Editorial, February 25, 2011
UN-believable
ALL over the Middle East, reports of Arab governments responding to anti-government protests with live gunfire have been flowing in for days, and what did the United Nations Security Council tackle first on the agenda last Friday? Why, naturally: Jewish construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
It’s good to know the world leaders have their priorities in order.
Meanwhile, this week, it took reports of hundreds killed in Libya and the urging of a coalition of human rights groups as well as defecting Libyan ambassadors themselves to get the Security Council to convene over the situation – behind closed doors. Among the human rights groups’ requests is to have Libya kicked off the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).
So, let’s get this straight. On one day we have Israel publicly pilloried at the Security Council over what amounts to a land and property dispute that was intended to be addressed in direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Just a few days later, the UN gets around to discretely discussing about – maybe, possibly – taking action against a country that is actively slaughtering its own citizens brazenly before the watching eyes of the world.
Oh yes, and that country is also a nation that was accepted last May into the HRC, despite the country’s poor human rights track record under its mercurial dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The United Nations has a problem. It’s certainly not Israel, and it’s not just the snowballing crisis in the Arab League.
To witness the international body fiddling over the Palestinian agenda while the Arab street burns raises profound questions about the core values of the organisation.
In the course of less than one week, the Palestinian Authority’s cynical abuse of the Security Council to bypass negotiations over the future of Jerusalem and the settlements, taken together with the forum’s flat-footed response over catastrophic Libyan human rights abuses, has underlined the need for reform. Not just the political reform for Arab nations, although they certainly could use it, but reform at the UN. The world needs a United Nations that can live up to the promise of its creation, a body that is prepared to intervene when clearly appropriate and yet not be subject to mob rule and groupthink that has made it a favourite instrument of Israel-bashers.
The first step to rehabilitation is admitting you have a problem. For the UN, that time has come.
Light, liberty and learning
JEWISH-born, British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli said “a university should be a place of light, liberty and of learning”. What he forgot to say is that it should also be a place of fun and a place to grow.
This week and next, many Jewish students will be preparing to embark on their first foray into tertiary education, whether at university or TAFE.
It can be a daunting step, leaving the safety and familiarity of high school – particularly the warm embrace of a Jewish school – for the anonymity of a university campus. But stick with it, it will only get better.
As many of our writers this week recommend, students who get involved in out-of-class activities get the most out of their tertiary studies.
Whether it is signing up as an Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) member so you can get free bagels once a week at lunchtime, joining the campus triathlon club to get fit, or getting to know new people in a theatre group, university is much more than lectures, tutorials and labs.
Jewish students will also no doubt be confronted by some pretty graphic shocks as pro-Palestinian groups gear up for Israel Apartheid Week, beginning March 7.
Students, mostly from the far left, will be focusing all their efforts on drumming up support from the apathetic for their biased, ill-informed campaign. Be equipped to answer back. While you probably don’t want to engage in a slanging match, it can be handy to have a few facts about the real situation in Israel up your sleeve. This will guarantee the extremists – who are not used to educated opponents – will be knocked off balance.
Student unions and AUJS are the go-to points if their arguments get out of hand – surreptitiously winding their way from anti-Israel to anti-Semitic. These groups will advocate on your behalf and ensure the battle stays clean.
But campus is not a scary place. It is the first step on a long journey towards a life of learning and, hopefully, a successful career.
And just imagine, at the end of that journey, the Jewish community will be richer for all the new teachers, marketers, doctors, designers, lawyers, engineers and, best of all, thinkers.
Heed the call of Disraeli and many others and make your university years a time of light, liberty and learning.
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