Relying on the international community is futile

Over 120 countries — two-thirds of the U.N.'s membership — convened in Tehran to partake in the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iranians boasted that three kings, 27 presidents, eight prime ministers and 50 foreign ministers attended. Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi was present, breaching Egypt’s long standing estrangement from Iran which he now describes as “a strategic ally,” even though he condemned Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. India, the world’s most populous democracy, participated with a delegation of 250 headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stating shamelessly that its objective was to increase trade and commerce with Iran.

Despite appeals from the United States and others, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also attended. He did so only days after his condemnation of Iran for defying repeated Security Council resolutions demanding that it end its uranium enrichment program and repeatedly contravening the U.N. Charter by calling for the destruction of Israel.

In his address to participants, Ban, without explicitly naming Iran, did condemn “threats by any member state to destroy one another, or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust.” He also called on Iran to stop supplying arms to Assad in Syria and expressed regret at Iran’s refusal to halt its nuclear enrichment program.

Ban’s media spokesman, Martin Nesirsky, also stated that in private meetings with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The U.N. leader also referred to the vicious verbal attacks on Israel as offensive, inflammatory and unacceptable.

Had the Iranians, instead of targeting Israel, been describing a country like the U.K. as the cancer of Europe and calling for its elimination, it would have been inconceivable for Ban and the participating countries to attend a meeting hosted by such rogues. But apparently, for Israel, anything goes, provoking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appropriately describe the Tehran NAM summit as “a disgrace and stain on humanity.”

To exacerbate matters, in their closing statement, the 120 participants mockingly denounced the U.N. Security Council's “unilateral sanctions” and unanimously endorsed Iran’s right to pursue “a peaceful nuclear program” including “nuclear enrichment."

Nor was there a single dissenting voice when Morsi handed over the rotating presidency to Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad, who will now preside over NAM for the next three years.

Any criticism or deviation from Iranian policy, such as Ban’s censure of Iranian behavior or Morsi’s condemnation of Syria’s Assad, was predictably censored by the local media who presented the summit to the Iranian public as a vindication of their policies and a global rejection of efforts to isolate and impose sanctions against their government.

Not surprisingly, the Iranian leaders jubilantly proclaimed that the broad global participation vindicated them and represented a repudiation of U.S. and Western efforts to deter them from becoming a nuclear power. All in all, it was a major public relations victory for this evil regime and an indictment of the dismal state of the international community.

The willingness of so many countries to attend such a conference in Tehran at this time and unanimously endorse the ayatollah’s nuclear policies, clearly demonstrates the abysmal failure of Obama’s initial policy of "engaging" with Iran and his subsequent decision to impose sanctions and isolate the rogue state.

This episode underlines the futility of Israel relying on the international community to resolve potential conflicts.

It also reaffirms the dysfunctionality of the United Nations, which the Obama administration continues to appease.

Nothing epitomizes this more demonstratively than the prominent role of Syria, Iran, Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and similar dictatorships that have contributed toward formulating the policy of the so-called U.N. Human Rights Council. Ironically, both Syria and Sudan, whose leaders are recognized war criminals, notorious for brutally butchering their own people, are candidates for seats on this bogus organization’s council scheduled for election next month.

Also ironically, the U.S. is the principal financial donor to the U.N. — to the tune of a staggering $6 billion annually. It is highly unlikely that Ban would have dignified the Iranians with his presence, had the U.S. threatened to review its funding to the U.N. budget if he proceeded to undermine efforts to isolate Iran for defying Security Council demands and repeatedly calling for the annihilation of a member state.

The United States and Western democracies must recognize that they will become utterly impotent if their global policies continue to be effectively subject to veto by international bodies dominated by an alliance of Islamic nations, dictatorships and tyrannies.

Democracies should unite and seek to create a world order which will strengthen freedom, encourage oppressed people to achieve self-determination, and if required, be willing to employ military power to deter the barbarians at our gates. Failure to confront these problems now, threatens the long-term survival prospects for Western civilization.

In Europe, the motivation to resist antidemocratic forces has been substantially weakened by the immigration of large numbers of Muslims who have undermined the foundations of genuine multiculturalism by seeking to impose their way of life on indigenous communities. This has been aided and abetted by the postmodernists — whose anarchical leftism and confused anti-colonialism have led them to ally themselves with terrorist organizations and apologists for the most rabid racists.

The message emerging for us in Israel is that we must retain our relationship with democratic countries, in particular the U.S., which despite the Obama administration’s appeasement of Muslim extremism, has not capitulated to Islamic pressures like the Europeans.

The bottom line is that we must not succumb to pressures from those seeking to deter us from taking steps to thwart threats to our survival. Nor should we be tempted to rely on undertakings from other, “friendly” nations. We have learned from bitter experience that when the chips are down we must rely on ourselves. As Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon recently stated, “the righteous work may be done by others, but we have to prepare as if no one else will do it for us.”