washington | The United Nations is the elephant in the room, U.S. Jewish leaders agree. The question lurking behind a nasty public argument in recent weeks is whether it’s an elephant you can ignore.
The Anti-Defamation League says the performance of the organization and its secretary-general, Kofi Annan, during the recent Lebanon crisis was so unconscionably anti-Israel that it no longer makes sense for Jews to deal with the United Nations.
“Our message should be, ‘We have no business with you,'” said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director.
Other Jewish leaders agree that there is much to be criticized — which is precisely why cutting off the United Nations would be counterproductive, they say.
“The Jewish community has a legitimate set of strong grievances, but to deal yourself out of the game, to isolate yourself, does you no good vis-à-vis a body that now retains 192 states,” said David Harris, the American Jewish Committee’s executive director.
The debate culminated in an ADL ad in the Aug. 10 New York Times addressed to Annan: “How many more Israeli civilians must die before you condemn Hezbollah? And when will you extend condolences to Israeli victims?”
Annan and his defenders were outraged, saying he repeatedly had condemned the terrorist group and had extended condolences to both sides.
Annan condemned Hezbollah on multiple occasions during the war, but usually in conjunction with condemnations of Israel. He also extended condolences to Israelis, in the context of expressing sympathy for all civilian victims.
However, on two notable occasions — after four U.N. observers were killed July 25 and after a bombing killed at least 28 civilians five days later — he singled out Israel for harsh condemnation, even accusing the Jewish state of deliberately targeting the U.N. observers.
Foxman was furious when he learned that the co-chairmen of a U.N. reform committee of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations were to meet with Annan to address their concerns, three weeks after Hezbollah launched the war July 12.
“I asked, ‘Why are we going? Who decided now is the time to go?'” Foxman said.
Insiders said Annan’s office invited Joel Kaplan, president of B’nai B’rith International, and Robert Goodkind, the AJCommittee president, because the Presidents Conference committee they co-chair was preparing a report on U.N. reform, and Annan was eager to address mounting Jewish frustration. Foxman was not invited.
At the meeting, Annan balked at a request to describe Hezbollah as a “terrorist” group, as it is defined by Israel and the United States — but that didn’t mean the meeting wasn’t worthwhile, according to the Jewish leaders who attended.
“You never know when your words will have immediate effect or will resonate at a later date,” Kaplan said.
Harris said the Jewish community inevitably must deal with the United Nations.
“The odds may be against us, but we have no choice but to engage, and let’s engage intelligently and skillfully,” he said.
The World Jewish Congress, which represents the interests of overseas Jewish communities to the organization, said engagement with the United Nations was critical because of how large it looms as an influence overseas.
“For a few billion people around the world, and for the international press corps, the U.N. will be relevant for a long time to come,” said Shai Franklin, the WJC’s director of international organizations.
The U.N. Security Council had a crucial role to play in the Lebanon war outcome — though Hezbollah gutted the council’s cease-fire resolution by refusing to disarm — and in forthcoming deliberations on Iran’s nuclear policy, Harris noted.
He also pointed out some U.N. successes under Annan, including Holocaust commemoration and condemnation of anti-Semitism.
But Foxman said those were superficial.
“It’s much easier for the Kofi Annans of this world to embrace, commemorate dead Jews,” he said. “They have tremendous difficulty embracing and standing up for live Jews.”
The remark by Annan that provoked the most outrage came July 26, a day after an Israeli fighter bombed a U.N. truce observers’ post, killing four of the observers.
“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli defense forces of a U.N. observer post in southern Lebanon,” Annan said.
It was subsequently revealed that at least one of the dead observers had complained that Hezbollah fighters nearby were firing missiles. Israel said it was responding to that Hezbollah fire — but Annan never retracted his statement.