Jake Tapper Blasts Human Rights Violators Who Criticized Israel At U.N.
(JTA) — Jake Tapper is calling out many of the countries who rebuked President Trump and Israel at the United Nations on Thursday.
After 128 countries voted to condemn Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and eventually move the U.S. embassy there, the Jewish CNN anchor let loose on “The Lead.” He sharply criticized Venezuela, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, Myanmar and other countries he said have “rather questionable records of their own.”
After showing footage of Venezuela’s U.N. representative saying that Trump’s move “imperils global peace,” Tapper excoriated the Latin American country, noting that it is experiencing a severe humanitarian and economic crisis.
“[There’s] violence in the streets, an economy in complete collapse, citizens malnourished, dying children being turned away from hospitals, starving families joining street gangs to scrounge for food,” he said. “On what moral platform does the government of Venezuela stand today?”
Tapper went on to criticize Syria and Yemen, countries that he noted were embroiled in brutal civil wars.
“There are plenty of policies and actions that are perfectly valid to criticize about the United States and about Israel, and certainly whether this [Jerusalem] move will help the peace process in any way seems one of them,” Tapper said. “But listening to these countries, including North Korea and Myanmar and Turkey and China lecturing the United States in any way about human rights and peace might seem a bit much.”
Tapper also showed a graphic that explained how between 2012 and 2015, the U.N. adopted 97 resolutions criticizing one specific country—and Israel was the target of 83 of them.
“You have to ask, is Israel truly deserving of 86 percent of the world’s condemnation, or possibly is something else afoot at the United Nations, something that allows the representative of the Assad government to lecture the U.S. for moving its embassy?” he said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.