Exiting a U.N. sham

The exit of the United States from the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency has been a long time coming. So no, this wasn’t another Trump “shocker.” Rather, it was an overdue recognition that the agency’s conduct has been disgraceful and it is badly in need of reform.

Among UNESCO’s many errors of judgment? It allowed the murderous Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to remain on its human rights committee.

And just last July it voted to declare Hebron’s Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims, in the West Bank as a “Palestinian heritage site.” The site remains under guard by Israeli forces who assure it remains open to people of all faiths.

U.S. relations with UNESCO took a sharp downward slide back in 2011 when the agency — which has long had an antiIsrael bent — voted to include Palestine as a member. It was then that the State Department stopped contributing its share of UNESCO funding. Back payments now amount to about $550 million, but the agency ought not hold its breath waiting to collect.

A representative from Qatar is now the leading candidate to head the agency, so current State Department officials aren’t looking for any improvement in its anti-Israel bias in the near term.

Instead, the U.S. will maintain non-member “observer status” to, as the State Department put it, engage on “non-politicized” issues, including protection of World Heritage sites, advocating for press freedoms and promoting scientific collaboration and education.

“We will be carefully watching how the organization and the new director-general steers the agency,” Chris Hegadorn, the ranking U.S. representative to UNESCO, told The Associated Press.

But presumably watching with eyes wide open — and low expectations.