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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 11, 2008 / 8 Sivan 5768

UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. ‘Insult’

By Jonathan Tobin



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Reprimand as a badge of honor


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Last week, the United Nations Committee on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met in New York to consider what was for them an important issue: redeeming the tarnished honor of their organization from the "insults" of its critics.


The object of their concern was the World Union of Progressive Judaism, the Reform movement's international arm, which has had observer NGO status at the world body since 1972. It now stands liable to lose its U.N. status for "insulting" the world body.


This committee is comprised of such exemplary democracies as China, Cuba, Pakistan and Egypt as well as other countries. The current chair of the group is Sudan. Despite the fact that its government is responsible for genocide in Darfur, Sudan still parades around international forums as if it were not a pariah regime.


What did the Reform movement do to put itself in such hot water? At a recent meeting of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council in Geneva, David Littman, a representative of Reform attempted to read from the Hamas charter calling for Israel's destruction.


The meeting was being used as a forum by countries hostile to Israel to indict it for "military incursions" whose purpose is to defend the Jewish State against Palestinian terrorists. By reading the Hamas document, the hope was that the world might see what it was that Israel was up against. But instead of allowing this information to be heard, Littman was silenced. In response, Littman replied that "something is rotten in the state of this council."


Never have truer words been spoken.


This incident and the attempted retribution against the Reform movement sums up in a nutshell the insanity that is the U.N.


The real insult is not Littman's truth-telling but the record of calumnies that have been heaped upon Israel and the Jewish State at U.N. forums such as the Human Rights Council. To this council, murder of Jewish civilians by terrorists whose goal is to eradicate a U.N.-member state is treated as inconsequential. Instead, it uses its resources to delegitimize Israel's right of self-defense.


At the same time that this was going on, the U.N. continues to fund an entire organization whose purpose is to perpetuate the Arab war against Israel: the United Nations Relief Works Agency or UNRWA.


The U.N. has two organizations, one which aids all refugees around the world, and a second which is devoted solely to the cause of those Palestinians who fled the State of Israel during its War of Independence, as a result of the Arab war launched to eradicate the state at birth. But rather than seeking to resettle these refugees,UNRWA is an impediment to any hope for peace.


As a recent report issued by the Herzliya-based Global Research in International Affairs details, UNRWA's scandalous policies include doing everything to prevent resettlement of the refugees out of the "refugee camps." UNRWA's schools are places where anti-American and anti-Semitic indoctrination is business as usual and virtual recruiting offices for terror groups. Its facilities are virtual military bases for those groups.


That all this goes on not only under the authority of the U.N. but at the expense of U.S. taxpayers (who fund much of the U.N.'s activities) is outrageous.


It is the U.N. as a whole and UNRWA in particular that is the insult to the honor of the organization. Reform can only begin with UNRWA's dissolution, which is a course of action that should be at the top of Washington's Middle East priority list.


But pending that outcome, we will have to content ourselves with saluting Littman for speaking the truth. His "insult" may earn this group a U.N. reprimand but, if so, it is one that should be worn as a badge of honor.

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JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Let him know what you think by clicking here.

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