The 51st yahrzeit of Dr. Raphael Lemkin, the international lawyer who created the United Nations Genocide Convention, will doubtless pass unnoticed on August 28, just as his 50th did last year. This is not unexpected: Lemkin — who coined, conceptualized and defined genocide and who worked tirelessly inside and outside the U.N. to make its…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a bombshell today in a speech at the Plaza Hotel to about 500 people gathered by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations: Israel might accept a peace agreement in which parts of Jerusalem are handed over to a Palestinian state. He said it backwards, but the…
It’s getting a bit frightening watching the unfolding of the Israeli government’s campaign to discredit the Goldstone report on suspected Gaza war crimes. The spluttering, frantic rage, the contradictory arguments, the transparent drafting of Diaspora Jewish organizations to put their credibility on the line — it adds up to a demeaning performance that can only…
Folks in the leafy New York suburb of Englewood, N.J., are up in arms, according to news reports, over plans by the Libyan government to pitch a tent on a Libyan-owned property in their town. The pavilion is supposed to house strongman Muammar Gadhafi while he attends the opening of the United Nations General Assembly…
When he came to New York for his first United Nations General Assembly last year, the newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a virtual unknown. But in the past year he has become the international face of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and growing influence from Lebanon to Iraq, not to mention his calls for the…
Of the more than 50 international peacekeeping forces established or authorized by the United Nations since its inception, half a dozen have patrolled Israel’s borders with its Arab neighbors. Before another international force comes into existence and is deployed in southern Lebanon, it might be helpful to inquire what has made for the handful of…
Last week the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, proposed sending a 24,000-strong peacekeeping force to Darfur and called for international efforts to secure the Sudanese government’s consent to the plan. However, he knows full well that U.N. member states are unlikely to deploy troops to Sudan without the Sudanese government’s consent. The situation, in…
With more than 400 Lebanese civilians killed in recent weeks, the United Nations and leading human rights organizations are stepping up their criticism of Israel, suggesting Jerusalem could face legal consequences for its military actions. Even before four U.N. observers were killed in an Israeli strike Tuesday, senior officials from the world body were warning…
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