monotonous.org

Um Shmum

When I hear family and friends express frustration with the U.N.’s actions I wonder when will we, as a Jewish nation, notice that we have been shooting ourselves in the foot repeatedly, by helping destroy the entity that was founded to protect people exactly like us.
On June 26th, 1945 the United Nations Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, immediately following WWII. It’s main goal was to prevent the tragadies of global war and genocide. It was founded as a protector of minorities and disenfranchised people world wide, and a conduit to avoid armed conflict by diplomatic means.
The prevalent example at the time for a disenfranchised minority were the Jewish survivors of the mechanized Nazi killing machine, and the U.N. was quick to provide a long lasting solution for the Jewish people: a state of their own. This happened with Resolution 181 that was voted in on November 29, 1947.
In 1955, Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister (but then only defense minister), suggested forcefully expelling all Fedayeen fighters outside of the Gaza strip. Prime minister Moshe Sharet objected, saying the U.N. would not allow such an action, and that it must be respected, since without the U.N. Israel would not have been founded, to which Ben Gurion replied “Um Shmum” (Um is U.N. in Hebrew, “Shmum” is a dismissive).
Since that day the U.N.’s general assembly and security council have passed over 100 resolutions regarding Israel, the majority of which condemn Israel for various actions, from military aggression, to down right war crimes and human right abuses.
Today, Israel’s government and it’s “friends” see the U.N. as a weak, antisemitic, and useless organization. And reject it’s resolutions again and again. For 50 years the U.N. has been hindering Israel with such petty issues as human rights, and unchecked aggression. But luckily for Israel, it has a super power as it’s ally, so it does not need to conform to the same international laws that were inspired by tragedies in the likes of the Holocaust.
The latest outrage is Israel’s success in undermining the U.N.’s fact finding mission headed by Desmond Tutu.