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Letter From Paris
There You Go Again
UNESCO’s admission of Palestine recalls the bad old days.
The balcony press gallery in UNESCO’s cavernous, flag-bedecked main conference hall was only half full when I arrived Monday. The usual speeches His Excellencies the Permanent Representatives made praising its splendid, nay, heroic, efforts to build a culture of peace and brotherly love throughout the known universe droned on, barely audible above the noise of private conversations among the hundreds of indifferent delegates.
Independent-minded Estonia warned that the committee that decides which of the planet’s wonders will be designated a World Heritage Site — UNESCO’s most high-profile, best-known activity — was becoming dangerously politicized? No one noticed. Vigilant Australia said the organization should tighten up its finances and cut spending in line with the new austerity policy of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon? Whatever.
But as the hour drew closer for the 36th General Conference to vote on admission of Palestine as a full-fledged member, press attendance grew to overflowing. A gentleman of Middle Eastern aspect (this is not profiling!) bustled in importantly and seated himself next to me. He was just in time to hear, and loudly applaud, the Palestinian “foreign minister,” Riad al-Malki, gargle a vociferous plea for admission. Then began the roll call, in alphabetical order according to the French spelling of each member country’s name, for the vote. The hall grew quiet, the atmosphere palpably tense with expectation.
It soon became clear that it would be, as they say in Washington, a vote along party lines. In the case of UNESCO, this usually means pro- or anti-America. Africa? Solidly in favor. South America, the Middle East? Ditto. Russia, China? Of course. But a ripple of surprise and scattered partisan applause swept through the hall when usually sensible Austria voted in favor. The dithering British abstained, along with the cautious Swiss, but Ireland provided another much applauded surprise by voting yes. In an attempt to regain control of an assembly that was beginning to resemble the excited crowd at a soccer match, the conference president repeatedly called for calm, reminding delegates that it was supposed to be a solemn vote on an important matter. But by this time the gleeful delegates, sensing victory, were having too much fun.
There was a sprinkling of moans or boos when Germany, Holland, and the U.S. voted against. The event everyone was waiting for was France, which had abstained during the UNESCO Executive Council meeting on October 7 that decided the Palestinian request was admissible. Then, France considered that admission was premature, echoing the United States’ position. Thus the hall erupted in thunderous, prolonged applause and cheering when France’s representative manfully answered oui to the roll call. The character next to me, jumping up and down in his seat, must have hurt his beefy hands beating them so hard. One thrilled delegate screamed “Long live Palestine!” in French.
France’s foreign ministry later tried to justify the turnaround. “We had to assume our responsibilities and deal with the fundamentals of the question,” it explained, whatever that meant. In any case, France’s backing for Palestine is old news. Since the days of Charles de Gaulle, France has never pretended to be a friend of Israel. Former President Jacques Chirac flaunted his good relations with Yassir Arafat. It has long presented itself as being the one European country that the Arab world could count on. The temptation was irresistible to consolidate all that while simultaneously strutting its independence from American foreign policy. (The Quai d’Orsay also said it was trying to avoid a lack of European unity on the question. A ludicrous notion, given that its good European Union neighbors Germany and Holland voted against the admission.)
An unstated reason for France’s good will gesture to the Palestinians was possibly concern over its own domestic tranquility. With 10 percent of France now Muslim, its foreign policy is partly hostage to domestic Islamists quick to take violent offense in the sordid Paris suburbs. If that was the case, currying favor didn’t work. Tuesday night the Paris offices of a weekly satirical paper, Charlie Hebdo, were destroyed by two Molotov cocktails. Its online edition was pirated and the home page replaced by Islamic messages and a photo of Mecca. Its offense: publishing a funny caricature of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover, and irreverent articles about Islamists taking power in Tunisia and the probability of sharia Islamic law in post-Gaddafi Libya.
In all, the farcical UNESCO spectacle this week produced more losers than winners, something the organization has proven itself adept at over the years.
The fragile façade of European unity was shattered once again. The European Union, which wants the world to think of it as a political entity worthy of being taken seriously, had no position on the question. As usual when the chips are down, each EU member took off in the direction it considered in its own best interests. This, despite the EU’s making a show two years ago of creating the simulacrum of a foreign ministry, a High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
For the Palestinians themselves, ‘twas a famous victory that they may come to regret. The peace process will suffer: Israeli retaliation was immediate, Tel Aviv vowing to accelerate construction of more homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and suspend transfer payments the Palestinian Authority uses to pay its civil servants. It is unlikely to grant further negotiating concessions to the PA, and can be expected to crack down harder on Hamas. The Palestinian ploy, a transparent end run for admission to the UN as a legitimate state, may also backfire with unintended consequences when its application for full membership is considered by the Security Council later this month.
