What is the function of the United Nations in the world? One would think that the point of the United Nations is to keep the peace and bring as much warfare to a quick ending as soon as possible. Has the UN succeeded? In the story of the State of Israel, this has hardly been the case. There has nearly never been a time when the UN actually helped the State of Israel. However, there is one great exception to that rule.
The Miracle of 1948
The United Nations does not have a wonderful history of accomplishment to be proud of. It was set up in order to keep the peace and bring the nations of the world together in order to work out their problems. This ha basically not worked. However, in 1948, a miracle happened. The British Empire decided to hand over the decision for the future of the Land of Israel to the United Nations to decide on the fate of the contested area. In a surprising vote, the State of Israel was voted on by enough of a majority of nations in order to bring the State of Israel into existence. Not only most of the Western countries voted for the formation of the State of Israel. The Soviet Union also voted in favor of the formation of the socialist-leaning State. This was unexpected on multiple levels. Of course, the United Nations could not keep the six invading Arab armies from attempting to destroy the brand new country right after the declaration of the State of Israel. But, there is no question that the miracle of the vote for the State of Israel on Nov. 29th, 1947 is a special day in the history of the State of Israel. There is even a street in Jerusalem that is named “29th of November.”
But the UN has nearly never succeeded in doing much to keep the peace. UN peacekeeping forces are known as an Army that will do very little to threatening belligerents. They walk away very easily, and have very little ability to deter potential threats. But worse than that, the United Nations has become a voice peace for hypocrisy in terms of criticism of the morality of different countries. Specifically, Israel has been criticized countless times by representatives of countries that have abysmal human rights records. So why does the UN matter? Well, for now – it’s all we’ve got. So, it is well worth the effort to work on improving the morality of this troubled organization. It can get better. It just may take a few decades of work…