(Wall Street Journal) Anne Bayefsky - Last week a draft resolution on anti-Semitism - which would have been a first in the UN's 58-year history - was withdrawn in the face of Arab and Muslim opposition. Two weeks ago, in a behind-the-scenes deal struck between Irish Foreign Minister Cowen and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Israel agreed to drop efforts to include "anti-Semitism" in a religious intolerance resolution in exchange for a promise from Ireland to introduce a new resolution specifically on anti-Semitism. But after the General Assembly's Third Committee adopted the resolution on religious intolerance minus any reference to anti-Semitism, Ireland refused to carry out its side of the bargain. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan - who has occasionally paid lip-service to the problem of anti-Semitism - ignored the requests of both NGOs and the state sponsors of the anti-Semitism resolution to weigh in on the importance of the issue with UN members.
2003-12-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive