Saturday, September 19, 2009

Honourable organisations..?

Again it is time for some reflections over Israel in relation to the rest of the world. Not that I think that any nation in the world should possess nuclear weapons, even if merely for tactical reasons, but when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting passed a resolution directly criticising Israel and its atomic program, as the sole nation, then it is clear to me that one more time we are looking at an assembly with a dirty and biased agenda.

Israel, together with Pakistan and India, has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and Israel is thought to possess an arsenal of potentially up to several hundred nuclear warheads and associated delivery systems, but this has never been openly confirmed or denied. The constant threats from neighbouring Arab countries that Israel has been dealing with since its declaration, can at least be seen an explanation for why they have chosen to not reveal its status.

Regardless, I consider other nations to be more likely to use their nuclear arsenal and therefore constituting bigger threats for the security and stability in the Middle East than Israel. Iran is a party to the NPT, but has been found in non-compliance with its NPT safeguards agreement and the status of its nuclear program remains in dispute. Neither does Ahmadinejad give the Iranian regime much trustworthiness by repeatedly
denying the Holocaust and agitating against Israel, in-between his violent struggle to kill the free spirit and democracy of his own country.

The IAEA resolution reflects building tensions between Israel and its backers and Islamic nations, backed by developing countries, and the result once again exposed the deep divide in the IAEA meetings. The approach taken in this case, after the Islamic nations and the developing countries won by votes, is highly politicized and does not truly address the complexities at play regarding crucial nuclear-related issues in the Middle East.

The fact that the UN is a joke is nothing new and the latest report on the Gaza war is yet another proof that objectivity and justice is not a virtue for the commission. The report was biased with the focus on Israel and it did not fully deal with Hamas' role in the conflict. The UN organ for Education, Science and Culture, UNESCO, is about to appoint a new director-general, and although no candidate yet has obtained enough votes, a controversial anti-Semite has so far obtained 22 out of 30 required votes. Farouk Hosny, the Ministry of Culture in Egypt, has stated that Israel was "aided" in its dark intrigues by "the infiltration of Jews into the international media" and by their diabolical ability to "spread lies". In 2008 Farouk Hosni provoked a further controversy by declaring publicly that "I'd burn Israeli books myself" in Egyptian libraries if he could. Does he seem like a suitable candidate for such an important post, if now the UN can be considered honourable at all anymore..?

UN is not the only organ that people tend to blindly trust, but which really would need to be viewed upon with sharp eyes and a critical mind. Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a widely credited and supposedly trustworthy organisation, but at a closer look they seem to routinely assign persons with shady backgrounds. The author of their last report on the Gaza operation, Joe Stork, once applauded the Palestinian mass murder on Israeli athletes during the Olympic games in München in 1972 and described it as a "moral enhancer" for Palestinians. He is also known for supporting Saddam Hussein and to oppose the existence of the state of Israel. Later on another analyst has been suspended and set under investigation for his Nazi memorabilia fetish. Marc Garlasco has made up to 9000 posts on collectors' sites like Wehrmacht Awards and German Combat Awards. Most auction houses does not even allow exhibition or commercial distribution of such items. Garlascos internet name, as well as the registration number on his car, is "Flak88", which was a German anti-aircraft, and 88 is besides that a common Neo-Nazi code. His logo is a svastika-covered German medallion. Not very conventional for a person who is representing a human rights organisation.

My bottom-line message is that using a wider perception and more diverse sources of information, will help you to not fall in the trap of subjective and biased thinking. We see enough of that already in this world and it does not help healing humanity...

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