Tel Aviv has declared a real war on the UN over the international community’s growing criticism of Israeli military actions in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Lebanon. The decision on UNRWA that coordinates almost all the assistance to the Palestinian population of Gaza, has made the cup run over to an extent that European (and not only) capitals raise seriously doubts as regards the Jewish state’s membership in the organization.
It must be admitted that complications between the two sides began a year ago as Israel was deeply offended by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said the following in a few weeks after October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists killed a number of Israeli civilians: "The attacks by HAMAS did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation." In response, Israeli officials accused the UN leadership of bias, with Guterres himself dubbed a "partner of terrorism."
Insults to an international organization have lasted throughout the year and their intensity is still high. The Israeli leadership seems to have completely "gone off the rails", declaring the UN Secretary General "persona non grata" and banning him from entering their country. The reason was his failure to immediately condemn Iran's missile attack against Israel on October 1. Jewish Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on this occasion: "Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," accusing Guterres of "endorsing terrorists, murderers and rapists."
Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the organization a "quagmire of anti-Semitism" in his address to the UN General Assembly in New York. The head of the Israeli government made a sharp stand against French President Emmanuel Macron, who "dared" to remind him that the Jewish state was obliged to be grateful to the UN for its very existence and show due respect for its decisions.
Tensions have skyrocketed after the start of the Israeli army's ground operation in southern Lebanon, accompanied by extended airstrikes throughout that country. And especially in the residential areas of Beirut, Tyre, and other cities and towns.
Israeli complaints about the UN's bias date back to the creation of the Jewish state and the first war with the Arabs in 1948. Israeli ambassador to the international organization in Geneva Daniel Meron recently told AFP: "We feel the UN has betrayed Israel."
And the Israelis themselves, having begun their ground operation in southern Lebanon, demanded that the UN executive committee curtail the international observer mission in Lebanon and urgently evacuate its entire peacekeeping military contingent. Tel Aviv accused the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of "pandering" to Hezbollah, and fired its observation post with a tank, injuring four officers.
The Israelis sought to carry out a similar action against Russian observers in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, but got their militant ardor extinguished after a relevant warning.
The Israeli leadership has been holding much against the UN throughout its entire history of existence: according to the same Daniel Meron, over 100 convictions have been sent against Israel since the creation of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006.
However, the UNRWA is another pair of shoes. In 2024 alone, more than 220 (!) employees of the agency were killed in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials, in order to cover up the genocide against the Palestinians and justify mass civilian deaths, have accused some employees of assisting terrorists and even engaging in the bloody events of October 7, 2023. Tel Aviv demands a complete dismantling of UNRWA, despite its history of over 70 years.
At the same time, for several decades Israel has ignored UN General Assembly’s most important resolutions. Thus, the Jews do not recognize resolution 194 on principles for reaching a final settlement and returning Palestine refugees to their homes after having been expelled in 1948. Neither does Tel Aviv recognize the decree on Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and cessation of its seizure of Palestinian lands, proceeding with the policy of evicting the indigenous population from the West Bank and eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. By the way, Jerusalem’s proclamation as the capital city ran counter to UN resolutions as well.
One may safely assume that all the exhortations by European capitals accusing Israel of defying international laws and waging criminal wars against the Arabs will be ignored by the Jewish state altogether. The country is backed by the most powerful financial circles in the collective West, the military machine of the United States and NATO. The Jewish lobby inside governments of the planet’s leading powers will never allow for any political damage to Tel Aviv and will always stand by its side. Not to mention a military defeat.
Israel is doomed to exist provided that there are real outside threats to its safety and an imaginary danger invented by the Jews themselves.
