The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:30 PM

OUR VIEW: Cutting UN Budget Is Not Only Thing President Trump, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Need To Do To Most Anti-American, Anti-Israel Organization On Face Of The Earth

Haley, along with President Trump and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations announced late last week that America's part of the U.N.'s budget would be slashed over $285 million for year 2018-2019.

That's a nice start to addressing a body that has become the most anti-American and anti-Israel organization on the face of the earth. It's time to do more than pull the purse strings. It's time for an eviction notice!

Haley's move came after the UN condemned the US decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel 128-9, during a vote that also condemned President Trump's decision to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to the Ancient City.

Trump's declaration to move the embassy to Jerusalem on Dec. 6 set him apart as being the only U.S. President in seven decades brave enough to actually to announce to the world that the U.S. is on the side of Team Israel, not on the side of World Team Terrorists that include nations like the Palestinian Authority, Iran, and North Korea.

The Palestinian Authority, along with Turkey and Yemen, incidentally were behind the General Assembly vote December 22 after the United States on Monday vetoed a similar resolution was supported 13-1 by the 14 member U.N. Security Council.

The resolution's co-sponsors include Turkey, which is chair of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Yemen, which holds the chair of the Arab Group at the U.N.

The draft resolution stated that Jerusalem "is a final status issue" and reaffirmed 10 Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city's final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status, or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void, and must be rescinded." No offense U.N., but you can go blow your resolution out your nose and I'll explain more in depth why later in this editorial.

The initial condemnation by the Security Council would have required President Trump to rescind his declaration on Jerusalem as Israel's capital and not move the U.S. Embassy there.

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, home to key Muslim, Jewish, and Christian holy sites, as their capital. No offense to the Palestinians, but God comes down on the side of Israel in this debate and that's enough for me.

Thankfully we have a President in office who actually cares what God thinks about national and international matters unlike any we've had in history.

Despite the condemnation, the Trump administration stood its ground, making me personally proud, but a majority of Americans proud that we now have someone in office who is not going to take what the UN has shoveled in the face of the United States for decades without consequence.
Our tremendous UN Ambassador Nikki Haley made it clear that she would be "taking names" on who voted in favor of the anti-Israel, anti-American resolution last week. She did. So did President Trump.

"We're always asked to do more & give more," Haley wrote on Twitter. “So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American people about where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thursday there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

Haley's threat drew sharp criticism from the Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministers before they flew to New York for the General Assembly vote accusing the U.S. of intimidation. Only in the make-believe world of the United Nations that these leaders live in do nations who support Islamic terror accuse democratic-free nations of intimidation.

President Trump didn't allow those comments to sway his thinking on this matter as he strongly supported Haley’s threats to cut off U.S. funding to countries that supported the resolution.

"For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us," Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a Cabinet meeting in Washington with Haley sitting nearby. "We're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We will save a lot.”

The vote against the United States, Haley added, would make a difference “on how we look at countries that disrespect us at the U.N.”

And disrespect doesn't even begin to cover it. In 2015 that U.N. Human Rights Council adopted 348 recommendations that addressed what it saw as a myriad of human rights violations in the United States.

The report came out as a part of a mechanism called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which examines the human rights record of all U.N. member states. The council questioned the United States on its record earlier this week.

This is the same body that has stood powerless since World War II during the human rights abuses in China, Cuba, Cambodia, the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the Serbia purge in 1995-1999 under President Clinton, and has never lifted one ounce of disgust at the treatment of women, Christians, minorities, gays, and other non-Muslim groups in Islamic countries.

The fact Turkey with its brutal treatment of those who do not embrace Islam would ever remotely raise its voice at us over this decision reeks of late night comedy material.

Under President Obama, the U.S. silently accepted the UN report and said nothing, did nothing, and continued to allow the UN to disrespect the nation which hosts its ungodly agenda.

Haley has hinted that the $285 million in cuts is but a start with hints of more reductions to come.

This is important since the United States is the largest single financial contributor, at 28.5 percent, to United Nations peacekeeping operations, which totaled $6.8 billion in the 2017-2018 budget finalized in June. Without America's help, the UN would cease to exist.

“We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked,” Ms. Haley said. In future negotiations, she said, “you can be sure we’ll continue to look at ways to increase the U.N.’s efficiency while protecting our interests.”

Haley said a year ago, “You’re going to see a change in the way we do business.”

President Trump chimed in as well describing the 72-year-old organization created after World War II, as a sad social club that had squandered its potential. It's not only squandered its potential; the U.N. has failed on every level for which it was founded.

Yet, according to its "leader" and director of the "Human Rights Watch" committee Louis Charbonneau, everything is just swell at the U.N.

“There’s nothing wrong with increasing efficiency and eliminating waste at the U.N.,” said Charbonneau. “But it’s crucial that we don’t curtail the U.N.’s ability to monitor, investigate, and expose human rights abuses or its ability to save the lives of men, women, and children worldwide.”

That last statement is a complete joke. Since when has the UN done any of that except to slam the U.S. and Israel for what they perceive as human rights issues while ignoring communist, Islamist, and socialist nation's atrocities and abuses of their citizens.

Why has it been almost impossible to get true sanctions against murderous regimes such as Iran and North Korea? Why is it that when Israel simply exercises her right to self defense the U.N. goes ballistic but when a Palestinian suicide bomber kills scores of Jewish citizens the same body is silent? Again, it's laughable.

I argue simply that America’s entire contribution to the U.N. should be rescinded until such a point the U.N shows itself to be a true partner with the United States and Israel. The honest truth is that will never happen.

In addition to our financial contribution being rescinded, the United States needs to evict the U.N. from our borders and send the organization overseas where it belongs. Let them spew their anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric on someone else's soil, not ours.

If the United Nations had ever made a difference in world affairs it would be different. It has not since its inception right after World War II. It's become a mouthpiece for the demonic influence of dictators, socialists, and communists.

It's time for a swamp cleaning at the U.N. too and thankfully we have a President and a U.N. Ambassador willing to have the courage to do it. Let the drain begin and to the United Nations - get out of the United States you despise so much. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge

Great Smoky Mountain Journal