, he chastised his own group’s Human Rights Council for “picking on Israel” in a disproportionate manner. The U.N. said, “The Secretary-General is disappointed at the council’s decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world.”
While Ban’s intermittent and tepid response to how his organization skews its investigation and interest in human rights is welcome, the global entity must have leadership that takes bold and courageous stances, mandating that the group’s resources reflect the realities on the ground and not the ingrained anti-Israel prejudices of some of its members.
Ban is expected to sail into a second term. Before that happens, he should clarify now whether he will continue letting this global governing body disproportionately attack one country, while its member states commit even worse atrocities, or whether he intends to change U.N. culture to reflect reality.
If he can’t guarantee the latter, then Ban deserves a challenger and President Barack Obama should withdraw his endorsement instead of letting the same flawed and farcical mentality continue to permeate the world’s political stage.
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