Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist

Palestinian UN Membership Application Deadlocked

The Palestinian bid to become the 194th member state of the United Nations has come one step closer to collapse - at least for now. There has been no formal Security Council vote as of yet. However, the United Nations Security Council's Committee on the Admission of New Members, consisting of representatives from all fifteen Security Council member states, adopted a report on November 11th indicating that they were unable to reach a consensus concerning what recommendation to make to the Security Council on the Palestinian application for full membership in the United Nations.

Shady UN Development Agency Pushes Hard For Global Tax

The United Nations launched the 2011 Human Development Report, entitled Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All, with great fanfare on November 2, 2011. Helen Clark, Administrator of the largest and perhaps the most unaccountable, ethically-challenged of all UN bureaucratic agencies, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), presided over the ceremonies held in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was joined by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark.

A Haunting Vote At The UN

In its own special version of a Halloween 'trick or treat," the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") became the first UN agency to admit Palestine as a full member since the Palestinians launched their full court press for total recognition as a UN member state.

Israeli Ambassador’s Plea to the Security Council Falls on Deaf Ears

The "international community" is always quick to blame Israel for any reprisals it takes against Palestinian terrorists. Accusations of "collective punishment," "disproportionate force," and "extrajudicial targeted assassinations" are regularly hurled at Israel from the chambers of the dysfunctional Human Rights Council and other United Nations bodies, including the UN Security Council.

New Pro-Palestinian UN Security Council Members

Since the day that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas submitted his application for full state membership in the United Nations, the United States has been scurrying around to line up enough no votes or abstentions in the Security Council so that it will not be forced to use its veto to block the bid from moving forward.

Palestinians Keep Up The Pressure At The UN For Instant Statehood

The Palestinians' campaign to get official United Nations approval of their bid for statehood status is proceeding on multiple fronts.

Ninety-Nine Percent Narcissists

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators call themselves the 99 percenters, pitting those whom they characterize as the rich, greedy 1 percent capitalists against the 99 percent of the people whom the 1 percent are supposedly exploiting. A more accurate description of the demonstrators is that they are 99 percent narcissists engaging in a form of self-glorified street theater. And that's giving them the benefit of the doubt that 1 percent of them may be misguided but authentic idealists.

Awlaki’s Killing Was Legally Justified

On September 30, 2011, a U.S. drone air strike killed Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American citizen with ties to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula whom the U.S. government had specifically targeted for death or capture. Awlaki was cut down in Yemen where he had been hiding and reportedly had been helping plan terrorist plots against the American homeland.

Multi-Billionaire Financier George Soros Empathizes With Anti-Wall Street Demonstrators

(Editor's note: CFP columnist Joe Klein got George Soros on the record before he shut off further questioning outside of the UN Millenium Village today.) George Soros came to the United Nations today to announce an additional pledge of up to $47.4 million to the UN sponsored Millennium Villages Project. But that was not the big news he made today.

Jerusalem And The Supreme Court

The State Department refuses to comply with a provision in a congressional statute, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003, which requires the State Department to record a Jerusalem-born U.S. citizen's place of birth as ‘Israel’ if requested to do so by the citizen or his or her legal guardian. This particular instance of dereliction of the president's constitutional duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed" began during the Bush administration and is continuing apace during the Obama administration. An estimated 50,000 individuals, who were born in Jerusalem but are considered American citizens because of their parents' American citizenship, are affected.

The United Nations House of Lies Fawns Over Abbas

In a fiery, no holds barred speech on September 23, 2011 to the United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presented Palestine’s formal application for full membership to the United Nations. Although he was speaking on the first day of fall, Abbas proclaimed the "Palestinian Spring," which he repeated to cheering crowds welcoming him home Sunday in the West Bank.

The Durban Perversion

The United Nations hosted a full day celebration on September 22nd commemorating the tenth anniversary of one of its greatest embarrassments since its founding - the adoption of the so-called Durban I Declaration and Programme of Action.

Obama and Sarkozy Address The UN General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly session kicked off today with a speech by President Barack Obama. His central theme was "peace is hard but we know it is possible."

Libya and Counter-Terrorism At The United Nations

As heads-of-state and top government leaders from most of the 193 member state states gather for the United Nations General Assembly opening session this week, the UN hosted a series of side events Monday and Tuesday including, most importantly, a High-Level Meeting on Libya and a High-Level Counter-Terrorism Symposium. Other side events included meeting on health, the environmental and sustainable development, and gender equality.

Palestinians Bring Their Intifada To The United Nations

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threw down the gauntlet in his televised address to the Palestinian people from his Ramallah headquarters on September 16, 2011. He said he will take the Palestinian request for full recognition as a United Nations member state to the UN Security Council on the basis of the 1967 territorial lines, even though he knows that the U.S. has vowed to veto such a resolution. Abbas is asking the international community to formally ratify the exact physical boundaries of an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian terms.

UN Vote For A Palestine State: President Obama’s Self-Fulfilling Prophesy

The New York Times ran a banner front page headline on September 14, 2011 entitled "U.S. Scrambles to Avert Palestinian Vote at U.N." The Times headline should have read "The Obama Administration Scrambles to Avoid Its Own Self-Fulfilling Prophesy."

Free Gilad Schalit Now

A teenage Israeli soldier named Gilad Schalit was abducted from Israeli territory by Hamas terrorists on June 25, 2006. More than 1900 days later, Gilad - now 25 years old - is still in captivity. He is held incommunicado, denied even a single visit from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The last time that Gilad's family heard from him was two years ago. His whereabouts today are unknown.

Update From The United Nations On Libya And Syria

During the last few days, there has been a flurry of talk at the United Nations Security Council regarding the post-conflict transition in Libya as well as regarding Syria. With respect to Libya, there has been no concrete action from the Security Council since the approval last week of the release of $1.5 billion dollars in frozen assets for humanitarian relief.

The Qaddafi and Assad Summer

In scenes reminiscent of the jubilation in Cairo's Tahrir Square when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, cheering Libyans, firing gunshots into the air, filled Tripoli's Green Square on Sunday August 21st to celebrate what they believed to be the downfall of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime. While the dictator himself remained elusive, the rebels claimed that they had two of his sons in custody.

Iran-Aided Syrian Crack-Down Extends to Palestinians

Iran's Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi said earlier this week that it is " the duty of all Muslims to help stabilise Syria against the destructive plots of America and Israel." He is echoing the opinion of Iran's supreme ruler Ayatolla Khamenei, who considers himself to be the representative of Allah on earth and the deputy of the last Islamic messiah, Imam Mahdi. Khameni declared last spring that the protesters in Syria were “God’s enemies.”