The biggest cost will be to UNESCO itself. The financial penalties — losing the annual $70 million U.S. contribution, over one-fifth of its operating budget, along with those of Israel and possibly Canada — are just the most obvious ones it will pay. Perhaps worse is that its clumsy politicization was once again on full view. It inevitably recalled the bad old days when it allowed itself to become a Cold War battlefield, flagrantly corrupt and politicized, an anti-American tool of the hostile Soviet bloc and the envious, resentful Third World. This was the root cause of Ronald Reagan’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the organization in 1984.
UNESCO did make an effort at reform in the 1990s, abandoning its vicious condemnation of Western culture and “American imperialism.” It also dropped its campaign for a media-muzzling “New World Information and Communication Order.” George Bush decided to rejoin it in 2003 with the hope that it would be useful to America’s security following the 9/11 attacks. That turned out to be naïve, given the woeful lack of concrete results.
Now the frivolous, clearly partisan irresponsibility displayed this week will again make many observers, in the U.S. and elsewhere, wonder just how worthwhile the culture palace on the Seine really is.
About the Author
Joseph A. Harriss is The American Spectator’s Paris correspondent. His latest book, An American Spectator in Paris, was released this fall.
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Clint| 11.3.11 @ 7:48AM
Dr. Ron Paul introduced amendment to defund UNESCO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAIXSQJlE2U
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
mzk1| 11.3.11 @ 8:41AM
Pardon? You been in France too long.
"Tel Aviv vowing to accelerate construction of more homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and suspend transfer payments the Palestinian Authority uses to pay its civil servants."
How is Tel Aviv going to do that? The government is in Jerusalem.(*)
OK, defense is in Tel Aviv because Jerusalem is on the border, and defense decides on Judea/Samaria construction, but not Jerusalem construction, which is under the Prime Minister who lives in Jerusalem. But at any rate, the cabinet meets in Jserusalem.
nister| 11.3.11 @ 9:03AM
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. Nahlal rose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Kunefeis, and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tai al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have an Arab population." - Moshe Dayan
"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." - Chairman Heilbrun
loulou| 11.3.11 @ 12:14PM
So?
mzk1| 11.3.11 @ 11:17AM
Who the hell is Chairman Heilbrun?
This is nonsense. The only reason ANY Arabs fled the country is because they, and the surrounding Arab coutries, were trying to totally exterminate the Jewish population. They did succeed in killing 10% of them. For this we should feel sorry for them.
Meanwhile, Jews were forced out of the surrounding Arab countries, often with just the clothes on thier backs. Oh, and by the way, where are the Jews of Jenin?
The Arabs here vote and their representatives in Knesset are allowed to make frequent treasonous statements against the country. Could you imagine if a Jew in an Arab coutry did that?
nister| 11.3.11 @ 2:25PM
Israelis are home invaders. If they die in the commission of a crime, I feel this is the second best outcome. Nonetheless, they need to go.
Occam's Tool| 11.3.11 @ 4:09PM
Thank you, Nazi, I mean, Nister. Thanks for supporting child rape, as well.
nister| 11.6.11 @ 1:35PM
Where did you get that handle, Tool? Did you suffer an unpleasant spasm of self-awareness?
You're on to a loser with Israel. The world has seen enough of these thugs.
TrueBlue| 11.3.11 @ 5:53PM
And the murder of children, and the use of mentally challenged people as "suicide" bombers. Oh yea, and frequently strapping small children and women with bombs in attempts to kill IDF forces when they move in to rescue them (yes, rescue).
Oh let's not forget those evil Jewish doctors who willingly treat Palestinians hurt in firefights or during the various IED explosions, who then sit in the hospital beds cheering whenever they hear the Israeli death toll.
nathan| 11.7.11 @ 12:59PM
Look up Deir Yassein some time. The Irgun, which Prime Minister Menachim Begin was a member of, launched an attack on this village which I believe was on the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The attack was apparently targeted at civilians since no armed resistance was noted. A number of women and children were killed and that seemed be the purpose of the attack. The Irgun presumably hoped that this attack and others like it would scare Palestinians into leaving the areas under Israeli control. To some extent it did.
While there is no doubt some Arabs left at the encouragement of their leaders, others left in genuine fear of their lives. We note that not one Irgun member ever was brought to trial by the the Israeli government. Not for Deir Yassein, not for the King David Hotel bombing in which 120 civilians lost their lives. Begin was the spokesperson for the Irgun and yet despite being a member of a known terrorist organization, one condemned by people Hanna Arendt a Jewish human rights activist and Albert Einstein, he not only was never arrested, he ended up being elected prime minister. If you are going to elect terrorists to head your government, you can't complain too much when you're the victim of terrorist attacks yourself.
