8/14/2019 AJC: Remembering the UN's Pivotal Role in Israel's Creation

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Remembering the UNs Pivotal Role in Israels Creation

The deep, slightly hoarse voice came back, making the air shake as it summed up with arough dryness brimming with excitement: Thirty-three for. Thirteen against. Ten

abstentions and one country absent from the vote. The resolution is approved. His voice

was swallowed up in a roar that burst from the radio.So wrote Amos Oz, Israels greatest novelist, recounting his experience on November 29,

1947, when the United Nations voted to end 25 years of British mandatory rule in

Palestine and laid the groundwork for a two-state solution one Jewish, one Arab. Sixmonths later, under the looming threat of war from the very countries that had rejected

the UN resolution, the State of Israel declared independence.

In the past 60 years, the UNs partition decision has been overwhelmingly vindicated. Ina region plagued with religious extremism, tyranny and economic stagnation, Israel

stands as a model of democratic pluralism, economic growth and human progress. The

Jewish State has contributed to the global community in myriad ways, from an

entrepreneurial social sector that has invented new ways to meet human needs, to acutting edge high-tech economy that has produced innovations in agriculture, medicine,

science and communications technology. It has developed solutions that hold promise forthe developing world and advanced nation-states alike, and has generously offered its

assistance to all countries in need.

Despite these momentous contributions, Israel remains the only state whose very right toexist is still under attack, often by the same array of forces who rejected the two-state

solution six decades ago. Yet, a two-state solution remains, as the UN recognized in 1947,

the only reasonable solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Unfortunately, the U.N.s landmark decision has been commandeered by forces opposedto any peaceful solution. In an Orwellian twist contrived by Arab countries in 1976, theUN declared November 29th a Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The

original UN decision was thus distorted beyond recognition, and used to undermine,

rather than promote, the cause of peace.

Last years Day of Solidarity misleadingly displayed a large map of Palestine on

which Israel did not appear. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of

the Palestinian People used a map dated before Israels day of Independence. Whiletechnically correct, the implication of a Palestine without Israel was clear.

In a subtle rebuke of the Committee right after this incident, the UN Secretary General

denounced the statement of the Iranian president that Israel should be moved from theMiddle East and cited his previous statement that Israel is a longstanding member of the

UN.

By using the UN as a vehicle to de-legitimize Israel, the Arab states and their supporters

have rendered the global body virtually irrelevant to regional peacemaking. As a result, it

would be difficult for any responsible Israeli leader to trust the UN to play a productive

8/14/2019 AJC: Remembering the UN's Pivotal Role in Israel's Creation

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