NEW YORK — Pro-Israel activists are preparing to return to what has historically been an anti-Israel arena, the United Nations, on Oct. 1 when the world body opens its annual debate on terrorism.
Observers believe that Israel, which after Sept. 11 expected a groundswell of sympathy for its own campaign against terrorists, may find itself under rhetorical assault.
However, criticism of Israel may be less virulent because animus against the Arab world has increased in the weeks since the attacks.
The Arab world is trying to deflect attention from the Middle Eastern background of the hijackers and their alleged accomplices, the observers say.
The U.N. special session will likely feature debate of “What is terrorism?” And a bloc of six Gulf Arab states — most prominently, Saudi Arabia — announced this week they will support the coalition only if action were also taken against Israel and its “terrorism” against the Palestinians.
“If they say Israel conducts terrorism, it wouldn’t be smart because it would backlash against them,” an Israeli diplomatic source told JTA.
“We would blame each and every one of them of supporting terrorism. We would not leave any stone unturned.”
The Arab world is expected to distinguish between “good terrorism” and “bad terrorism”: Their traditional argument is that anti-Israel attacks are a function of the Palestinian liberation movement.
And it now seems that the United States will close its eyes to the kind of terrorism conducted against Israel.
President Bush, in his Sept. 20 address to the nation, said the coalition would snuff out only those terrorist networks with “global reach.”
Some analysts suspect that was veiled assurance to the Arab world in order to convince more states in the region to join Bush’s coalition, that the purveyors of terror in Israel had nothing to fear from Washington.
For Israel, adding insult to injury is that Syria is virtually assured of being elected soon to a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council.
The U.S. State Department lists Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, and Israel accuses Damascus of supporting Hezbollah, the Islamic militants freely operating across Israel’s northern border in southern Lebanon.
Yet, Syria is the selected candidate of the “Asia Group” — which is Israel’s natural geographic home and denies membership to the Jewish state.
Syria needs a majority of votes within the 189-member U.N. General Assembly, which is dominated by Arab and Muslim member-states.
Elections have yet to be scheduled, but are traditionally held in mid October with the two-year term commencing Jan. 1.
Led by permanent members China, Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States, each Security Council member is entrusted to maintain international peace and security; investigate and recommend methods for resolving international disputes, like economic sanctions or military action; and authorize the use of military actions against aggressors.
Having Syria render such judgment “is like appointing Al Capone to be chief of police,” said an Israeli diplomat.
The imminent election of Syria, at least in the eyes of Washington and Jerusalem, will extend the world body’s recent slide into disrepute.
But Syria’s election to the Security Council appears to be a fait accompli.
It would be easy for Jewish activists to look at this and other U.N. actions and dismiss the world body as blatantly biased against Israel, widely discredited and disregarded in the United States, and therefore, not worthwhile having relations with.
But the fact remains that much of the globe does look to the United Nations as a moral authority on a vast array of issues.
And Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), who a few short weeks ago in Durban accused the United Nations of hosting an “anti-racism conference that is itself racist,” agrees that the world body should participate in helping in the fight against terrorism.
“The United States cannot act alone and expect to prevail in this long-term, painful struggle against international terrorism,” Lantos, the top Democrat on the International Relations Committee, was quoted as saying.