Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist

United Nations Open Border Migration Officials Mock National Sovereignty

At a reception held on October 22, 2015, to honor the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for International Migration, Peter Sutherland, claimed that caps on refugees enforced by certain countries in Europe are “directly reminiscent of the type of caps that took place under the Reich [against] the Jewish population.” This outrageous comparison of good faith attempts to control the tide of mass migration from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan to the plight of Jews during the Holocaust is aimed at browbeating European countries into putting their own citizens in danger to serve a globalist agenda.

United Nations Apologists for Deadly Palestinian Violence

On the same day as Palestinians torched a site containing Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank city of Nablus, the United Nations Security Council held an “emergency” session to address the escalating violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The October 16th meeting was called by Jordan, a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

Corruption Rears its Head Again at the United Nations

In announcing bribery and tax fraud charges last week against former United Nations General Assembly President John Ashe, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that "John Ashe, the 68th president of the U.N. General Assembly, sold himself and the global institution he led." Moreover, the U.S. Attorney put the UN on notice that his investigation was not over. “We will be asking: Is bribery business-as-usual at the U.N.?” he said.

President Obama Continues Spinning Fantasies at the United Nations

President Barack Obama continued his feckless foreign policy charade at the United Nations yesterday. He chaired what was billed as “The Leaders’ Summit on Countering ISIL and Violent Extremism,” and he met with Cuban President Raul Castro.

President Obama Repeats His Failed Foreign Policy Mantra at the UN

President Obama delivered his annual speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 28th. He spoke mostly in generalities, with his usual platitudes extolling the benefits of multilateral cooperation, diplomacy and international law rooted in what he called “universal,” “self-evident” truths. He condemned “the belief that power is a zero-sum game; that might makes right; that strong states must impose their will on weaker ones; that the rights of individuals don’t matter; and that in a time of rapid change, order must be imposed by force.”

Pope Francis’s Progressive UN Speech Avoids Confronting Islamic Jihad

Pope Francis addressed the United Nations General Assembly on September 25th. He started out by praising the UN, which is observing its seventieth anniversary this year. He gave credit to the UN for such achievements he described as the “codification and development of international law, the establishment of international norms regarding human rights, advances in humanitarian law, the resolution of numerous conflicts, operations of peace-keeping and reconciliation, and any number of other accomplishments in every area of international activity and endeavour.”

Palestinians Riot on Temple Mount and the UN Provides Them Cover

The phony Palestinian “state” will be honored at the United Nations with the raising of its flag outside of UN headquarters alongside the flags of 193 genuine member states.

United Nations Makes Migrant Crisis Worse with Loose Rhetoric

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon insisted, in a statement released on September 8^th, that European nations open their doors to the many thousands of Middle Easterners and North Africans said to be "fleeing war and violence, who have a right to seek asylum without any form of discrimination." The statement said that he had called the leaders of Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia to emphasize "the individual and collective responsibility of European states to respond responsibly and humanely" to the migration crisis.

No End to Sexual Abuse Allegations Against UN Peacekeepers

The United Nations Security Council issued a press statement on August 18th expressing “outrage and anger” regarding allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers, including the latest allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Stop Throwing Good Money After Bad to UN Palestinian Refugee Agency

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, which serves Palestinian “refugees,” is constantly complaining of budget deficits. No matter how much money it sucks out of the United States, European Union countries and other donors, it is never enough. It is always pleading for more money, which it is continuing to do today with another one of its special appeals. It is time to stop throwing good money after bad to this dysfunctional UN agency.

UN Silent as Iranian Regime Plans Arms Purchases and Sales Anytime, Anywhere

The ink is barely dry on the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”), and the Iranian regime is already showing how its word is worth nothing. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, who was heavily involved in the JCPOA negotiations, was quoted as declaring that Iran would “buy weapons from wherever possible” and “provide weapons to whomever and whenever it considers appropriate.”

UN Security Council Enshrines Disastrous Iran Nuclear Deal into International Law

The United Nations Security Council approved unanimously a resolution endorsing the final Iran nuclear deal agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The resolution, which will go into formal effect 90 days after its passage on July 20th, incorporates the JCPOA as an attachment. The intent in adopting the Security Council resolution so quickly was, in the words of New Zealand’s Foreign Minister who was presiding over the Security Council session, “to give international legal force to the agreement reached in Vienna, and extend the obligations it contains across the broader UN membership.”

