Rabbi Shea Hecht on Iran and the Inept United Nations

I'd like to welcome a new guest contributor to TheSolidSurfer.com, Rabbi Shea Hecht. Rabbi Hecht, a New York community activist and the Chairman of the Board at the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (click here for a full bio), writes regular columns at his own site (which I've also added to the "My Heroes" section in the left column), and occasionally we will feature them here as well.

Rabbi Hecht's latest piece covers Iran and the continuing ineptitude of the United Nations:

A UN Folly

I was recently reminded of the folly and the lack of common sense of the UN by my friend U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Senator Santorum said: "I am extremely disappointed that member nations of the United Nations have elected the Islamic Republic of Iran to serve as the Vice-Chair of the U.N. Disarmament Commission. Electing Iran, a country that has demonstrated no sign of abandoning its pursuit of enriching uranium, is ludicrous. Iran is a threat to the United States and the rest of the world, and this vote by a group of U.N. member states is simply non-sensical."

Senator Santorum's comments refer to a recent UN development. Iran won a seat on the United Nations' Disarmament Commission which is charged with promoting the disarmament of nuclear weapons and reviewing treaties that deal with nuclear energy. Iran on the UN Disarmament Commission? How ludicrous!

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently announced that he has successfully enriched uranium in order to produce nuclear fuel, in violation of a call by the UN Security Council to end the project. He has also publicly stated his repeated threat to wipe Israel off the map. This is who is sitting on the UN Disarmament Commission?

Over the years, many have spoken about the outright, inane absurdity of the UN and its appointments, but this is totally outrageous. Iran does not even hide their nuclear plans and plans of destruction! Will this help people see the blatant insanity of the UN? Maybe now US citizens will wake up from their complacency and pressure US to leave the UN. There is nothing in the global rule book that says the United States must be part of the United Nations.

The US actually tried recently to force some changes at the UN. For a while, there was hope that US Representative Henry Hyde's (R-IL) ultimatum calling on the United Nations to reform would be successful. Yet, even when the UN was given the choice to make some reforms or lose funding from the USA - its host nation and largest financial and physical benefactor - it allowed sadistic, autocratic regimes onto commissions designed to battle their negative and dangerous conduct.

Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) has also spoken out against the appointment of Iran to the UN Disarmament Commission. He wants the Bush administration to withhold dues for the United Nations Disarmament Commission now that Iran was elected to a leadership position on that commission.

"The election of Iran as a vice-chair of the UN Disarmament Commission at the same time as Iran clandestinely pursues its own nuclear ambitions provides yet another example of the UN's inability to establish credible institutions to deal with global issues," Senator Coleman said in a statement Wednesday. "Having the Iranians serve on this commission is like asking the fox to guard the hens, and will only ensure its ineffectiveness. Iran says its program is peaceful, but the United States and dozens of other countries fear it wants the technology to make the core of nuclear warheads."

Some of our politicians in Washington are also to blame as they have watered down the reform legislation and the United Nations is once again back to its old games; it seems that the subject of UN reform is not only out of sight it's also out of mind. We need more leadership like that of Senators Santorum and Coleman.

Let us use our own common sense and heed the words of our Senators. The fox should not guard the hen house, the inmates shouldn't be holding the keys to the asylum, nor the bank robbers the key to the vault. The US has enough clout to force a change in the UN or leave the UN altogether. We, as citizens of this country, should demand that the USA bring the UN issue to the forefront and force some change.


Rabbi, thank you for the piece, and I look forward to featuring more of your work in the future. I fully agree that the UN desperately needs to be reformed, and now that John Bolton is America's representative, perhaps it finally has a chance. Of course, as evidenced by the subject matter of your essay, it has a long way to go. But as you also say, American pressure can accomplish much - we just need to keep it up.