To make matters worse the Israeli government held a commemoration of the King David Hotel bombing on the 60th anniversary despite the protests of the British government whose people were killed in the action. Bibi attended and a plaque was laid noting the two Irgun members who died in the blast again, terrorists by any definition. The British were rather outraged as they had every right to be.
The Israelis have a bad habit of electing terrorists and war criminals as prime ministers. Ariel Sharon who greenlighted the phalangist attack on the two Palestinian refugee camps outside Beirut and did nothing to stop it was elected prime minister. The estimated civilian death toll was in the hundreds if not thousands. Maybe he didn't know the phalangists were going to go crazy in those camps but once he knew what was happening he had an absolute obligation to order the IDF surrounding the camps to end the carnage. He let it go on for the better part of a day. There are credible accounts of women and children attempting to flee the massacre who were pushed into the camps by IDF forces which reminds us all too well of the Holocaust. Sharon should probably have stood trial not been elected prime minister.
Again, the Israelis live in too big a glass house here to throw too many stones. The number of civilians killed in those two camps while the IDF watched probably exceed the number of Israelis killed by terrorists for the last two decades or more.
Crack Smoker| 11.3.11 @ 11:30AM
All open minded and fun loving Americans must advocate a full boycot of UNESCO until the organization steps up as a forceful advocate of more transgressive cross-class, inter-racial, trangendered, public displays of group woman on woman "romance" in every aspect of world-wide cultural, artistic, domestic, and political life.
UNESCO's role in perpetuating the dull mores prevailing throughout the world must be subverted, and turned into a Force for Getting Your Freak On!
Down with thought-hegemony! See you the Occupy Turtle Bay demos!
TrueBlue| 11.3.11 @ 5:54PM
I've been advocating a boycott of the entire UN for years...
Tired Taxpayer PRM| 11.3.11 @ 12:13PM
Now if only the US would withdraw funding from the rest of the UN.
Sending them off to one of the workers paradises would be nice, too. Perhaps North Korea would like to host them or maybe they could do their “business” in a different country every year like the Olympics. Anywhere but in NY.
loulou| 11.3.11 @ 12:15PM
NoKo is the perfect place for these third world parasites.
C Smith| 11.3.11 @ 1:45PM
UNESCO's time is coming:
"... I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people... and in that day will... make Jerusalem a burdensome stone... And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (Zechariah 12:2-9).
ABNCP| 11.3.11 @ 2:30PM
It is long past time for the U.S. to abandon this house of failure. We should leave and start working on a council of nations where only countries that have a democratic election process can apply for membership. We should cut off all aid of any kind to any country that does not qualify for that membership. We should withdraw any and all military forces from Europe. They either can protect themselves or not. We should withdraw all of our military from Korea with the understanding if North Korea ever uses nuclear weapons we will destroy that disaster of a country
We should put troops on our souther border not so much to stop the illegal's crossing over. An air tight E-Verify program will do that. We need troops on that border to stop the Islamic sleeper cells that have been coming into this country for some time now and who will sooner or later kill Americans when they are given their action orders and they will be given those orders. Probably when we take action against Iran's nuclear program.
We need troops on our borders to cut off the drug caravans who cost this country billions of dollars in infrastructure because of the less than 10% of our population who are so weak and stupid as to crave them. Yeah folks that's right less than 10 % of our population are creating this monster of a problem.
A lot of things to start getting done when we throw this the present idiots out of the White House.
Willy| 11.3.11 @ 3:22PM
The UN and its numerous agencies, including UNESCO, should be judged on performance. By any measure such an exercise would result in defunding all of it. About time.
Occam's Tool| 11.3.11 @ 4:10PM
The UN is worthless. The US would only benefit from the scumbags leaving, and our defunding, the organization. They are malignant scum, like Nister.
mzk1| 11.6.11 @ 7:26AM
I suspect, based on the posting times, that Nister is a fellow resident of the Middle East. Which means he is fed a diet of these lies.
You want to stop the UN? Rewrite the agreement, and keep the well-connected third-worlders from getting cusht jobs in NY. That's the real reason for the UN, and they will turn around very quickly.
Meanwhile, we need the threat of US withdrawal, or the PA will be in everything including the postal union. Good luck with Obama; he probably wouldn't have withdrawn the fubds in Congress hadn't forced him.