UN Set to Officially Endorse Disastrous Iran Nuclear Deal

The final Iran nuclear deal agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is heading this Monday to the United Nations Security Council for a scheduled rubber stamp endorsement of its terms. The resolution, which will go into effect 90 days after passage, incorporates the JCPOA as an attachment. It invokes the Security Council’s authority under the UN Charter to call upon the UN member states to support the implementation of the nuclear deal terms.

The Srebrenica Genocide and Loss of Respect for the United Nations

Russia vetoed a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution intended to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the genocide at Srebrenica, which took the lives of at least 8000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. They were slaughtered in an area that UN peacekeepers were supposed to protect but had abandoned, as armed Bosnian Serbs overran the UN positions. The massacre was the worst to occur on European soil since the end of World War II. The United Kingdom had drafted the text of the proposed Srebrenica commemoration resolution, which it submitted for a vote on July 8 after having failed to satisfy Russia’s demands for certain changes. Though supported by a majority of the Security Council members, the proposed resolution was said to be too “confrontational and politically-motivated," according to Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin in explaining the reason for Russia’s veto. "The draft that we have in front of us will not help peace in the Balkans but rather doom this region to tension," Churkin added.

The UN’s Failure to Live up to Its Charter’s Ideals

The United Nations celebrated the 70th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter on June 26th. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the UN Charter “an expression of hope.” Commemorating the signing of the UN Charter at its birthplace in San Francisco, the Secretary General added that the Charter “symbolizes the hope and aspirations that we can bring the world as it is a little closer to the world as it should be. This we can do through cooperation, dialogue, peaceful settlement of disputes and respect of human rights.”

The Two Popes

Pope Francis issued a lengthy encyclical last week calling for radical change in human behavior to confront climate change. He presented climate change as the moral issue of our time. "Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it," the pope declared. "It is a mistake to rely on the 'myths' of a modernity grounded in a utilitarian mindset (individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market)," he added. While denying that anyone is suggesting a return to the Stone Age and conceding that "[T]echnoscience, when well directed, can produce important means of improving the quality of human life," Pope Francis refused to dismiss doomsday predictions if society continues along its present path.

New UN General Assembly President: Old Wine in a New Bottle

The United Nations General Assembly elected Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark as president of its upcoming 70th session, which commences this September. Mr. Lykketoft has served in various government positions, including as Denmark’s foreign minister and finance minister, and most recently as the speaker of the parliament. Based on his past record, he will likely be a cheerleader for the wealth redistributionist ideology prevalent at the United Nations, as well as adding to the UN’s chorus against Israel. There may be a new General Assembly president, but he fits the established UN mold to a T.

UN Children and Armed Conflict Report Slants Its Gaza Findings Against Israel

According to the New York Times, citing unnamed diplomats, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon bowed to "unusual pressure from Israel and the United States" in deciding not to include either Israel or Hamas on a list of "armies and guerilla groups that kill and maim children in conflicts worldwide." The list is included in an annex to an annual report by the Secretary General entitled "Children and armed conflict," which he just released for 2015. The list, as its title states, is intended to identify specifically the entities that "recruit or use children, kill or maim children, commit rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, or engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals in situations of armed conflict."

President Obama to Use the UN to Stab Israel in the Back

President Barack Obama visited an influential conservative Washington D.C. synagogue on May 22nd with the avowed purpose of assuring his audience of about 1000 people that his “commitment to Israel’s security is and always will be unshakeable.” Donning a yarmulke and speaking from the synagogue sanctuary’s bimah where the Torah is recited, Obama claimed that “no U.S. President, no administration has done more to ensure that Israel can protect itself than this one.” Carried away by his own self-proclaimed support for Israel, he declared himself an “honorary member of the tribe.”

ICC Prosecutor Continues Examining Palestine Situation and Warns Israel

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York, following her May 12th briefing to the UN Security Council on the ICC’s Libya-related activities, that her previously announced “preliminary examination” concerning the situation in Palestine is still open. She has not set any deadline for completing her examination. Ms. Bensouda is continuing to look into whether crimes subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction were possibly committed in the Palestinian territories since June 2014. She is considering information, if any, submitted to her office by both sides to the conflict and from other sources. Ms. Bensouda decided to undertake the preliminary examination, which she described as “a quiet process,” on her own initiative once the so-called Palestinian state acceded to the ICC’s governing Rome Statute. Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute and has not consented to its jurisdiction.