Saying it all in 4 minutes and 24 seconds

Hillel Neuer of the non-governmental organization UN Watch goes into the UN Human Rights Council and tells them what he thinks of them:



Wow. Go, Hillel!

I love the way the council president, Luis de Alba, in his 1 minute, 14-second response, nowhere says that Hillel is wrong. He does not say "That was stupid, our illustrious record for Human Rights speaks for itself." He just says, basically, that "you have been a rude, rude man and I won't accept people talking about us that way."

Although it sounds like a delicious idea, I do not believe that urging Israel and the US to leave the United Nations in a good idea. However, it is imperative that the public understand, when the UN denounces Israel for human rights violations, that that is how the human rights council enjoys spending its time. This does not mean that Israel never violates anyone's human rights, rather that the UN is not a reliable observer of the human rights "scene." The current council includes Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia -- all known for their unbiased treatment of Jews and outstanding records in Human Rights, eh? (She asks rhetorically) In the next two years, Human Rights Council will include Pakistan and Cuba. Libya has sat on this council. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

There are two sad results of this mess. First is that millions of people around the world are suffering badly under their governments, and the UN is not twitching an eyebrow on their behalfs.

Second is that, now that the UN Human Rights Council has proven itself to be full of self-serving, anti-Semitic blather, we are missing an opportunity for a respectable, unbiased body that could provide Israel with constructive criticism to which we'd actually listen. Every country, just like every person, could use a trusted source of constructive criticism. If the UN doled out its condemnations proportionately, I think that Israelis would actually pay attention when it was their turn. Instead, the UN makes knee-jerk denunciations against this one, single country, and so our knee-jerk response has become "you may be correct, but you are also jerks, so we don't have to change."

(Hat tip: Little Green Footballs via my friend Lisa)