“As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the President and US take this vote personally. The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue.”
-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, 12/20/17
“We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care. But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”
-President Donald Trump, 12/20/17
Imagine that you are a rich philanthropist who for decades has been, by far, the biggest benefactor of a large and influential charitable foundation. You even allow the foundation to operate out of a luxurious office building that you own. No other contributor comes close to the level of support that you provide to this foundation.
Imagine that the during all of your decades of financial support, the charitable foundation never once said or did anything to express any appreciation for your generosity. In fact, the foundation regularly asserted that you should not expect any gratitude because it is entitled to your financial support.
Now, imagine that, separate and distinct from your support for the charitable foundation, you decide to send one of your children to a church-run school.
Imagine that the board of the charitable foundation historically has shown open hostility to the church that operates that school and now votes overwhelmingly to censure you for sending your children to that school.
Would you continue to give financial support to that foundation?
Today the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to condemn the United States.
What did we do to earn the wrath of the UN? Did we commit a genocide like Germany and Rwanda? Do we sponsor international terrorism? Have we threatened to launch a nuclear war?
No, none of those things.
The UN censured the United States for exercising its sovereign right to decide where to place its embassy in the nation of one of our closest allies.
The problem is that the United Nations hates that U.S. ally.
Why? Because that ally is the Jewish State of Israel. And the United Nations hates the Jews.
Think I’m being sensationalist with that accusation? For sixteen years, from 1975 to 1991, the official position of the United Nations, as reflected in a resolution passed by that organization, was that Zionism – the belief that the Jewish people have a right to a homeland in Israel, is racism. That resolution was repealed only begrudgingly – and far from unanimously – as the result of pressure from U.S. President George H.W. Bush.
Need more proof? The United Nations has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than every other country on Earth combined:
- UN Human Rights Council: From its creation in June 2006 through June 2016, the UN Human Rights Council over one decade adopted 135 resolutions criticizing countries; 68 out of those 135 resolutions have been against Israel (more than 50%).
- UN Nations General Assembly: From 2012 through 2015, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted 97 resolutions criticizing countries; 83 out of those 97 have been against Israel (86%).
- UNESCO: Each year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopts around 10 resolutions a year criticizing only Israel. UNESCO does not criticize any other UN member state in a country-specific resolution (100%). An exception occurred in 2013, when, under pressure from UN Watch, UNESCO adopted one resolution on Syria.
- World Health Organization: For one week every year, the UN World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), meets to formulate global health policy. Resolutions are adopted to address global health issues. There is one exception: the annual resolution entitled “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan,” which singles out Israel for condemnation; no other country in the world is condemned by the WHO.
- ILO: The International Labour Organization (ILO) was established to improve conditions of labor, regulate work hours, fight unemployment, assure adequate living wages, and protect workers worldwide. At its annual conference, however, the ILO produces a single country-specific report castigating Israel.
UN “peacekeepers” have even been caught helping terrorist organizations prepare and cover up attacks on Israeli civilians. The UN has never taken any action against these UN employees, which is a tacit endorsement of their activities.
In a time in which Iran, the world’s greatest state sponsor of international terrorism, is working to develop nuclear weapons and North Korea, perhaps the most despotic regime in the world, already has nuclear weapons and is threatening nuclear war, the primary concern of the United Nations is to once again attack Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and the most humane country in the world in the way it treats its enemies.
The United States pays $8 billion per year to the United Nations, which constitutes 22 percent of the UN’s overall budget. No other country comes close. (The second-highest contributor is Japan, which provides slightly less than ten percent of the UN budget.)
The United Nations has always asserted that the United States has an obligation to provide more funding to the UN than approximately 150 other nations combined. Based on this assertion, the UN has never said or done anything to express any gratitude to the American taxpayers who shoulder that grossly disproportionate burden.
That record already should have been enough for the United States to cut funding to the UN, but today’s action, which was a direct assault on the sovereignty of the United States (and on the history and heritage of the Jewish people), proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the UN is taking the US for granted and is entirely unworthy of our financial support.
Prior to the today’s anti-America/anti-Israel vote, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the world that the US does indeed consider this resolution to be an attack on our sovereignty and that, accordingly, we will be “taking names” of the countries who vote against us. President Trump endorsed Ambassador Haley’s statement and declared that we will cut financial support to the UN and to the nations that vote against us if the resolution is passed.
Well, today the resolution was approved by the UN General Assembly by an enormous margin. Now it is up to President Trump and his administration to follow through on his promise.
Now is the time to cut our funding of the United Nations and of every country that receives financial assistance from us but arrogantly voted to condemn us.
My heart wants to call for the US to go a step further and fully withdraw from the UN and kick them the hell out of our country. But my head recognizes that this would only empower the UN to do more harm to our interests and the interests of our allies.
It is crucial that the US remain in the UN as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, not because we believe the UN can or will do any good in the world, but because we are the world’s protector from the harm it would otherwise inflict.
But remaining a member of this perverse organization does not mean we need to remain its primary financial sponsor. We are one of 193 member nations of the UN, and it is time to reduce our funding to a proportionate level in order to dramatically reduce the power and influence of an organization that promotes hate, bigotry, and despotism across the world.
Author: Ken Falkenstein
Ken Falkenstein is the Managing Editor of Committed Conservative and brings a wealth of experience and expertise in public affairs to the job. Ken served in the U.S. Army in the last years of the Cold War as a Russian linguist for military intelligence and the NSA. After leaving the Army, he earned his degree in Secondary Education from Old Dominion University, where he also wrote a popular column in the student newspaper.
Upon graduation, Ken worked as a Legislative Aide to two Republican members of the Virginia House of Delegates. Ken also served as Corresponding Secretary of the Young Republican Federation of Virginia, managed several successful political campaigns, and managed governmental affairs operations for a local Realtor association.
In 1995, Ken moved to Washington, DC to serve as a Legislative Assistant to Sen. John Warner (R-VA). While working for Sen. Warner, Ken attended law school at night, earning his J.D. with honors from the George Mason University School of Law (n/k/a The Antonin Scalia Law School). Since that time, Ken has practiced as a civil litigation attorney, including serving for three years as an Associate City Attorney for the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Ken previously was a contributor to the highly-regarded political blog Bearing Drift and was a weekly co-host of The Steve Batton Radio Program. In 2016, Ken ran unsuccessfully for the Virginia Beach School Board. Ken is also a former President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads.
Ken now lives outside of Denver, Colorado with his wife, Kim, and three sons, Adam, Dylan, and Joshua, who has Down syndrome. Ken’s writing is motivated and informed primarily by his concern for his kids’ future.
