Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization because of its misbehavior,
particularly support for media censorship. Too bad Ronald
Reagan isn't still president--the U.S. might need to withdraw
again.
The Washington Post writes about leading candidate
Farouk Hosni of Egypt:
Over his career, Hosni has accumulated a long record of
opposing exchanges with Israel, repeatedly saying normalization
must await resolution of the Palestinian issue and warning that
opening up to Jewish culture would be dangerous for Egypt. But
his most notorious sally came in May last year, when he told an
Islamist member of the Egyptian parliament that he would
personally burn any Israeli books found in Egyptian libraries.
Hosni apologized for the remark three months ago, as his
campaign for the UNESCO post gathered speed. In a statement
published in Paris, he attributed it to a hot temper and an
Arabic-language metaphor that sounded worse than it was. But
for his opponents, particularly Jewish activists and
intellectuals, the evocative image of book-burning would not go
away, and they said it disqualified him for the job.
Bernard-Henri Lévy, the French philosopher; Claude Lanzmann,
the producer of a landmark film on the Holocaust; and Elie
Wiesel, the writer and Holocaust survivor, issued a joint
statement charging that Hosni's election would be a "shipwreck"
for already troubled UNESCO and calling on the organization to
"spare itself the shame" of choosing such a leader.
"Mr. Farouk Hosni is the opposite of a man of peace, dialogue
and culture," they said. "Mr. Farouk Hosni is a dangerous man,
an inciter of hearts and minds."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish group
dedicated to tracking down former Nazis, said that, given his
background, the prospect of Hosni as director general poses "a
major threat to the very values of UNESCO."
Attacking from another angle, Reporters Without Borders, the
Paris-based journalism watchdog, said Hosni had failed to
demonstrate his support for the freedom of expression that is
one of UNESCO's main missions.
"This minister of Hosni Mubarak has been one of the main actors
of censorship in Egypt, unfailingly trying to control press
freedom as well as citizens' freedom of information," the group
said.
Well, what is the United Nations if not predictable!?
