Half a Century of Antisemitism at the U.N.
The United Nations made the worst mistake in its history, 50 years ago Monday, and it still hasn’t recovered. The General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379, declaring that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” By a vote of 72-35 with 32 abstentions, Resolution 3379 shattered the U.N.’s reputation across America and beyond.
Spearheaded by the Soviet Union, its satellites and anti-Western Third World countries, the “Z/r” resolution was intended to delegitimize the state of Israel. This same approach had been deployed at the U.N. against apartheid South Africa beginning in 1962 and led to economic sanctions, growing isolation and international pressure on the white-dominated government. Traversing that same path against Israel was obviously in store.
On that grim day in 1975, one display of virtue came from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. His speech, probably the most important American statement ever made in those precincts, resounds to this day for its moral clarity and proof that America won’t hesitate to speak out on its own behalf and for its allies. Some might call Moynihan’s remarks undiplomatic. Others say he simply told the truth.
He said: “The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations and before the world that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. . . . The abomination of antisemitism has been given the appearance of international sanction. The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty, and more, to the murderers of the six million European Jews.”
From the outset, therefore, the U.S. rejected the canard that “anti-Zionism” somehow isn’t antisemitism. Resolution 3379 wasn’t merely a criticism of this or that Israeli policy or action. It rejected the legitimacy of Israel’s foundational concept as the homeland of the Jewish people. As to the U.N.’s responsibility, Moynihan emphasized that “if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened.”
Long years went by under this cloud, but as the U.S.S.R. began collapsing and the “Third World” lost whatever coherence it ever had, demands to repeal “Z/r” grew. In September 1991, President George H.W. Bush told the General Assembly that imminent repeal was critical to America. We worked relentlessly, through every diplomatic channel, to do so. Our stand was clear: Zionism isn’t racism.
On Dec. 16, 1991, by a vote of 111-25 with 13 abstentions, the General Assembly revoked Resolution 3379. The Soviet Union voted to repeal the resolution it had unleashed 16 years before—one of its last acts before dissolving two weeks later. Then-Sen. Moynihan and many officials and private citizens who had campaigned for this simple justice were in the General Assembly Hall. We felt vindicated, optimistic about the future of Israel in the U.N. system.
We were wrong. Antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism became perhaps subtler, but its stench remained, its ultimate objectives unchanged. A few instances (from a vast litany) over the succeeding years prove the point. In 2001 at the U.N.’s inaptly named World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, the U.S. and Israeli delegations left the meeting to protest the reappearance of a document equating Zionism with racism.
The U.N. Human Rights Council was supposedly reformed in 2006, but George W. Bush, believing the “reforms” utterly inadequate, rejected the final plan and refused to rejoin. His reservations have been borne out by the council’s unrelenting anti-Israel exertions. Through innumerable “special rapporteurs” and working with many U.N. offices created over decades to pressure Israel, the council annually produces more resolutions assailing Israel than the entire rest of the world.
Most perversely, several U.N. bodies have tried to steer the International Criminal Court, touted inaccurately by its advocates as descending from the Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal, to focus on Israel. Neither Israel nor the U.S. has joined the ICC. Undeterred, Israel’s adversaries have evaded this mere technicality by allowing the Palestinian Authority to accede to the ICC treaty as a “state,” thereby conferring jurisdiction over crimes purportedly committed in the Gaza Strip. This amounts to one flight of legal fantasy after another, there being neither a Palestinian state nor defined territory. Nonetheless, publicity-hungry ICC prosecutors had the excuse they needed to launch investigations and leak accusations of improper Israeli behavior, including, incredibly, genocide.
No other U.N. member, even among the proudly authoritarian crowd, receives such condemnation and harassment. Those who wonder why, after 80 years, the U.N. can’t get its act together need not look far for the answer.
Mr. Bolton served as White House national security adviser, 2018-19, ambassador to the U.N., 2005-06, and assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, 1989-93. He is author of “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.”
Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the November 10, 2025, print edition as 'Half a Century of Antisemitism at the U.N.'.
Comments
Post a Comment