Israel Matzav

Another reason to leave the UN

At the Volokh Conspiracy, Kenneth Anderson discusses another reason to leave the United Nations - or at least to try to gain control over its budgetary process. It seems that the United Nations is a champion at spending and wasting other people's money (Hat Tip: Instapundit).

I’m in favor of public art and spending money on it, even at the UN. Then there’s the kind of extravagance one might hope would cause, say, special rapporteurs and the US delegation and the NGOs that pressed for the embarrassment of the Council to replace the Commission in 2005 to stare up at the ceiling during meetings and think about what $20 million of that $23 million would do for World Peace or Human Rights or something. The UN’s Climate Adaptation Fund, for example, which started in 2008 to help poor nations with climate change issues currently $18 million — not enough to pay for the current round of Copenhagen talks.

I mentioned it at a couple of academic meetings offhand, and the audience comments were that I was either mistaken or merely expressing hostility, because the only people who had talked about this (in English, anyway) were FoxNews and UNWatch, or that it was unworthy to dwell on such minor things. If you looked at these kinds of issues, you were mistaking the forest for the trees.

Why does the UN get a free pass? I believe it's because the one-country-one-vote system ensures that the UN gives the illusion of spending money for good causes, while allowing much of the 'enlightened' West to fool itself that it is doing good and not paving the way for its own destruction. For example, did your kids 'trick or treat' for UNICEF this year? If so, this is what they were financing.

If you or your children are planning to "trick or treat" tomorrow, keep in mind this article by Dave Kopel published in the National Review two years ago, wherein he describes how;

"UNICEF has been a major financier of Palestinian 'summer camps' which encourage children to become suicide bombers. One such camp is named for Wafa Idris…"

Wafa Idris was the first female Palestinian suicide bomber who, at 28 years old, killed herself, an 81 year old man and injured one-hundred others outside a shoe store in Jerusalem. Those of you who have seen our documentary "The Making of a Martyr" know that we interviewed Wafa's mother and nieces for the film. Each of Wafa's young nieces (all between the ages of 10 and 14) eagerly described their desire to follow in Wafa's footsteps and 'martyr' themselves while Wafa's mother explained to us, though she missed her daughter, "she did nothing wrong, by god."

Before you slip any spare coinage in a UNICEF box, note Militant Islam Monitor's 2007 report on the UNICEF school here.

Equally disturbing is the fact that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN arm responsible for providing aid and education in the Palestinian territories, employs the school curriculum of its hosts: Hamas, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Read the whole thing.

And yes, that picture is the $23 million mural. It reminds me of the stalactite cave near Beit Shemesh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:58 PM