National Review Online Blogs, NY
Jan 29 2007
Genocide Awaits Us
The U.N. and Iran.
By Anne Bayefsky
On this anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp of
Auschwitz, the United Nations is making a show of its concern for
genocide by holding the `International Day of commemoration in memory
of the victims of the Holocaust.’ Nothing could be further from
reality. In fact, the U.N. provides sustenance for the Iranian
genocidal threat, which is directed at Israel now, and America next.
`They vanished from the Earth…’ is how Armenian-French singer Charles
Aznavour described the Armenian genocide, in which one and a half
million people are reported to have died at the hands of Turkish
authorities beginning in 1915. There was no U.N. then, and no U.N.
resolution addressing the Armenian genocide ever since. Is it simply
over? It is for Hrant Dink, the editor of Turkey’s main
Armenian-language newspaper, who questioned Turkey’s continuing
silence about the genocide and was shot dead in Istanbul last week.
It is also over for the 200,000 men, women, and children whom the
U.N. failed in Bosnia-Herzegovina starting in 1992. It is over for
the 800,000 that the U.N. abandoned in Rwanda in 1994. It is too late
for the 500,000 already dead in Darfur, where thousands more perish
every month while the U.N. continues to ruminate.
`The women fell as well, and the babies they tended, left to die,
left to cry, all condemned by their birth’ – the powerful words of
Aznavour seek to wake us from our slumber. Instead, we watch the
travesty of a United Nations driven by an expansionist greed.
Claiming more every year from American taxpayers already paying 5.3
billion annually, it simultaneously provides a mouthpiece for Iranian
nihilism.
Former CIA director James Woolsey recently reminded us in his
testimony before the House Committee for Foreign Affairs that `the
Iranian regime does not restrict itself to hideous speech,’ itemizing
the Americans murdered by Iran and its proxies. He warned that `Iran
has now begun a Shiite-Sunni nuclear arms race in this volatile
region’ and that the time frame for Iranian acquisition of their
chosen instrument of genocide could at any time accelerate through
North Korean aid.
Newt Gingrich has also repeatedly tried to sound alarm bells, most
recently at a conference in Israel last week: `Enemies are explicit
in their desire to destroy us. We are sleepwalking through this… We
should take our enemies at their word. Ahmadinajed is…explicit
regarding his intentions…the American people need to realize that
their lives are at stake…’
Where is the U.N. now, while genocide beckons and Aznavour’s words –
`they fell like rain…all in vain…for no one heard their prayers’ –
become more haunting every day? U.N. International Atomic Energy
Chief Mohamed ElBaradei, whose job it is to prevent nuclear
proliferation, told the Davos crowd on January 25 that the problem is
the United States and the possibility of a toughened stance against
Iran. Said ElBaradei: even `talk of military action can only
backfire…[because] this strengthens the hands of those in Iran who
say `let’s develop a bomb to protect ourselves.” This is the U.N.
theater of the absurd. Unprovoked, Iran threatens to destroy our way
of life, but if we react by promising to protect ourselves, we
justify the enemies’ lie that it is acting in self-defense.
Astonishingly, though this performance may be our last, we are poised
to buy yet another ticket. Senator Coburn is conducting a lonely
battle to deny the latest U.N. grab for another fistful of American
dollars, this time to finance the expansion of U.N. headquarters in
New York City. The renovation costs will be in the neighborhood of
two billion dollars – many times the amount that developer Donald
Trump says can be justified.
Most disturbingly, however, we are not only paying for the architect
of our intended demise; we are acting as its p.r. firm. President
Bush told the nation in his State of the Union Address `The United
Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran, and made it clear that the
world will not allow the regime in Tehran to acquire nuclear
weapons.’ Actually, the U.N. sanctions regime is a pathetic fig leaf
– the Russian and Chinese votes having been bought by gutting the
original U.S. resolution – and the U.N. has never made it clear that
Tehran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.
More accurately, when it comes to Iran, the U.N. treads lightly and
carries an even lighter stick. On Friday, the U.N. General Assembly
adopted a resolution which `condemns…any denial of the Holocaust.’ It
doesn’t mention Iran by name, nor contain the word `Jew’ or
`anti-semitism’ – any one of which would certainly have made its
adoption much more difficult, if not impossible. The resolution was
cosponsored by 103 U.N. states. That leaves 89 – including every Arab
state – refusing to cosponsor. It also leaves the U.N.’s lead
human-rights agency, the Human Rights Council, dedicated to the
continuing demonization and demise of the Jewish state. And it stands
side-by-side with the U.N. Department of Public Information opening
an exhibit today entitled `The Holocaust against the Roma and Sinti.’
Despite this being only the second anniversary of the U.N. day of
commemoration, the U.N. has already used the undoubted suffering of
others – deserving of attention – as a backdoor to deny the
uniqueness of the Holocaust as the unparalleled annihilation of six
million Jews.
As has documented, in 2006 the U.N. system
condemned Israel for violating human rights more than any other
country on earth. At fourth place in the list of countries subject to
most U.N. human-rights condemnation in 2006 is the United States. In
the past year, the U.N condemned the United States for human-rights
violations more frequently than it did Iran. This is the U.N. siren
call luring us ever closer towards Iranian nuclear armament.
`In agony and fright, with courage on their faces, they went in to
the night, that waits for every man.’ Will we too vanish from the
earth? For genocide awaits us if we wait for the U.N.
– Anne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and at
Touro College Law Center. She is also editor of
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