UN showing unconscionable bias in Middle East crisis

Israel’s unprecedented action in naming UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres “persona non grata” – a seldom-used but profoundly significant diplomatic démarche that bars him from entering the country – is a timely reminder of the world body’s utter failure in the Middle East crisis that demands international support. The former Portuguese socialist prime minister’s incomprehensible hesitancy, as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz put it, to “unequivocally condemn” Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack this week is bad enough. Even more egregious, as Mr Katz said, is the disgraceful reality that almost a year on from the October 7 slaughter of 1200 Jews by Hamas terrorists, the worst such attack since the Holocaust, Mr Guterres “is yet to denounce the massacre … or condemn Hamas’s use of sexual violence”.

“A UN secretary-general who gives backing to terrorists, rapists and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and now Iran – the mothership of global terror – will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN,” Mr Katz added.

The Israeli minister’s outrage is well founded. The UN is supposed to be the world’s pre-eminent body when it comes to maintaining international peace and security. Its institutions were founded on the basis that they would provide the leadership needed in profound crises such as that which has threatened world peace since the barbaric terrorists launched their savage slaughter of Jews on October 7.

The best 75-year-old Mr Guterres has been able to do since Israel began its military action to defend itself against Hezbollah and Iran rained down 181 missiles on Israel has, however, been to express “concern” about “escalation” of the conflict. This is wholly in line with the shameless bias against the Jewish state of an organisation that in 1975 passed UN Resolution 3379, which falsely equated Zionism with racism and apartheid, and has since been nothing if not consistent in siding with those hellbent on the destruction of Israel. The crisis demands far better than this from the UN and from Mr Guterres. Under his leadership, the world body was utterly useless after the October 7 massacre. It is now showing itself to be similarly useless following Iran’s attack on Israel. Its unconscionable bias against Israel and in favour of any country or terrorist mob that wants to destroy Israel and its people is intolerable. Israel should not be alone in making clear its disgust over the UN’s disgraceful failure in the Middle East crisis.