Tag Archives: UN

The UN Is Worse Than Useless

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OCHA is the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. According to their website:

…we bring the world together to tackle humanitarian emergencies and save the lives of people caught in crises.

We mobilize aid, share information, support humanitarian efforts, and advocate for crisis-affected communities.

OCHA is active in Gaza. You may recollect the infamous blood-libel (one of many it has to be said) about how 14,000 babies were going to die of starvation there. This was propagated by the head of OCHA, one Tom Fletcher.

Screenshot of a tweet reporting the false allegation by OCHA that 14,000 babies were going to die in 48 hours.

So, the head of a UN body put out false information that demonized the Jewish state. And what were the consequences for him? None.

What, unsurprisingly, makes it worse is that OCHA have form for lying. Yes, you read that correctly: OCHA tell lies.

For example, in OCHA’s Humanitarian Situation Update of October 2, it says that one million Gazans have access to less than 6 liters of water a day. According to COGAT (the Israeli organization responsible for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) this is an outright lie. The true average is dozens of liters of water a day, “based on water pipelines from Israel, a UAE waterline to the Mawasi, an Israeli electricity line supplying electricity to the desalination plant in Dier al Balah, another desalination plant and pumping facilities. The amount of water available in Gaza is well above the humanitarian minimum.”

Here’s another example from that October 2 update. OCHA report that in Gaza city the supply of cooked meals went down by 70%, with only 8 kitchens operating. Sounds bad, doesn’t it? However, OCHA lied by omission: something like 80% of the Gaza city population moved south (so no wonder supply went down!) and there was a matching rise in the opening of new kitchens there.

For COGAT’s complete skewering of OCHA’s October 2 Update, check out this post.

It is incontrovertible that OCHA is lying. Why do they do that? Why do they do that repeatedly? Why are there no consequences for this?

In my opinion, in the UN:

  • Nobody cares about truth.
  • It’s all about how things look, and it’s important to make Israel look bad.
  • The people in the top jobs get paid huge salaries. Lying – to make the situation seem worse – is a form of job protection for those working for aid agencies.
  • Antisemitism is rife.

As the inimitable Elder of Ziyon notes, the UN is worse than useless. OCHA is merely one weed among many.

[A tip of the hat to the Elder of Ziyon.]

And Out They Went!

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Uri Kurlianchik posted on X a list of the 76 countries “whose representatives either did not attend Netanyahu’s speech at the UN or left beforehand.”

Here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

It’s noteworthy that China and Russian did not walk out, but Lebanon and Syria did.

Apparently the walkout was heavily promoted by the PA who asked delegations to beef up their numbers so the participation looked larger than it would otherwise have been.

As Uri also said on X:

This list includes some of the worst countries in the world by any objective metric. Makes one wonder why do some European states wish to be in the company of absolute, backwater shitholes?

This is an excellent point. What the hell, for example, are Spain playing at? One possible explanation is that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is trying to divert attention away from the corruption crisis in the country. Part of the crisis is close to home for him as his wife, Begoña Gómez, is facing charges of public embezzlement and is being investigated for other potential offenses: influence peddling, business corruption, trademark misappropriation, and intrusion. While she’s innocent till proven guilty, the pressure on the couple must be horrendous. How they must enjoy taking a free swing at Israel!

As for the Irish, well, frankly they have form. Their President has behaved in a foul manner towards Israel. 

The states participating in the walkout behaved like student activists trying to make a cheap point. It was not a mature act. It was an act of weakness. It was not an act that helped anyone, Palestinian or otherwise.

Arguably, the walkout nations showed the world they are afraid of Bibi, or at least afraid of what he would say to them. So, I’d describe them as cowardly. As many of these nations are tinpot dictatorships who behave like bullies, at least their cowardly act was consistent!

Also, the walkout proved (yet again) the validity of Israel’s persistent and accurate complaint that the UN is biased against Israel. Are you aware of a similar boycott of anyone else’s speech? As far as I can see, those fine upstanding libertarians Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin, and Mahmoud Abbas (to name a few) were not greeted by any similar display of petulance. Only the Jew among the nations deserves such treatment it seems.

Closer to home, at least one Israeli commentator said Bibi’s speech was directed to the Israeli electorate and not the UN delegations. I think that’s unfair. Sure, part of his thinking would have been how it would be received in Israel, but the focus seemed to me to be firmly on making Israel’s case and chiding the weak ‘allies’ we are supposed to have.

I am no fan of Bibi, but I thought his speech was a good one. He was more polite than I would have been though and that’s one reason why I never went into politics!