PM must condemn UN smear of Israel

We hope Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s quest for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council won’t silence him from criticizing the UN when it’s warranted.

Because he should be criticizing the one-sided UN Security Council resolution unfairly slamming Israel that was passed last week with the tacit consent of lameduck U.S. President Barack Obama.

The UN is notorious for criticizing Israeli settlements and policies in the occupied territories while giving a pass to far worse human rights violations and occupations by dictatorships all over the world.

Trudeau knows this. Indeed, he was recently praised by UN Watch for Canada’s stand in voting against six Arab-sponsored, anti-Israel resolutions in the UN General Assembly.

Trudeau has also rightly denounced the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign aimed at demonizing and delegitimizing Israel (as has Canada’s Parliament) and Israeli Apartheid Weeks.

So, Trudeau should speak out against this latest, one-sided motion against Israel by the Security Council.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper did so in tweeting his thanks to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump for his principled support of Israel in the wake of Obama blindsiding it in the dying days of his administration.

That brings us to the larger question of Canada’s role in the UN, given the UN’s increasingly anti-western, anti-capitalist and terror-excusing views.

In the wake of Obama’s 11th-hour antics at the UN, in effect pulling the pin on a grenade in the Mideast which he’s now handing to Trump, prominent Republicans are questioning whether the U.S. should continue to spend billions of dollars annually funding 22 per cent of the UN’s budget.

Canada contributes $73 million annually to the UN’s operating budget alone.

It also spends hundreds of millions of dollars more on UN refugee and humanitarian projects.

Trudeau has also promised an increased role in UN peacekeeping as part of Canada’s bid for a temporary Security Council seat.

In that context, we think it’s time for a serious look at whether Canada is getting good value for the public money it invests in the UN.

In any event, the prime minister should always speak out against the UN when it’s wrong — as it is on the Security Council’s anti-Israel resolution.